It needs a long, cool growing season and may do best as a fall crop in Nebraska. Since it is quite cold tolerant, it should overwinter easily in the garden to provide early spring salads. Harvest whole rosettes if plants need thinning or individual leaves for repeat harvests. Endive has curly, deeply cut, lacy leaves with creamy inner leaves. Escarole has broad, coarse, crumpled leaves that blanch the inner leaves so they are crunchy yet tender.
Cultural practices are the same as for lettuce, making it an easy crop to grow in the home garden.
Like lettuce, they should be planted early in the spring or as a fall crop as hot weather can make them bitter. This green is easy to grow, but the young leaves need to be harvested frequently for best flavor. It becomes bitter in hot weather, so plant successive crops early in spring and then again in the fall. If the plants bloom, harvest the flowers and add the remainder of the plants to the compost pile as they become bitter. The flowers can be added to salads for a bit of color.