HOWEVER, they don't have bulbs!! I dig them up and it's just a tight root ball.
So what am I doing wrong? Isn't the fennel bulb under the ground like an onion?? I have a recipe that calls for roasted fennel. It's really delicious so we decided to grow fennel since it's hard to find the bulbs in the grocery store sometimes.
Should I harvest earlier in the season and actually take the bottom portion of the stalk maybe? Or perhaps there are different kinds of fennel, some grown for the bulb and some for the tops which are used as an herb?
If anyone grows fennel could you let me know how you do it?
I don't grow it but I found this info on wikipedia. Maybe you don't have the kind that forms the bulb. Read under Cultivation and Uses.