Radicchio

Five varieties of radicchio were grown for demonstration purposes at the Horticulture Research Center outside of Fort Collins, Colorado during the 2004 growing season. Plants were started in the greenhouse. Seeds were planted into 72-cell trays filled with Sunshine No. 3 brand soil mix and topped with vermiculite to aid in keeping the seeds moist. Seedlings were fertilized once a week with fish emulsion fertilizer fed through an injector. They were transplanted at the HRC into beds with 30″ centers, in a double row at 10″ spacing with one line of drip tape. Below are photos and production notes for each of the varieties. Some of the shorter, more squat varieties seemed to have problems with lower leaves rotting, this could have been due to too much watering or transplanting too deep as well.

Variety	Photo	Production Notes
Chioga red Preco		variable, squatty, lower leaves often rotting, 47% germination rate
Fiero		beautiful, uniform, tall, 87% germination rate
Indigo		OK, a few small culls, 50% germination rate
Melrose		ununiform, squatty, lots of leaves rotting below
Tauro		wide heads, 67% germination rate