Flea beetles also enjoy feasting on rapini leaves. They are most recognizable by the damage they do – leaving tiny, round “shot holes” in the foliage.
Before you kill any other tiny garden beetles thinking they are flea beetles, however, make sure you have correctly identified them – there are some beneficial insects, such as spider mite destroyers, which can be mistaken for these pests.
Flea beetles don’t usually do enough damage to harm broccoli raab, In my own garden, I ignore the minimal damage caused by these pests.
Instead I focus on attracting natural flea beetle enemies such as braconid wasps, which love the umbel-shaped flowers of cilantro, dill, and yarrow.
Leaf miners leave distinctive maze-like marks in the foliage.
These pests are actually flies, but it isn’t the adults that create the damage, it is the larvae feeding as they burrow through the leaf tissue.
Leaf miner damage.
In addition to aesthetic damage, these burrows can interfere with photosynthesis.
As with flea beetles, parasitic wasps are important in keeping leaf miner populations down.
To encourage parasitic wasps, grow plants they like nearby. In addition to cilantro and dill, cosmos is another beneficial wasp favorite.
Remove any damaged foliage and give your plants a chance to recover before resorting to pesticides, which are harmful to beneficial insects.
Disease
There are a few common diseases that can affect your crop, but they are not very common if plants are grown in optimal conditions.
Alternaria Leaf Spot
Alternaria leaf spot is a fungal disease that causes brown lesions on the foliage with white or gray centers. These lesions are often surrounded by yellow halos.
The fungi that cause this disease flourish in hot, humid conditions.
To prevent infection, provide adequate spacing between plants and encourage good air circulation.
Also, rather than watering your crop with a sprinkler, water close to the surface of the soil instead.
Treatment of this disease is much the same in rapini as it is in its close relative, the turnip.
Damping off is caused by a soilborne pathogen that causes young seedlings to suddenly wither and die.
Cool, wet conditions and poorly draining soil put seedlings at risk for this disease. As a preventive measure, make sure the soil is well-draining, and don’t overwater.
In addition to being used in Italian and Chinese cuisine, this green is a staple in traditional Spanish and Galician cuisine as well, such as in the soup caldo Gallego.
Rapini can be cooked like any other leafy green – steamed, sauteed, added to an omelet or quiche, mixed with pasta, or used as a pizza topping.
Raab also combines well with beans, such as in this recipe for cheap and easy Italian style beans and greens soup, from our sister site, Foodal.
Photo by Fanny Slater.
For a light meal or appetizer, you can also use it as a topping for toast, such as in this recipe for tartines topped with broccoli rabe, chilies, and pecorino. Find it on Foodal.
The Best Bitter Buds
You now have all of the information you need to sow, grow, harvest, and even cook up a delicious batch of homegrown broccoli rabe. So, what are you waiting for?
Are you a fan of these pungent greens? Tell us about your gardening or cooking experiences with rapini – and let us know what you call it – in the comments section below.
A high-yielding hybrid cultivar with an upright growth habit, ‘Tiger’ plants have large, thick, and slightly savoyed leaves with a green-blue hue.
Known for its satisfying flavor, ‘Tiger’ can be planted as a cut-and-come-again crop for repeat harvests, with leaves that mature in about 55 to 60 days.
Best suited to Hardiness Zones 3 to 12, this high-yielding heirloom collard cultivar produces dark green, shiny, and slightly crumpled leaves with yellow stems.
With a mounding habit, plants reach about 34 inches in height and they like to spread.
Ready to grow your own flavorful and nutritious leafy greens? Whatever the growing zone, with the proper care, collard greens are an annual edible that can flourish in your garden.
Seeds can be started indoors, or sown directly in the garden.
Plant several sets of seeds in succession or cut and come again for multiple collard harvests throughout the season, and plan for exposure to a light frost late in the season in cooler zones for the best flavor.
Before you know it, you’ll be sitting down to plates filled with homegrown collard wraps, savory sides, delectable soups, and canned goods made with this delectable and nutritious vegetable.
Which type will you add to the veggie patch this year? Do you have a favorite cultivar that wasn’t mentioned here? Feel free to drop us a line in the comments!
With rounded, slightly flattened heads, ‘Bermeo’ is heat-tolerant cauliflower hybrid that produces five- to seven-inch white, uniform heads in just 68 days.
The crisp, dense curds are slightly sweet with a nutty flavor. The inner leaves are tight, reducing the need for manual tying for blanching.
The vigorous plants grow up to 14 inches tall with a spread of 12 to 18 inches.
If you want to add some color to your cooking, you can find seeds available at Burpee.
5. Depurple
Purple florets on white stems characterize the unique ‘Depurple’ hybrid cauliflower. It matures in approximately 80 to 100 days, and is well worth the wait.
Dense, six- to seven-inch heads contain antioxidant anthocyanins, with flavorful hints of butter and nuts.
Some purple types turn green during cooking, but you may try adding vinegar or lemon juice to help retain the color.
For a robust and fast-growing cauliflower, consider ‘Early White.’ This hybrid may mature in as few as 52 days, and produces tight, pure white heads that measure up to nine inches across.
This variety exhibits more cold tolerance than average, and may reach 30 inches in height. Firmness and a classic mild cauliflower flavor characterize this winner.
Here’s an early type that matures in 33 to 60 days, making ‘Fioretto 60’ a good choice for spring.
This is a “sprouting” cauliflower variety, with five- to six-inch heads made up of loose white florets on long, light green stems. It resembles broccoli rabe.
