Chives is an organically grown, delicious, healthy and easy to grow herb. It has long, green, hollow stems with light pink flowers. Chives has a very mild onion flavour and aroma. It contains a lot of vitamin A and C. Bees love the chives flowers. You can grow chives in pots on a window sill or on your balcony.
Chives is delicious with: eggs, cheese, pork, salmon, beef, potatoes, butter and lemon. Chives is also widely used in sauces, stews, stir fry dishes, oven dishes, soups, salads and in herb butter. You shouldn't cook Chives for a long time. Add Chives at the end to dishes, to prevent loss of flavour. The flowers of Chives are also edible. You could use them as a garnish for dishes or add them to salads. Hardy perennial.
Indoor sowing: beginning of March - end of April
Outdoor sowing: May - July
Germination: 8 - 30 days
Germination temp.: 15 - 25 °C
Sowing depth: ½ - 1 cm
Plant distance: 30 cm
Plant position: full sun with some shade
Days till harvest: 60 - 70
Sow indoors in trays filled with moist potting soil and put the trays in a warm room or a propagator, from the beginning of March till the end of April. Sow shallow and sparingly and cover the seeds with a layer of soil. Chives is a dark germinator, it needs dark to germinate. It can help with germination to put the propagator in a dark room. Keep the temperature as even as possible to aid the germination. Don't let the temperature drop during the nights. After about 8 - 30 days the seedlings appear. Transplant the seedlings to seperate pots, when they're large enough to handle. Put the plants outdoors, to their permanent plot, from the middle of May, when there's no longer any danger of frosts. Keep the plants 30 cm apart. Put Chives on a sunny plot with some shade and free draining soil. Keep the soil moist, because Chives shouldn't dry out.
Sow outdoors from May, when there's no longer any danger of nightfrost. Sow on a sunny plot with some shade and free draining soil. Keep the soil moist, because Chives shouldn't dry out. Cover the seeds with a layer of soil, because Chives is a dark germinator. Keep moist and weedfree. Thin the seedlings, when they're large enough to handle, to 30 cm.
Cut the required amount of Chives, but leave approx 3 cm from the ground up standing, to grow on. You can grow a small amount of seeds in large pots for use in your kitchen. Put these pots in a not too sunny window-sill. Chives can suffer from a disease called "rust".
