Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce
Sweet fennel
Common names: culinary fennel, tea fennel
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 30 cm, rows 50 cm
- Lifespan
- Perennial
- Sowing
- Apr–Jun
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −8 °C
- Water need
- Medium
Photo: Burkhard Mücke · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
Sweet fennel is the mild variety of fennel, whose aromatic seeds are used to make classic stomach and belly tea. The tall, finely furred umbels are an attractive feature in herb beds and attract hoverflies and butterflies.
Care instructions
Sow at the end of April directly into a warm bed in a sunny, well-drained spot and keep 30 cm spacing. Keep the soil evenly moist, without overwatering. Harvest the seed heads in September to October, once they turn gray-green, and dry them in a well-ventilated area. Do not plant fennel directly next to tomato, dill, or coriander, as it does not tolerate them well.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingApr–Jun
HarvestSep–Oct
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 8 °C, ideally 18 °C
- Days to sprout
- 7 to 21 days
- Light
- Sprouts in light or dark
- Sowing depth
- 1 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
loamy, humus-rich, well-drained, lime-loving, nutrient-rich
Fennel likes deep, well-drained loam or loess soils with a slightly chalky, nutrient-rich character. It does not tolerate waterlogging at all. Improve poor sandy soils with compost, loosen heavy clay soils before sowing, and avoid acidic or alternately wet and dry soils.
Feeding
Medium feeder
Months
Mar–Apr
In spring, before sowing, work compost in shallowly and add horn shavings along the planting row. This supplies the plant through the season. Go easy on nitrogen: too much drives lush foliage at the expense of flavour. On poor soils you can help along in early summer with a little mature compost.
Overwintering
Cut the shoots back to a hand's breadth after the first frost and cover the rootstock with a layer of leaves, brushwood or straw, so that the plant reliably regrows as a perennial; protect young plants in their first year additionally with horticultural fleece. Make sure the soil is well drained, because wet, waterlogged sites harm it more in winter than frost does. Overwinter potted plants best in a bright, cool but frost-free place.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
You propagate sweet fennel, or Florence fennel, exclusively by sowing. Vegetative methods (division, cuttings) are not practical, because the plant is grown as an annual, forms a single bulb and is discarded after harvest; no divisible rootstock develops.
The main stumbling block is bolting: fennel is a long-day plant. If you sow too early (long days of over 14 hours, cool spring temperatures, drought stress), the plant shoots up and forms no bulb, or only a stunted one. A firm bulb is most reliable when you sow from mid-June to July, when the days get shorter again. Also choose bolting-resistant varieties (for example ‘Zefa Fino’, ‘Finale’ or ‘Rondo F1’).
You have two options: for an early harvest, you raise young plants in advance. Sow in small pots with low-nutrient soil, cover the seeds about 1 cm deep and keep them evenly moist. At 15 to 22 °C they germinate after 8 to 14 days, in cold up to three weeks. After germination, move the seedlings somewhere cooler and bright so they stay compact; prick out at 2 to 3 true leaves. After the Ice Saints (mid-May), the young plants go outdoors with 30 to 40 cm between rows and 25 to 30 cm in the row. Bear in mind, however, that very early sowing indoors increases the risk of bolting.
For direct sowing, you draw drills 1 to 2 cm deep, 40 cm apart, and sow thinly; cover the seeds with about 1 cm of soil. Later you thin to 25 to 30 cm in the row. Staggered sowing over several weeks stretches the harvest period into October. Fennel does not tolerate waterlogging and likes a sunny, wind-sheltered spot; both help bulb formation.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae)
Umbellifers and alliums confuse each other's pests (carrot fly, onion fly).
For example GarlicOnionLeekChivesWild daffodilRocambole and 12 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
daisy family (Asteraceae)
Calendula and Tagetes next to carrots keep the carrot fly away with their scent.
For example French marigoldCalendulaSunflowerButterhead lettuceCommon coneflowerIceberg lettuce and 72 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
cabbage family (Brassicaceae)
You can pair celery and dill with all Brassicaceae because they repel the cabbage whitefly with their scent, a proven companion.
For example White cabbageKohlrabiRadishKalebroccolicauliflower and 41 more species in the catalogue
Source: Bio-Gärtnerei Mixed-culture Practice
legume family (Fabaceae)
Peas and beans provide carrot and celery with nitrogen and grow as shallow-rooted plants without competition next to each other.
For example PeaBush beanPole beanBroad beanSnow peaWrinkled pea and 36 more species in the catalogue
Source: classic companion planting (DACH-Gartenpraxis)
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Some of these explanations were machine-translated.
For your garden
Grow Sweet fennel yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
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