‘Flamenco’ is a cauliflower hybrid that produces bright white, six- to seven-inch heads with a very mild, sweet flavor in about 72 days.
The curds are dense, held in rounded, dome-shaped heads. With outstanding heat tolerance, ‘Flamenco’ is ideal for growing in the south, where the heat can cause problems.
Paler than cheddar types, ‘Flame Star’ is an early orange hybrid that matures in approximately 55 to 60 days.
Its heads are firm, with dense, smooth curds and a diameter of about seven inches. This type exhibits better than average heat tolerance and reaches a height of about 14 inches.
Hybrid ‘Skywalker’ is cold-tolerant and produces six- to seven-inch white heads with dense curds after 75 days.
This cultivar is partially self-blanching but can benefit from having the leaves tied to ensure the pure white color. The plant grows 12 to 18 inches tall and wide.
This heirloom white cauliflower harks back to the “originals” in Europe.
‘Snowball’ is a self-blanching cultivar that matures in 65 to 75 days. Its leaves protect developing heads that range from approximately six to eight inches across.
‘Tessaury’ is a heat-tolerant cauliflower hybrid that produces creamy white, dense heads after 72 days. The dense florets form six- to seven-inch uniformly round heads.
The flavor is mild, nutty, and sweet, perfect for roasting or eating fresh.
The ‘Veronica’ Romanesco looks like a cross between cauliflower and broccoli, that matures in about 85 days.
Heads measure approximately seven inches across, and consist of unusually pointy and visually interesting lime green whorls of curds that develop in a fractal pattern.
Plants reach a height of 18 to 24 inches.
Sometimes called “broccoflower,” this unique vegetable has a mildly sweet, savory/nutty flavor.
If you’re looking for a fast-growing traditional white cauliflower for a container or small plot, this one’s for you. ‘White Corona’ is a hybrid that matures in 30 to 33 days.
Its bright white heads measure three to five inches across at maturity.
The florets are a striking deep purple with pale green stems, adding both color and flavor to the harvest. Tender and mild, they’re excellent fresh in salads or lightly cooked.
This variety matures in about 65 days and is renowned for its prolific sprouting side shoots following the first harvest.
‘Calabrese’ seeds are available from Eden Brothers in packages of 500 seeds, one ounce, quarter-pound, or one pound.
5. Covina
‘Covina’ is a hybrid heading broccoli that matures in about 75 days.
Plants reach 24 to 30 inches tall and produce compact, tightly domed heads six to eight inches across.
It performs reliably in variable weather, tolerating both heat and cool spells, and carries resistance to Fusarium yellows with intermediate resistance to black rot and white rust.
‘Destiny’ is a hybrid that has been bred for exceptional heat tolerance in Zones 7 to 11. It produces small to medium green heads tinged with purple in 70 to 75 days.
This hybrid was tailored for the colder northeastern regions of the US and Canada, and does well in both the spring and the fall. It produces very large blue-green crowns with superb flavor.
‘Eastern Magic’ also remarkably heat tolerant, allowing those in the colder regions to extend their growing season into the summer. It’s a fast grower that matures in 60 to 65 days.
‘Fiesta’ is a reliable hybrid heading broccoli that matures in about 65 to 75 days.
Plants are compact and produce uniformly tight, dome-shaped heads approximately six to seven inches across.
This cultivar performs well in both warm days and cool nights, making it adaptable for spring and fall growing, while offering good resistance to Fusarium yellows, black rot, and white rust.
A vigorous sprouting type, ‘Montebello’ is a hybrid between broccoli and Chinese sprouting that reaches about 28 to 30 inches tall with a 20 to 24 inch spread.
Reaching maturity in roughly 75 to 80 days from transplant, this cultivar produces a modest central floret cluster followed by lots of tender side shoots for prolonged harvest.
This is a very cold-hardy heirloom that produces multiple small, purplish florets on each plant instead of a single large head.
Purple sprouting is suitable for Zones 2 to 11. In areas without particularly steamy summers or harsh winters, you may be able to plant in early spring, midsummer, and early fall, for three successive harvest periods.
Its ability to “winter over” and come up in early spring is a noteworthy feature.
You may serve the florets with leaves and stems attached, as all are quite tender. Also, don’t be surprised when the purple turns to green during cooking!
‘Purplelicious’ produces a bounty of sweet, colorful side shoots, extending the harvest. The stems are versatile and flavorful, ideal for steaming, roasted, or fresh in colorful salads.
After the main head is cut, the plant continues to produce side shoots, extending the harvest. The dense, uniform heads are well suited for steaming, roasting, or freezing.
This ancient Italian heirloom boasts unique chartreuse pointed spiral florets. Grow it in Zones 3 to 10, but beware – it bolts at the slightest hint of high temps.
Start seeds indoors and get them into the ground ASAP in early spring, or sow in late fall, but avoid midsummer heat.
Each plant offers two to three harvests over about a month, making it ideal for fresh snacking, salads, or quick sautés.
You can find packets of 50 seeds or bundles of six plants available at Burpee.
17. Santee
‘Santee’ is a purple-sprouting broccoli hybrid that matures in about 80 to 100 days.
It grows approximately 16 to 20 inches tall and forms clusters of purple florets on sturdy green stems.
After the central buds are cut, the plant continues producing side shoots over several weeks, making it ideal for late-fall or overwinter harvests in mild climates.
Known for its delicious flavor, ‘Sun King’ will produce blue-green heads of six to eight inches in diameter, with plenty of side shoots. These will reach maturity in about 70 days.
