How to grow Chives

How to grow Chives - Introduction

- A member of the onion family, chives are well worth cultivating in the vegetable and flower garden.
- They take up very little space, and the whole plant can be eaten from top to bottom.
- Chives are cultivated both for their culinary uses and their ornamental value; the violet flowers are often used in ornamental dry bouquets.
- Chives are perennial evergreen plants, and keep their leaves in most winters.
- In colder winters, the leaves may die back completely, but don't despair - their roots are still alive and they will begin new growth next spring.

- Chives thrive in well drained soil, rich in organic matter, with a pH of 6-7 and full sun. However, chives will grow in almost all soils.
- Work in a handful or two of bonemeal per square metre (yard).
- Full sun or partial shade suit them equally well, and although they are fairly tolerant of drought, don't plant them in very dry places.

- Chives can be grown from seed and mature in summer, or early the following spring.
- Sow the seeds indoors using normal potting compost in March time (or directly outside in April) .
- Typically, chives need to be germinated at a temperature of 15°C to 20°C and kept moist.
- The seedlings will appear a week to ten days later.
- Transfer them outside a month after sowing with 10cm (8in) between each plant.

- Chives are very similar to other onions, in that they have a bulbous root and green leaves.
- The bulbs multiply quickly over a few years and this bounty of new bulbs provides the easiest method of propagation.
- Simply dig up the clump of bulbs in March or October, carefully separate them into individual bulbs and replant with the tips of the bulbs level with the soil surface.
- They thrive on this method of propagation, because it relieves the congestion in the bulb clumps.

- Chives are not greedy feeders, so it is not necessary to feed throughout the year if the soil has been prepared as described.
- In cold regions, chives die back to the underground bulbs in winter, with the new leaves appearing in early spring.
- Chives starting to look old can be cut back to about 2–5 cm.

- Cut the chive leaves with scissors when required, starting with the outside leaves (those nearest the edge of the pot) and working your way inwards.
- When harvesting, the needed number of stalks should be cut to the base.
- The leaves rapidly grow back and can be cut several times in the growing season, so giving a continuous harvest.
- Plants grown from seed should be left alone (although remove the emerging flower heads) until July in the first year to allow a good root system to establish itself.

- Chives should be used fresh and uncooked, otherwise they loose almost all their flavour.
- When used with cooked foods, add them after cooking.
- Chives can be used to add flavour to a huge range of food, probably best known for adding to baked potatoes with butter.
- Foods it goes well with include mixed vegetables, egg dishes, salads and dressings, broiled poultry, stews, casseroles and baked fish.

- They can be dried, but their is little point because they then have no flavour.
- One way to store them is to chop the leaves into 1cm (half inch) lengths and place them in ice cue containers with some water.
- Freeze them, and then defrost an ice cube or two when need to use them.

- They are almost completely free of disease, but they occasionally suffer from onion fly, however this is almost always because they have been planted near onions which have been attacked - the solution is not to plant chives near onions.

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