chives

When to sow chives?

Botanical name
Allium schoenoprasum
Family
Amaryllidaceae

Chives are sown from March to April. They are harvested from April to October. They are cut back from June to July.

Chives are perennial plants. The edible parts are the leaves and flowers.

chives
Photo: Agnes Monkelbaan · CC BY-SA 4.0

Chives through the year

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sowing
Harvest
Cutting back
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  • sowing
  • harvest
  • cutting back

In short

Sowing
from March to April
weeks 12 to 18
Spacing between plants
15 to 30 cm
Harvest
from April to October
weeks 18 to 42
Cutting back
from June to July
weeks 24 to 28
Renewal
every three years
Propagation
division and seed

Growing conditions

🪨
Soil
loamy
☀️
Sun
full sun
💧
Water
little water
❄️
Frost
overwinters outdoors
🌱
Nutrients
a moderate feeder
📏
Height
30 to 45 cm
⚠️
Toxicity
toxic to cats and dogs, toxic parts: roots, bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds

The leaves and flowers are listed as edible and as toxic at once. The toxicity is to cats and dogs, not to people.

Pests and diseases

Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.

White rot of alliums

disease
Signs
Growth is stunted and the leaves yellow and die. Pulled up, the underground part is coated in a white to grey mould or crust holding thousands of tiny black fruiting bodies.
Prevention
Plant only stock confirmed healthy. Pull out infected plants and take them away, not onto the compost. The fruiting bodies stay in the soil for years, so do not plant alliums in an infected bed for four to five years. Rotation on its own does not wipe the disease out.
What to do
For the home garden there is no product. The measure is the bed: remove the infected plants, work compost into the soil and leave a long break without alliums.

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Related plants

The plants below are in the same botanical family (Amaryllidaceae).

Sources about the plant: ASPCA Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants, CliniTox Pflanzengifte, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Royal Horticultural Society, Smernice za strokovno utemeljeno gnojenje (Mihelič et al., MKGP 2011), Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 26 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: EPPO Global Database, University of Maryland Extension.