This heirloom, which was enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson, is noted for its cold tolerance, large blue-green main heads, and proliferation of side shoots.
Perfect for Zones 3 to 10, it matures in a non-uniform fashion for continual harvesting throughout the growing season. Allow 85 days to reach maturity.
Harvest stems with leaves and budded florets in 40 to 60 days, or when they reach about six inches in height. You will be able to enjoy multiple yields throughout the growing season.
Heirloom Chinese broccoli (B. oleracea var. alboglabra) is also called gai-lan, jie lan, or kai-lan/kailaan.
It, too, is leaf dominant, and boasts shades of glossy blue-green to dark green. Stems are thick, florets are small, and the taste is on the bitter side.
Broccolini (B. oleracea aspabroc hybrid) comes to us from Japan.
Though it’s sometimes confused for baby broccoli, it is actually a cross between B. oleracea var. italica and gai-lan (B. oleracea var. alboglabra) that makes for a sweet, thin-stemmed, dark leafy green with small florets.
The name “aspabroc” is derived from the unique flavor that resembles a mixture of asparagus and broccoli.
It is a long-season crop, typically requiring 180 to 220 days from transplant to harvest, or about six to seven months, depending on climate and growing conditions.
You can find seeds for purple sprouting broccoli in a variety of packet sizes available at Eden Brothers.
Royal Tenderette
An excellent choice for containers, the green sprouting variety ‘Royal Tenderette’ produces several three- to four-inch stalks that each produce a floret.
This fast-growing variety matures in just 50 to 60 days from germination and can produce two to three harvests.
You can simply cut a few sweet-tasting florets off for an easy lunchtime side dish for your family and then watch as more stalks grow in 12 to 14 days.
Fill your container with soil and add a bit of fertilizer. You can either use:
Potting mix amended with 10-10-10 (NPK) fertilizer, according to the directions on the package.
Well-draining garden soil amended half and half with compost or well-rotted manure.
If you decide to use soil from your garden, don’t use soil that has been previously planted with brassicas as it can harbor disease.
Broccoli likes neutral to slightly acidic soil, so you may wish to conduct a soil test to make sure the pH is between 6.0 and 7.0.
Soil should be loose and well-draining to promote healthy root growth.
How to Grow
Broccoli loves cool weather and a full sun location, but hot summer temperatures can cause the plant to bolt.
Because of this, there are two ideal seasons for planting your broccoli: spring and fall.
For a spring planting, you’ll want to start seeds indoors about eight weeks before your average last frost date.
You’ll get a head start if you sow them indoors, but you can also sow directly in containers outdoors, two to three weeks before your average last frost date.
For a fall planting, sow seeds about eight to 10 weeks before your average first frost date.
The plus side of growing in containers during cooler fall weather is that you’ll battle fewer bugs.
These early-maturing plants are fully grown in 30 to 60 days. They top out at 24 to 48 inches, with a spread of 12 to 14 inches, making them well-suited to container gardening.
This winter-hardy Russian heirloom has excellent cold tolerance and can withstand a bit of shade. Its blue-green leaves are ruffled slightly, and have a distinct flavor with hints of cabbage.
Their tenderness makes them suited to raw eating in sandwiches and salads.
Portuguese kale is an unusual variety that has flat blue-green leaves with thick white ribs, and resembles a loose head of cabbage or collard greens.
It may weigh anywhere from five to seven pounds at maturity. The leaves measure up to 24 inches across, and despite their size, are quite tender and flavorful.
This type is perfect for robust traditional soups like Portuguese caldo verde or Spanish caldo gallego.
‘Premier’ is an heirloom cultivar with medium green, smooth leaves that reach a length of approximately 15 inches. They are mild in flavor and make a refreshing addition to cold plates.
This type is known for being especially cold tolerant, slow to bolt, and high yielding.
Maturity is in approximately 60 days. Its compact dimensions are 12 to 15 inches tall and equally wide, making it a practical choice for container gardening.
‘Prizm’ boasts nearly stemless green leaves that curl tightly and have a delightfully nutty undertone. The youngest leaves are the sweetest.
This type is excellent in cold dishes. It also performs well in fast-prep stir fries. And it whips up like a breeze in smoothies and other blended drinks.
Plants mature in 50 to 60 days. Heights reach 10 to 24 inches with a 10- to 12-inch spread, making this variety great for smaller-scale plots and containers.
With its curly purple leaves and upright growth habit, ‘Redbor’ adds rich color, texture, and vertical interest to garden settings. It’s a remarkably cold-hardy cultivar that sweetens with every hard freeze.
Harvest tender young leaves for salads and cold plates, and slow-cook mature leaves to soften the firm stems.
Expect maturity in 50 to 60 days. Plants reach heights of 12 to 20 inches with a spread of 10 to 18 inches, and are an excellent choice for pots on the patio and small gardens.
If you are looking for an extremely cold-tolerant kale cultivar, here it is. ‘Red Russian’ can withstand temperatures of -10°F, and it tastes even better for the experience.
With oak-like greenish-purple leaves and prominent purple ribs and veining, this attractive variety is best for hearty slow-cooking that tenderizes even the thickest stalks.
This cultivar has a green oak-style leaf with ruffled edges. Magenta ribs and veining make for dramatic contrast, and the color gets richer with maturity.
Harvest leaves when they’re young, at about six inches tall for the tenderest, sweetest addition to microgreens salads.
‘Red Ursa’ tolerates both heat and cold very well, with above average bolt resistance and frost tolerance.
