Last edited on February 03, 2024. View history
Chervil
Chervil
How to sow chervil: Direct seed outdoors
Sun requirement for chervil: Plant in Partial Sun
Chervil, Garden Chervil, or French Parsley is a delicate annual herb grown for the mild anise flavor of its leaves. It is one of the four traditional French fines herbes, along with tarragon, chives, and parsley. Unlike stronger flavor herbs, chervil's leaves are added at the last minute to dishes. Chervil is in the Apiaceae family and it's leaves resemble those of it's cousin parsley. For peak flavor, the leaves should be harvested just before the plant begins to flower. Chervil produces small umbels of small white flowers and 1cm long fruit that resemble pea pods or string beans. It has a long taproot and bolts easily when it is not in a cool, moist location. Chervil can be used as a companion plant to attract slugs away from other crops, and to improve the flavor of lettuce, broccoli and radish.
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- seed packet
Chervil facts
Lifespan
Height × spread
60cm × 25cmRow Spacing
15cmCrop cycle
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For chervil, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 4°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 600 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your chervil will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow chervil
Sunniness
Planted from
Plant chervil with
daikon
Photos
Photos
Chervil crops
Where chervil grow
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What people are saying about chervil
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Who's planted chervil
- piranha Front Garden · East Coast, Central...
- malissa Courtyard garden · Melbourne, Victoria
- Unalmas Garden · Somerville, MA
- BoxOfDirt Garden · Herndon, VA
Chervil harvests
Nobody has harvested this crop yet.
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Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Anthriscus cerefolium (L.) Hoffm.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Apiales Umbelliferae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about chervil
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