Radicchio Regrets

Radicchio—If only I had done a little more research.  We see Radicchio in the grocery store at a $4.50 a head or pound.  It's a tight purple ball streaked with white.  Often found in salads in good restaurants and in salad mixes, it’s a member of the chicory family and has the typical bitter taste.  I’d grown some radicchio several years ago.  I didn’t pay much attention to it and in winter I was pleased to be harvesting heads of this expensive vegetable.  (I grew padron peppers, another expensive vegetable, this year to the delight of family, friends, and neighbors.  These sold at one time at $6.50 a quarter pound.) 

Struck by my initial success, I've planted radicchio the last four years in a row.  At first I had difficulty getting the seeds to germinate, and then for two seasons I got a great profusion of plants and green leaves but no purple balls.  I thought there was something wrong with the seeds and pulled the plants up.  I planted again this year and when green leaves appeared, I didn’t pull them up and am now starting to get the purple balls.  I recently came upon an article online that described how to grow radicchio.  It turns out that radicchio is a perennial and will form the balls again in the spring!  I also learned that I should have cut the profusion of leaves down within two inches from the ground to encourage the formation of the purple balls. 

Since finding that information, I’ve found even more elaborate schemes for growing this expensive vegetable.  I suspect that these methods are used in commercial cultivation of radicchio.  They're too much work for me, however, at any price.  

Bill