Florence Fennel

An Intro to Fennel

MY STATUS: Grown Successfully to Harvest   

Fennel is a perennial umbelliferous herb that can grow quite tall and has fine feathery leaves and a strong smell. The pale bulb-like stem is often eaten as a vegetable, the leaves are used in salads, and the licorice-flavored seeds are eaten particularly in Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures.

SOIL REQUIREMENTS

Fennel likes loose well-drained soil.

SUN

Fennel is said to like full sun in temperate climes, but we'll see if it can handle direct sun on Pohnpei.

CROSS-POLLINATION ALERT

Fennel, dill, and members of the coriander family will cross-pollinate if grown nearby each other, ruining the taste of all the plants involved. Fennel can also have some allelopathic affects on other plants, inhibiting their growth. Fennel should be kept well away from all other plants and especially from cilantro, culantro, dill, and caraway.

CONTAINER ISSUES

Fennel isn't really well-suited to containers because it grows such a large deep root, but reportedly you can grow it successfully if your pots are large enough (5 gallon). If you plant it in something smaller or too close together, the edible bulb-stem doesn't develop properly . . . though you can still harvest it for seeds.

PESTS

Fennel doesn't usually have pest problems. Whiteflies will go after it, but not usually to a degree that the plant will be harmed.

What I Did

DAY 1 - SOWING

Nothing particularly special to report here. I prepared a pot with some gravel on the bottom and potting soil, watered it, planted a pinch of seeds in several 1/4-inch deep holes, and covered them over. Fennel is reportedly averse to transplantation; it was widely suggested that seeding happen in the plant's final destination. Although it is not recommended that you try to grow fennel in a container at all, that's what I have to work with and since I didn't have a huge container on-hand, I may try transplanting it once the seedlings are established. Double no-no. We'll see what happens. I used Ferry-Morse StartSmart seeds purchased at Home Depot in Southern California. They were refrigerated for about 3 months prior to sowing.

DAY 7 - GERMINATION

The first seedlings are beginning to poke up through the soil. They look very similar to cilantro seedlings and identical to dill.

DAY 16

I thinned out my seedlings to about five or six, which will be transplanted later. All the seedlings are now about 2-3 inches tall and have their first feathery true leaves. Leaves resembled dill at first, but then they started to look a little different. This plant loves being in the sun all day.

DAY 23

Seedlings are about 3 1/2 inches tall now and are developing their second true leaves.

DAY 36

Four of the seedlings were transplanted a few days ago and have recovered nicely. The plants so far have not seemed to be as hardy in full sun as the dill, but they are still quite tough. I give them a little shade in the hottest part of the day.

DAY 44 - MASSIVE GROWTH

So far, I think fennel has been the second easiest plant to maintain after rosemary. I really haven't paid much attention to my two pots. They are kept on a side porch far from all my other plants (on purpose), where they get a lot of direct sun and are also slapped with quite a lot of rain. These are the least protected of any plants I've tried to grow, but they don't seem to have been adversely affected. They are huge--all four plants! They smell wonderfully of licorice. The stems have thickened up nicely (right), so they are quite stable despite their height. But, really . . . when you look at what these plants were like 8 days ago, it's shocking. They've increased in height by a factor of five in just over a week.

DAY 59 - FLOWERING

I grew plants in two different containers, in hopes that one set would develop bulbs, while the other would go to seed. Both the seeds and bulb are edible, but you can't get them from the same plant. Sure enough, the plants in the smaller container have begun to flower (as they don't have enough room to grow the bulb). The plants in the larger container were developing nice little bulbs, but the container wasn't large enough to really get the best out of the plants and I was afraid they would go to seed, too, (in which case the bulb becomes bitter), so I harvested the largest one and grilled up. It had a strong but pleasant licorice flavor and an artichoke-like texture. There are now yellow flowers all over the smaller plants. Once the flowers dry up, I'll harvest the seeds. For my second run of this plant, I think I'll try a larger container.

DAY 102 (9/5) - SEED HARVESTING & BULB

The seeds on my small-pot set of plants are now ready to harvest. Boy, are they delicious! Nice, strong licorice flavor. I love to nibble them. One of our little girls does, too. I need to come up with some recipes to use them in and convert the whole family (there are two fennel non-believers in the bunch). On the other larger plant, the bulb is developing nicely. I've been keeping the soil heaped up around the bulb to protect it from the sun as it develops. I'm thinking this guy is going to go on a homemade pizza. Mmmm....