Similar to ‘Red Russian,’ ruffled oak-shaped leaves and purple veining characterize this type.
However, instead of having to slow-cook the largest leaves to tenderize them, this type is especially soft and sweet when the leaves are both young and mature.
Deep blue-purple leaves and magenta midribs and veining cast a reddish glow over sweet and tender ‘Scarlet.’
Delicious both raw and quick-cooked, pick this type when the leaves are a mere six inches long for peak flavor and texture. A light frost is well-tolerated and enhances the unique color.
Heirloom ‘Blue Scotch Curled’ is a variety with tight and curly blue-green leaves that can withstand a light frost, and will taste even sweeter for it. It thrives in both heat and cold, and tolerates some shade as well.
Look forward to an abundant harvest of young greens for salads, pop raw leaves into a blended drink, or slow-cook them in a stew for a healthy dose of green veggie nutrition.
“Vates” stands for Virginia Truck Experiment Station, and denotes the agricultural research facility where this variety was developed during the Depression.
‘White Russian’ has blue-green oak-style leaves with white ribs and slightly ruffled edges. Especially tolerant of the cold, its sweetness is enhanced by a light frost.
Harvest tender young leaves for fresh baby greens, or let the ample foliage mature for a substantial addition to slow-cooked soups, stews, and simmered sides.
Kale adds bumpy, curly, and ruffled textures, as well as eye-catching shades of black, blue, green, and purple, to both the early and late season landscape.
And with a range of mature dimensions, you can create a custom backdrop to seasonal plants in the foreground.
And as if that isn’t enough, handsome kale plants yield armloads of tasty and nutritious baby greens to consume crisp and cool, as well as mature leaves to cook and savor.
When selecting varieties, note the number of days to maturity, and which ones have exceptional heat and/or cold tolerance. Choose the ones that best suit your growing environment.
Are you growing kale? Which are your favorite varieties? Let us know in the comments section below!
“Clearly, in spite of the widely held ‘belief’ in the health benefits of M. oleifera [moringa], the interest of the international biomedical community in the medicinal potential of this plant has been rather tepid.” In fact, it has been “spectacularly hesitant in exploring its nutritional and medicinal potential. This lukewarm attitude is curious, as other ‘superfoods’ such as garlic and green tea have enjoyed better reception,” but those have more scientific support. There are thousands of human studies on garlic and more than ten thousand on green tea, but only a few hundred on moringa.
The most promising appears to be moringa’s effects on blood sugar control. Below and at 0:55 in my video The Efficacy and Side Effects of Moringa Leaf Powder, you can see the blood sugar spikes after study participants ate about five control cookies each (top line labeled “a”), compared with cookies containing about two teaspoons of moringa leaf powder into the batter (bottom line labeled “b”). Even with the same amount of sugar and carbohydrates as the control cookies, the moringa-containing cookies resulted in a dampening of the surge in blood sugar.
Researchers found that drinking just one or two cups of moringa leaf tea before a sugar challenge “suppressed the elevation in blood glucose [sugar] in all cases compared to controls that did not receive the tea initially” and instead drank plain water. As you can see here and at 1:16 in my video, drinking moringa tea with sugar dampened blood sugar spikes after 30 minutes of consumption of the same amount of sugar without moringa tea. It’s no wonder that moringa is used in traditional medicine practice for diabetes, but we don’t really know if it can help until we put it to the test. People with diabetes were given about three-quarters of a teaspoon of moringa leaf powder every day for 12 weeks and had significant improvements in measures of inflammation and long-term blood sugar control. The researchers called it a “quasi-experimental study” because there was no control group. They just took measurements before and after the study participants took moringa powder, and we know that simply being in a dietary study can lead some to eat more healthfully, whether consciously or unconsciously, so we don’t know what effect the moringa itself had. However, even in a moringa study with a control group, it’s not clear if the participants were randomly allocated. The researchers didn’t even specify how much moringa people were given—just that they took “two tablets daily with one tablet each after breakfast and dinner,” but what does “one tablet” mean? There was no significant improvement in this study, but perhaps the participants weren’t given enough moringa. Another study used a tablespoon a day and not only saw a significant drop in fasting blood sugars, but a significant drop in LDL cholesterol as well, as seen below and at 2:27 in my video.
Two teaspoons of moringa a day didn’t seem to help, but what about a third, making it a whole tablespoon? Apparently not, since, finally, a randomized, placebo-controlled study using one tablespoon of moringa a day failed to show any benefit on blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes.
So, we’re left with a couple of studies showing potential, but most failing to show benefit. Why not just give moringa a try to see for yourself? That’s a legitimate course of action in the face of conflicting data when we’re talking about safe, simple, side–effect–free solutions, but is moringa safe? Probably not during pregnancy, as “about 80% of women folk” in some areas of the world use it to abort pregnancies, and its effectiveness for that purpose has been confirmed (at least in rats), though breastfeeding women may get a boost of about half a cup in milk production based on six randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trials.
Just because moringa has “long been used in traditional medicine” does not in any way prove that the plant is safe to consume. A lot of horribly toxic substances, like mercury and lead, have been used in traditional medical systems the world over, but at least “no major harmful effects of M. oleifera [moringa]…have been reported by the scientific community.” More accurately, “no adverse effects were reported in any of the human studies that have been conducted to date.” In other words, no harmful effects had been reported until now.
Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) is probably the most dreaded drug side effect, “a rare but potentially fatal condition characterized by…epidermal detachment and mucous membrane erosions.” In other words, your skin may fall off. Fourteen hours after consuming moringa, a man broke out in a rash. The same thing had happened three months earlier, the last time he had eaten moringa, causing him to suffer “extensive mucocutaneous lesions with blister formation over face, mouth, chest, abdomen, and genitalia.” “This case report suggests that consumption of Moringa leaf is better avoided by individuals who are at risk of developing SJS.” Although it can happen to anyone, HIV is a risk factor.
My take on moringa is that the evidence of benefit isn’t compelling enough to justify shopping online for something special when you can get healthy vegetables in your local market, like broccoli, which has yet to be implicated in any genital blistering.
Does the so-called miracle tree live up to the hype?
Moringa (Moringa oleifera) is a plant commonly known as the “miracle” tree due to its purported healing powers across a spectrum of diseases. If “miracle” isn’t hyperbolic enough for you, “on the Internet,” it’s also known as “God’s Gift to Man.” Is moringa a miracle or just a mirage? “The enthusiasm for the health benefits of M. oleifera is in dire contrast with the scarcity of strong experimental and clinical evidence supporting them. Fortunately, the chasm is slowly being filled.” There has been a surge in scientific publications on moringa. In just the last ten years, the number of articles is closer to a thousand, as shown here and at 1:02 in my video The Benefits of Moringa: Is It the Most Nutritious Food?.
What got my attention was the presence of glucosinolates, compounds that boost our liver’s detoxifying enzymes. I thought they were only found in cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, kale, collards, and cauliflower. Still, it turns out they’re also present in the moringa family, with a potency comparable to broccoli. But rather than mail-ordering exotic moringa powder, why not just eat broccoli?Is there something special about moringa?
“Moringa oleifera has been described as the most nutritious tree yet discovered,” but who eats trees? Moringa supposedly “contains higher amounts of elemental nutrients than most conventional vegetable sources,” such as featuring 10 times more vitamin A than carrots, 12 times more vitamin C than oranges, 17 times more calcium than milk, 15 times more potassium than bananas, 25 times more iron than spinach, and 9 times more protein than yogurt, as shown here and at 2:08 in myvideo. Sounds impressive, but first of all, even if this were true, it is relevant for 100 grams of dry moringa leaf, which is about 14 tablespoons, almost a whole cup of leaf powder. Researchers have had trouble getting people to eat even 20 grams, so anything more would likely “result in excessively unpleasant taste, due to the bitterness of the leaves.”
Secondly, the nutritional claims in these papers are “adapted from Fuglie,” which is evidently a lay publication. If you go to the nutrient database of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and enter a more reasonable dose, such as the amount that might be in a smoothie, about a tablespoon, for instance, a serving of moringa powder has as much vitamin A as a quarter of one baby carrot and as much vitamin C as one one-hundredth of an orange. So, an orange has as much vitamin C as a hundred tablespoons of moringa. A serving of moringa powder has the calcium of half a cup of milk, the potassium of not fifteen bananas but a quarter of one banana, the iron of a quarter cup of spinach, and the protein of a third of a container of yogurt, as seen below and at 3:15 in my video. So, it may be nutritious, but not off the charts and certainly not what’s commonly touted. So, again, why not just eat broccoli?
Moringa does seem to have anticancer activity—in a petri dish—against cell lines of breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, and fibrosarcoma, while tending to leave normal cells relatively alone, but there haven’t been any clinical studies. What’s the point in finding out that “Moringa oleifera extract enhances sexual performance in stressed rats,” as one study was titled?
Studies like “Effect of supplementation of drumstick (Moringa oleifera) and amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) leaves powder on antioxidant profile and oxidative status among postmenopausal women” started to make things a little interesting. When researchers were testing the effects of a tablespoon of moringa leaf powder once a day for three months on antioxidant status, they saw a drop in oxidative stress, as one might expect from eating any healthy plant food. However, they also saw a drop in fasting blood sugars from prediabetic levels exceeding 100 to more normal levels. Now, that’s interesting. Should we start recommending a daily tablespoon of moringa powder to people with diabetes, or was it just a fluke? I’ll discuss the study “Moringa oleifera and glycemic [blood sugar] control: A review of the current evidence” next.
Women with breast cancer should include the “liberal culinary use of cruciferous vegetables.”
Both the Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study and the Women’s Health Initiative study showed that women randomized to a lower-fat diet enjoyed improved breast cancer survival. However, in the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living Study, women with breast cancer were also randomized to drop their fat intake down to 15 to 20 percent of calories, yet there was no difference in breast cancer relapse or death after seven years.
Any time there’s an unexpected result, you must question whether the participants actually followed through with study instructions. For instance, if you randomized people to stop smoking and they ended up with the same lung cancer rates as those in the group who weren’t instructed to quit, one likely explanation is that the group told to stop smoking didn’t actually stop. In the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living Study, both the dietary intervention group and the control group started out at about 30 percent of calories from fat. Then, the diet group was told to lower their fat intake to 15 to 20 percent of calories. By the end of the study, they had in fact gone from 28.5 percent fat to 28.9 percent fat, as you can see below and at 1:16 in my video The Food That Can Downregulate a Metastatic Cancer Gene. They didn’t even reduce their fat intake. No wonder they didn’t experience any breast cancer benefit.
When you put together all the trials on the effect of lower-fat diets on breast cancer survival, even including that flawed study, you see a reduced risk of breast cancer relapse and a reduced risk of death. In conclusion, going on a low-fat diet after a breast cancer diagnosis “can improve breast cancer survival by reducing the risk of recurrence.” We may now know why: by targeting metastasis-initiating cancer cells through the fat receptor CD36.
