Transfer of plants to a dark chamber and the application of a temperature level near the optimum for plant growth, permit the production of etiolated portions, at the beginning of winter. This paper describes the culture system we propose for the economic resurgence of seakale. Morphologically seakale looks like large foliated cabbage. The first leaves are purple and successive leaves become greener. These indehiscent fruits usually contain one seed.
Roots are cylindrical and vigorous and show a capacity for regeneration when divided.
Root cutting is the most efficient propagation method for seakale. Genetic variability is large and involves such economic characters as morphology of vegetative and reproductive organs, earliness, and anthocyanin formation in the leaves. Under the climatic conditions of northern France, the development cycle of seakale is similar to rhubarb. Sprouts of early spring growth are etiolated and white if they develop without light as in witloof chicory and asparagus. Seakale had been cultivated in England during the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th.