Grow Your Own Magazine

I was talking to Mum about what she wants me to sow in her veg patch this year. She gave me the usual list but also said "It's a shame we can't grow our own water cress because I love it". I would REALLY like to surprise her and grow some.

Anyone know if it can be done and if so how and where can I get the seeds??


*Crosses fingers*

think it has to be grown in water but apparently land cress is very similar in taste and very easy to grow. I bought some T&M seeds this weekend

Yes mums do ask for the impossible dont they. My mum also asked for watercress. Did see it grown on a programme "the big Dig" with simon Mayo on a sunday morning but the guy growing it did not have much luck.
Try the land cress reccomended by serenity.

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Vicki
I grow landcress, it does very well over winter under fleece and I've also grown watercress, available from most seed suppliers, ie Chilton, Garden Organic etc.
I sowed it into water saturated compost in a container without drainage holes and kept it very wet, very quick to germinate and I got a good crop from it but did lose it in the intense heat of the summer when it went to seed.
Would certainly grow it again, I love the stuff.
Best wishes
Sue

Thanks for that Sue.
May have a go then and keep it in the shady part of the garden.
Mum would be so proud!!!

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Hi Vicki, you can grow watercress in tubs or trenches, you just need to keep the soil quite wet. You can also cheat and get the stuff from the bags in the supermarket, and if you leave it a couple of days you'll see it start to produce little roots. I'm sure if you were to plant this up in wet compost it would grow away nicely for you, not sure about this time of year though, think March is better for these kinda 'cuttings'. There was another post about watercress somewhere on the board, you could try a search and will probibly find more info. I grew landcress and watercress last year but I think the chooks got the watercress . Good luck
CC

Hi Vicki - I asked the same question a month ago, so if you do a search you may find some of the answers there help.

Watercress

I've gone ahead and bought a packet, and the Thompson & Morgan instructions suggest growing it in a pot which stands within another pot (with no holes!) which you keep topped up water. That sounds like a great idea to me, so I'm going to give that a go.

Good luck!

Hi Anita & Vicki, I tried growing watercress in a pot standing inside another pot with water in it last year & it kept growing for a few months . I was able to get a few cuttings from it before it went to seed & finally shrivelled up! I just bought a pack from the supermarket & saved a few pieces which I rooted in a glass of water & then planted in compost topped with gravel & put it on the kitchen windowsill where it grew quite happily. I tipped out the water every so often to freshen it up.It was my O.H. who asked me to grow it as he'd seen Jamie Oliver making ham, mustard & watercress sandwiches on T.V.!

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Had great results from just popping a few strands of shop bought watercress into a jar of tap water. Within days there were big white roots spreading from their bases!

then the resident parrot took a fancy and ripped them to pieces!

I hate that duck.

our pond has a short stream with gravel as a filter bed. We planted it last year and it cleared the water very well, tasted great but took over so we had to get every piece of root out to reclaim the stream.

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Kindest regards, David.

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