We know that the cancer-spreading receptor is upregulated by saturated fat. Is there anything in our diet that can downregulate it? Broccoli.
Broccoli appears to decrease CD36 expression by as much as 35 percent (in mice). Of all fruits and vegetables, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli were the only ones associated with significantly less total risk of cancer and not just getting cancer in the first place, as you can see here and at 2:19 in my video.
Those with bladder cancer who eat broccoli also appear to live longer than those who don’t, and those with lung cancer who eat more cruciferous veggies appear to survive longer, too.
For example, as you can see below and at 2:45 in my video, one year out, about 75 percent of lung cancer patients eating more than one serving of cruciferous vegetables a day were still alive (the top line in red), whereas, by then, most who had been getting less than half a serving a day had already died from their cancer (the bottom line in green).
Ovarian cancer, too. Intake of cruciferous vegetables “significantly favored survival,” whereas “a survival disadvantage was shown for meats.” Milk also appeared to double the risk of dying. Below and at 3:21 in my video are the survival graphs. Eight years out, about 40 percent of ovarian cancer patients who averaged meat or milk every day were deceased (the boldest line, on the bottom), compared to only about 20 percent who had meat or milk only a few times a week at most (the faintest line, on the top).
Now, it could be that the fat and cholesterol in meat increased circulating estrogen levels, or it could be because of meat’s growth hormones or all its carcinogens. And galactose, the sugar naturally found in milk, may be directly toxic to the ovary. Dairy has all its hormones, too. However, the lowering of risk with broccoli and the increasing of risk with meat and dairy are also consistent with the CD36 mechanism of cancer spread.
Researchers put it to the test in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who were given pulverized broccoli sprouts or a placebo. The average death rate was lower in the broccoli sprout group compared to the placebo group. After a month, 18 percent of the placebo group had died, but none in the broccoli group. By three months, another 25 percent of the placebo group had died, but still not a single death in the broccoli group. And by six months, 43 percent of the remaining patients in the placebo group were deceased, along with the first 25 percent of the broccoli group. Unfortunately, even though the capsules for both groups looked the same, “true blinding was not possible,” and the patients knew which group they were in “because the pulverized broccoli sprouts could be easily distinguished from the methylcellulose [placebo] through their characteristic smell and taste.” So, we can’t discount the placebo effect. What’s more, the study participants weren’t properly randomized “because many of the patients refused to participate unless they were placed into the [active] treatment group.” That’s understandable, but it makes for a less rigorous result. A little broccoli can’t hurt, though, and it may help. It’s the lack of downsides of broccoli consumption that leads to “Advising Women Undergoing Treatment for Breast Cancer” to include the “liberal culinary use of cruciferous vegetables,” for example.
It’s the same for reducing saturated fat. The title of an editorial in a journal of the National Cancer Institute asked: “Is It Time to Give Breast Cancer Patients a Prescription for a Low-Fat Diet?” “Although counseling women to consume a healthy diet after breast cancer diagnosis is certainly warranted for general health, the existing data still fall a bit short of proving this will help reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence and mortality.” But what do we have to lose? After all, it’s still certainly warranted for general health.
Some people have a sweet tooth, and treats like brownies and ice cream call to them. Others, like me, have a spice tooth.
We like lots of chilis in our food and for our salad greens to bite back.
If you fall into the peppery spice-lover camp, watercress should be front and center in your gardening arsenal.
Actually, even if you don’t love spice, it should still feature prominently. The greens lose some of their pep if you cook them, while retaining a bright, green, fresh flavor.
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Watercress is an aquatic plant, so we will, of course, cover hydroponic techniques for growing it in this guide.
But it also grows well in soil, provided you give it enough moisture. And it makes a smart indoor or outdoor plant, so apartment-dwellers and homesteaders alike are covered.
Although it’s an upright grower in water thanks to its hollow stems that allow it to float, watercress will also creep along the ground, making it a marvelous edible ground cover in partially sunny areas.
Hardy in USDA Zones 6 to 9, anyone can grow this leafy green as an annual, though it’s technically a perennial. Ready to join the watercress party?
Coming right up, here are all the things we’ll cover:
Let’s dig into the history of watercress first.
Cultivation and History
Watercress is a brassica and it enjoys the cool conditions and ample moisture that most brassicas do.
Despite the botanical genus name Nasturtium, it isn’t closely related to nasturtium flowers, which are Tropaeolum species. And don’t confuse watercress with cress (Lepidium sativum) or upland cress (Barbarea verna).
While we’re talking about names, this plant must be a double agent or something because it has a ton of aliases. It’s also known as eker, biller, bilure, rib cress, brown cress, teng tongue, long tails, well grass, and yellowcress.
Native to Europe, it has naturalized in North America, where you’ll find it growing long streambeds or in moist areas like the forest floors of the Pacific Northwest.
This spicy green has been cultivated by humans for a long, long time for the leaves and stems. Each compound leaf boasts up to a dozen leaflets. These can be eaten cooked or raw.
Historically, we know that ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used the chopped leaves as a substitute for black pepper.
Hippocrates used watercress as a blood medicine, and ancient Romans prescribed it for curing mental illness.
In 1808, we have the first records of modern-day commercial cultivation when horticulturalist William Bradbery grew some in Kent, England.
