Last edited on November 01, 2026. View history
Prickly Leaf Pūhā
A variety of pūhā
How to sow prickly leaf pūhā: Direct seed outdoors, thin to 15cm
Sun requirement for prickly leaf pūhā: Plant in Full Sun
The prickly, curly-leafed pūhā, which was already in New Zealand when the great migration occurred and is regarded as indigenous by East Coast Maori. Far better tasting than the common Scottish cultivar, though more difficult to prepare. Cut with a knife when harvesting so it grows again. Sow in autumn and early spring in trays, prick out at 2.5 cm and transplant at 3 to 5 cm high at 30 cm diagonal spacing.
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Prickly leaf pūhā facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
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 prickly leaf pūhā, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 5°C and a shortest growing cycle of 90 days at its best temperature, about 1170 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 prickly leaf pūhā 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.
Plant prickly leaf pūhā with
heirloom tomato
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 90 to 180 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Taraxacum officinale Weber; Wigg.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Asteridae Asterales Compositae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -5 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | perennial |
| Habit | erect, acaulescent (or rosette plants) |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 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) |
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