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Growing Hydroponic Chervil Herb – A Full Guide

A step by step guyide to growing Hydroponic Chervil herb

If you are planning to growing hydroponic chervil, you are in right place.  First, we will start with the question is chervil a perennial, yes it is but it behaves like an annual too. It grows out year after year during springs when grown in shade and as annual when raised in late summers in sunny locations, hence it can be grown year-round as well.

Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium), commonly known as French parsley, is a famous culinary herb belongs to the carrot family and commonly found in French cooking.

It’s a key ingredient in a variety of culinary wonders, often combined with fresh chives, parsley, and tarragon and sometimes with dried marjoram. By itself, it adds its distinctive parsley-anise flavour.

Chervil loses much of its distinctive flavour when dried. It’s at its best when fresh-harvested. The best way to assure a supply of fresh chervil is to grow it at home and yes hydroponics facilitates you its continuous supply. Grocery stores hardly have fresh chervil so this makes it worth growing at home. Easy and quick to harvest, chervil must be in every kitchen garden that can offer the cool moist conditions it likes. It’s flat, lacy, celery-like leaves make it on the whole attractive when grown indoors. And, with proper temperatures and lighting, chervil can be grown indoors even during winters as winter chervil.

Hydroponic Chervil.
Hydro Chervil Herb.

Propagating hydroponic chervil

How to grow chervil is easy with hydroponics you can have chervil in the garden indoor too. Soil-grown plants or seedlings are not suitable for hydroponic systems because they may infect the system by carrying spores or soil-borne diseases and moreover in soil gardening oxygen has not enough access to the roots. So it is preferred that the plants in hydroponic systems should be grown from seeds or propagated through cuttings. For the cultivation of seeds, various substrates can be used. The optimal supply of the root area with oxygen is very significant in hydroponic cultivation. Growing media have the benefit that they are generally much more porous and retain moisture than the soil and thus enable most favourable oxygenation. The substrate must not dry out so that the plants are continuously supplied with required nutrients.

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The seeds of chervil can be sown in spring and fall or in consecutive sowings every 2 to 3 weeks up to 6 weeks before the first frost. Chervil is good for growing indoors in containers or hydroponic systems. The seedlings are too fragile for transplanting, so they should be preferably planted in their permanent location. Sow a set of 5 seeds on the grow media, each group about 12 inches apart. Keep growing medial moistened all the times.  When the seedlings reach approximately 2 inches in height, thin the plants to 4 inches space between plants. The ideal location for chervil is partial shade in summer and sun in the winter, in a fairly sheltered area, which makes it an ideal indoor plant.  Seedlings will emerge in about 14-28 days.

The chervil seeds, just like parsley seeds, require to be soaked in warm water overnight before being planted for the desirable results. The seeds should be planted at about 1/4″ inch of depth and with about 10 to 12 inches between each seed to facilitate adequate space for the plant to spread out as it grows.  Growing the chervil indoors works great as it does not grow well in the extreme heat that is present outdoors during the height of the summers. When growing chervil outside be sure to plant it when the temperatures are cool and keep the system in partial shade so that the sun doesn’t cause stress and kill the plant. Growing chervil indoors makes the best use of indoor space for the plant and permits it to flourish and grow year-round rather than just in the few months that are the spring and the fall.

For propagating using root cuttings you can select strong, about 10 cm long shoots. By using a clean, sharp knife, cut off the shoot approximately 1 cm below the node. Remove the lower leaves and place the shoots in a glass of water. Best darken using aluminium foil and rooting will be induced in cuttings. Once the cuttings have formed roots, they can be used for further growth. For other hydroponic systems, the freshly cut cuttings can be placed directly in a media plug like substrate and placed in an indoor condition until they are well rooted through the substrate. The well-rooted cuttings can also be transformed directly into a network pot and stabilized with porous clay balls.

Hydroponic nutrient solution for chervil

Because hydroponically grown herbs have no exposure to natural soil, hence, it’s essential to use the correct nutrient solution and growth media. You have two options when it comes to your nutrients: You can buy a premixed ready to use commercial nutrient solutions or you can mix your own at home. Buying a premixed nutrient solution is a quick fix that works great. Because growing plants exhaust the nutrient solution over time, changing and re-filling the solution every three weeks is essential to prevent damage to the plants. For growing chervil same nutrients like hydroponic cilantro nutrients, can be bought.

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Considerations for growing hydroponic herbs comprises of light, nutrients, temperature, humidity, and ideal pH range. Once these factors are controlled, hydroponics provides a less time-consuming and superior growing medium versus conventional soil. At least 6 hours of bright, unobstructed sunlight per day is essential.  Placing your system in a south-facing window may supply adequate lighting for the growing plants. Keep rotating the plant to make certain all sides receive sufficient light. Grow lights are recommended for extra supplementation, especially if your plants are not receiving the minimum natural sunlight to remain healthy in indoor conditions. Standard fluorescent lamps can be sufficient, but their yield is less effective in comparison to modern LED grow lights. The growing temperature should be between 60–75º F with EC: .8–1.8, hydroponic cilantro ppm and pH: 5.5–6.0 maintained in the preferred range.

Hydroponic system for chervil

Flood and Drain method (in which grow trays and pots are flooded with the nutrient solution using a pump), a Drip System (uses a pump to drip nutrient solution on to the plants), the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT),Kratky and Dutch bucket method are best used for growing hydroponic chervil at home for high and low volume production. It is exactly like growing coriander in hydroponics nft system.

Harvesting hydroponic chervil

Chervil is famed for its anise flavour and is used ingredients in many fine herb mixtures. It can be harvested throughout the season. The best time to harvest chervil is before it sets flower as after flowering their flavour starts lowering. Hydroponic chervil plants are ready to be harvested in about 8 to 10 weeks after seed sowing and can be picked as the plant reaches a height of 2-3 inches. Harvest the leaves from outside first as the new growth starts at the center. For harvesting cut a bunch of stems on a sunny morning, tie them loosely and hang them in the dry shade to air dry it after drying it is ready to use or can be stored in airtight jars for later use. Good luck and keep growing herbs in hydroponics.

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