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!
For many years, the only way I could grow crops was in containers.
I was moving every year or so, often from apartment to apartment, so growing in containers was the only way to indulge my gardening passion.
So to say I’m a fan is an understatement. And you’d best believe my winter container garden always included cabbage.
Not only is cabbage easy to grow in the ground, provided the weather is cool enough, but it’s a cinch to grow in containers as well.
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Cabbage, Brassica oleracea var. captitata, is a cool-season crop, producing crunchy heads packed with nutrients and fiber, typically grown either in spring or fall.
Our guide to growing cabbage has all the details for growing this popular brassica in the garden. Considering the size of the heads, cabbage has surprisingly small roots, making it perfect for growing in containers.
If you’re gardening in small spaces or resting your raised beds, container gardening is an excellent way to grow an abundance of produce.
And that’s what we’ll discuss in this guide. Here’s what I’ll cover:
Picking the Right Container
You don’t need anything large or impressive when picking a container for growing your cabbage.
The one consideration to keep in mind is that these plants can be quite top-heavy.
You could use a small plastic grower’s pot, but you’d need to give it some support, such as placing the pot inside a heavier container to prevent it from tipping over.
A gallon of soil for each head is about right, and you want the container you choose to be wide enough that if you plant more than one in a single pot, say three in a three-gallon pot, the heads won’t touch.
The pots should be a minimum of six inches deep, but ideally 12 inches, to promote robust growth.
The containers also must have drainage. A pot without drainage is a quick trip to root rot-ville and you don’t want to go there.
The material the pot is made of isn’t as important as the drainage, but if the temperatures tend to get a bit warm in your area while the plants are growing, you might want to avoid black plastic or metal.
Both will warm up too much for cool-weather-loving cabbage. Glazed ceramic or clay tends to stay cooler.
Cultivars to Select
You can pretty much choose any cabbage cultivar to grow in containers, though you might want to avoid the very large cultivars like ‘Tropic Giant’ unless you have a huge container.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Amarant
Purple cabbage can change the look of any dish, whether you’re using it in coleslaw, rolls, or soup.
‘Amarant’ has vibrant purple leaves all the way through the head, which can weigh between one and a half and two and a half pounds.
Bred by the German Kultursaat biodynamic seed initiative, it’s ready in about 70 days and will even grow well in moderately warm temperatures.
You can purchase seeds in quantities from 25 to 100 million at High Mowing Seeds.
Copenhagen Market
I’ve had great success with ‘Copenhagen Market.’
The medium-sized heads mature in about 70 days and weigh in at about a pound when they’re ready. It’s an heirloom cultivar that was introduced in 1909.
If you’d like to give it a go, pick up seeds in a variety of packet sizes at True Leaf Market.
Earliana
If patience isn’t your middle name, ‘Earliana’ is going to be your new favorite.
In just 60 days, you can be enjoying full-sized, compact, two-pound heads. Despite their weight, they aren’t too large, at only about five inches in diameter.
If you prefer napa cabbage, ‘One Kilo Slow Bolt’ says it all.
The tight heads are medium-large, weighing around two pounds, with white and green leaves with yellow leaves on the interior. And, yes, the plants are slow to bolt.
When you have selected your container or containers, you can start preparing to plant.
If you are reusing a container, make sure to clean it thoroughly to avoid the spread of disease. Use a 10 percent bleach solution (one part bleach to nine parts water) or hot, soapy water.
If you like, you can put mesh screens over the drainage holes to help the soil stay in place.
Just keep in mind that screens can tend to clog up, so you must keep a close eye on the holes to ensure that water is still moving through freely.
Don’t put a layer of drainage material like rocks or broken clay at the bottom. This actually holds water closer to the roots thanks to something known as the perched water table.
Fill the container to about an inch below the rim with water-retentive potting soil.
Cabbage plants aren’t too fussy, so you can use any medium formulated for potted plants, but for my vegetables I always use FoxFarm Ocean Forest Potting Mix.
It’s made from lots of good stuff, like bat guano, crab meal, forest humus, and sphagnum moss. You can find 12-quart bags available at Amazon.
Propagation and Planting
Now that everything is set and ready to go, it’s time to plant. You have two options, here.
The first is to transplant seedlings. You can either purchase these or start them yourself indoors about six to eight weeks before the last average frost date.
If you’re growing a fall crop, you’ll need to start seeds 12 to 14 weeks ahead of first frost.
Dig a hole in the potting soil that is about the same size as the growing container. Gently remove the plant from the pot and loosen up the roots a bit. Lower it into the hole that you dug and firm the soil up around it.
Water the soil well. It will probably settle a little bit, which is fine. If it does, add a bit more soil. You want the seedling sitting at about the same depth as it was in the growing container.
If you’d rather start seeds directly in the pot, that’s fine, too. The basic rules of planting cabbage seeds apply here.
You need to start them early enough in the year that they have time to mature while the temperatures are still fairly cool.
Depending on the cultivar, that means about 65 days under 80°F or so. That’s why most gardeners grow cabbage in the spring and fall, and sometimes winter.
If you need to, choose a small enough container that you can keep it indoors or in a greenhouse while it’s still cold and move it out when the weather warms up a bit.
Container Care
Outdoors, choose a location in full sun, with six to eight hours of direct sunlight per day. In very hot climates, you’ll need to provide some afternoon shade to prevent the plants from bolting.
You could put up shade cloth, but the solution doesn’t need to be fancy. I use umbrellas sometimes. Whatever works, right?
You’ll need to provide an inch or two of water per week in the absence of rain. Use a rain gauge to determine how much water they are receiving or just use your finger to check the soil.
If the soil is dry up to the first knuckle, it’s time to water. The goal is to have the soil feel like a well-wrung-out sponge at all times.
When you water, irrigate at soil level and try to avoid wetting the leaves. Cabbages can trap water in their leaves which can result in rot or fungal problems.
Cabbage is a heavy feeder, and since plants in containers are totally reliant on the gardener for nutrients, you’ll definitely need to feed them.
Assuming you used fresh, new potting soil, there should be enough nutrients in place to sustain the young plants.
Wait until the heads are just starting to form and then side dress with a mild vegetable fertilizer every two weeks.
Cabbage needs a lot of nitrogen, so choose a fertilizer formulated for leafy vegetables. I like to use Grow Big from FoxFarm as it has an NPK ratio of 6-4-4, ideal for vegetables.
You can find Grow Big available via Amazon in gallon-sized concentrate, enough to feed your container garden all summer long.
If you are a very attentive gardener, you may wish to prune your cabbage. This is entirely optional, but it’s a good idea to do so if you notice any damaged or diseased leaves.
Pruning the outer leaves once the head has started forming can encourage the plant to put more energy into the inner leaves, creating a tight head.
Do you only have a small patio? Or maybe you move a lot like I did? Perhaps you ran out of garden space? No matter, there’s no reason you can’t grow cabbage anyway.
What’s your set-up like? Are you growing a few potted plants in the big city? Or just expanding your garden space? Let us know in the comments section below.
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!