The leafy green had a real surge in popularity in the late ‘90s and early 2000s in the US. People in England were ahead of the curve, where this plant has enjoyed wide popularity for a long time.
The pungent flavor appeals to those who like mustard and peppery flavors. This taste was actually developed by the plant as part of its defense system against herbivores.
When the leaves are disturbed, oils containing glucosinolate and myrosinase are released, and we perceive this as a spicy flavor.
The plant forms small white flowers followed by seeds, which freely sow themselves around the garden.
In Europe and Asia, concerns about liver flukes (Fasciola gigantica and F. hepatica) have caused some people to avoid foraged watercress.
Even some commercial crops have been contaminated. All the more reason to grow your own, right?
Watercress Propagation
Most people propagate watercress by purchasing some seeds and putting them in the ground or in containers, and that’s a great way to go about it.
But if you know someone with plants already, you have a secret weapon available to you: propagation via cuttings.
A few lucky people will be able to buy started plants locally, but honestly, starting yours by sowing seed or rooting cuttings is so easy that there’s no reason to pay extra!
From Seed
When you’re ready to plant, lightly broadcast the seed over a tray, container, or bed.
Containers should be filled with a water-retentive, well-draining potting mix like FoxFarm’s Ocean Forest potting mix.
It’s composed of all kinds of good stuff, like bat guano, fish meal, moss, sandy loam, and forest humus.
You can pick up a one-and-a-half cubic foot bag at Amazon, though, to be honest, I’d personally buy the stuff by the truckload if I could.
Otherwise, amend the bed with some well-rotted compost to loosen it and add water retention and nutrients.
Then, sprinkle soil on top to just cover the seeds no deeper than an eighth of an inch. You don’t technically need to cover the seeds at all, but some people struggle to keep them moist without a little coverage.
If you want to be a bit less wasteful with your seed, rather than broadcasting, grab a toothpick, moisten the end, dab it in the seed packet, and gently press a seed into the soil spaced every six inches.
Keep the soil moist but not sopping wet as the seeds germinate, which takes a week or two.
As the seedlings pop up, thin them to six inches apart if you’ve used the broadcast method.
Once the seedlings are two or three inches tall, harden them off if you started them indoors, and transplant them into their new home.
Hardening off is a relatively simple process that involves taking the plant in its container and setting it in the area where you will be growing it permanently. Leave it there for an hour and then bring it back inside.
The following day, leave it there for two hours. Make it three on the following day, and so on, until you’ve reached a full week. At that point, your plant should be acclimated.
From Cuttings
Watercress sends out little roots anywhere a leaf node touches the ground, or clean water.
So a stem that has been lying against the earth will have lots of small white roots if you pull it up and examine it.
You might even see these roots if you buy a bag of watercress at the grocery store.
That should tell you that this plant is a breeze to propagate by taking cuttings. You can even plant the rooted watercress bunches from the store if you wish!
Use a seed tray for horizontal cuttings or a four-inch pot for vertical ones, fill your chosen container with soilless potting medium, and moisten it well.
Soilless potting mediums are water-retentive and nutritious without having any of the potential pathogens that can harm young cuttings.
A good seed-starting mix is a perfect choice. Something like Tank’s Pro-Lite Seeding & Potting Mix is ideal. It’s made with compost, coco coir, and perlite.
Take a four-inch piece of stem with several leaf nodes, using a clean pair of scissors. Pull off all of the leaves except for the top one at the very tip.
Lay the cutting horizontally on top of the soilless potting medium, or stick it vertically into the medium so that at least one leaf bud is buried.
Place the container in an area with direct sun or supplemental light for at least six hours per day and keep the medium moist. Once you see new growth forming, you’ve got yourself a healthy rooted watercress plant.
Transplant it to its new location using the steps outlined below.
Transplanting
Whether you started seeds, rooted cuttings, or you purchased a live plant, you’ll need to take it out of that growing pot and put it in the ground or a larger container at some point.
To do this, prep the area if needed by working in lots of well-rotted compost, sphagnum moss, and loam, or a product containing these ingredients. You want to work this into the soil at least six inches deep.
Dig a hole the same size as the growing pot and gently remove the plant from its container. Lower the plant into the hole you made and firm the soil up around it.
Water well and add more soil if it settles too much after watering.
To move the plant to a larger container, fill a container at least one size up from the existing pot and put a layer of potting soil in the bottom.
Remove the bunch from the existing pot and gently lower it into the pot. Place more soil around it to firm it up. Water and add more potting soil, if needed.
How to Grow Watercress
In a perfect world, watercress needs cool, running water, full to partial sun, and temperatures around 65°F.
In the real world, where most of us live, this is a tall order. Lucky for us, watercress can grow just fine without the running water and will tolerate brief lows of 23°F and highs up to 100°F.
Commercial growers who cultivate watercress must have running water available, but smaller quantities can be grown in soil.
The trick is to create a rich, loose, loamy bed. Unless you are blessed with this kind of soil already, you have to do what the rest of us mere mortals do and create it.
To do this, dig down six inches and as wide as you intend to cultivate your greens. Fill this area back in with equal parts well-rotted compost, sphagnum moss, and loam.
As an alternative, you can fill raised beds or containers with a potting mix that fits the bill. My personal go-to is FoxFarm’s Ocean Forest potting mix, mentioned above.
A soilless medium will also work if you’re using containers.
The richer the soil, the milder the flavor of your harvest, so keep that in mind. If you like to take your taste buds on a ride, aim for loose, well-draining soil that isn’t rich in nutrients.
