“Chicory is still behind in growth”

The new chicory pens are experiencing a stressful period because of the current heat and the lack of water. “Fortunately, the heat has gone down for a while, although I do see the plants are suffering from the warm weather. The crop is still very small, and the lack of moisture is considerable,” says Piet Wolfert of Wogro from Dirksland, the Netherlands. Some plots have been irrigated, but the plants just don’t start growing because of the heat. Yet Piet isn’t too worried. “Chicory is a crop that can still grow in August, September and even October. It could still all turn out fine, although we are about three weeks behind.”

The pulling of chicory has not experienced any problems worth mentioning because of the warm and dry weather. “During the warm days, the cooling machines have to work very hard, but the rooms are well-isolated, so it’s going fine, generally speaking,” Piet says. “We also still have plenty of chicory pens of good quality available. We have plenty in storage, and I don’t think pens are currently being traded.” Wogro grows chicory based on contracts and has cooling cells and cubic crates at their disposal, which can be rented by other growers.