You know these plants like water since they can grow in a good amount of it, so keeping the soil moist is going to be key. Having said that, if you prefer a tougher, spicier leaf, you can let the soil dry out a bit more.
Aim to keep the soil at least as moist as a wrung-out sponge, but even a bit soggier is fine. Once you start seeing water pool on the soil surface, you’ve gone too far. Watercress likes a lot of moisture, but it doesn’t like standing, stagnant water.
When growing in the ground or a potted growing medium, don’t bother fertilizing. Again, these plants do better without a bunch of fertilizer, and too much will reduce the flavor quality.
They do, however, prefer slightly alkaline soil and water, so feel free to adjust yours accordingly, though this isn’t strictly necessary.
When growing, be mindful of whether or not watercress is considered a noxious weed in your region.
If it is, you might be required to confine it to containers and take steps to avoid seed spread. Some states, like Illinois, list it as invasive and cultivating it is prohibited.
Growing in Water
For those who opt to grow their watercress in water, you can transplant the seedlings when they’re two or three inches tall.
Find a spot in a stream bed no more than an inch deep, preferably in a bend or some other area that is fairly still but where water circulates.
It’s fine if the water level drops to the point where the watercress plants are near the water but not in it, but the level shouldn’t ever completely submerge the plants.
They also lend themselves nicely to growing in rafts, or in nets in ponds with moving water.
Remember, watercress grown in unsanitized water might contain unwelcome pathogens like giardia or liver flukes.
If you aren’t sure about your water source, either grow in-ground or a container, or always be sure to cook your watercress before consuming it.
Hydroponic Growing
Hydroponic growing is beyond the scope of this article, but we will cover some of the basics to help you grow watercress if you already have a hydroponic system set up.
Start your seeds or cuttings as described above, using a soilless medium or hydroponic plugs. Rock, stone wool, or perlite are perfect options.
Place the seeds and starting medium into the hydroponic system.
Provide 12 hours of light per day with the lights placed about six inches above the plants. If you notice leggy growth, move the lights closer. If you see tan, burnt spots on the leaves, move them further away.
Use a hydroponic fertilizer recommended for lettuce or other leafy greens.
Monitor your water to keep the electrical conductivity (EC) level between 1.5 and 2.0.
You can always go with a simple system like AeroGarden’s Harvest system.
It comes with a built-in light, a touch control panel, and six pods for growing. Grab one at AeroGarden.
Thanks to the peppery flavor, herbivores generally ignore watercress!
Sadly, insects don’t. And one type of insect may even bring a devastating disease along with it.
Let’s talk about the pests you might encounter first, and then touch on the chief potential ailment.
Insects
While most pests will generally avoid watercress, slugs and snails will feed on yellow leaves, which can also be a sign of disease.
I say let them have at it, but if you’d rather keep them away, use your favorite snail bait.
Whiteflies will also hang out under the leaves and feed on your watercress. You can wash these off with soapy water.
If you’re very unlucky, your plants might be visited by watercress leafhoppers (Macrostelesseverini).
While the pests themselves aren’t all that awful, they may bring aster yellows along with them.
Once they feed on the plant, it’s too late to stop an infection from taking place, so preventing leafhopper infestations is key.
Part of this involves removing any brassica weeds like shotweed, aka hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta), and wild mustard (Brassica kaber), from the area. Netting is also useful.
Disease
There’s really just one disease that you need to watch for, but it’s a big one.
Aster yellows causes leaf chlorosis or yellowing, and the new shoots might develop a witch’s broom growth. The plants will also be extremely stunted.
There’s nothing you can do once the plant is infected other than remove it so the disease doesn’t spread to other brassicas.
You can start picking the leaves anytime they reach a size you like.
Don’t pull out the whole watercress plant unless you’re done with watercress and want to try something else. Instead, clip the leaves near the soil. New ones will grow back.
You can technically eat the roots, though I can’t imagine you’d want to.
They’re extremely bitter, and not in a good way. But those leaves and stems have the piquant flavor that many of us find appealing.
Eat the leaves right away as they don’t store well at all.
You can get a day or two out of them if you put them in a plastic bag and stick them in the produce drawer in your refrigerator, but you should cook or eat them as soon as possible.
Recipes and Cooking Ideas
Watercress makes a lovely garnish or addition to salads, and that’s how it’s been used for decades. But it offers so much more versatility.
I love to stuff pita bread with the leaves and some sort of protein. I think the flavor holds up really well to stronger additions such as lamb or curried chicken.
But really, watercress is fantastic in any sandwich, like this sauteed mushroom and thyme pine nut butter sandwich from our sister site, Foodal.
I also think watercress makes a nice substitute for spinach when you want a little more of a flavor kick. Besides eating it fresh, think omelets, stir-fries, and pasta.
When I’m looking for ways to use up a bunch of watercress, I like to make soup or stir-fry the leaves with garlic.
After making a big batch, I can stick these in the fridge for a week and eat them at my leisure.
You Literally Can’t Find a More Nutritious Vegetable
A little while ago, the CDC ranked fruits and veggies by their nutrient density. Guess which one came in on top?
Yep, watercress. They called it the top “powerhouse” vegetable with a 100 percent nutrient density score. That’s way above other popular options like beet greens (87 percent), kale (49 percent), and carrots (22.6 percent).
If you’re looking for something good for you, there isn’t a better choice than watercress out there.
But if you aren’t so worried about nutrients and mostly care about flavor, you still can’t go wrong with watercress.
How do you plan to grow and use yours? Let us know in the comments!
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