Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-197
Garden Cress
Lepidium sativum
Garden cress is a fast, peppery salad green whose seeds sprout within a week, making it a reliable indoor tray crop through any season regardless of weather. Beyond the sprouts, the whole plant is edible: leaves, seedpods, root and a seed oil unusually rich in omega-3 fat. It is also, unexpectedly, the most attractive egg-laying target tested for diamondback moth, and its leaves do not kill the resulting larvae, so a stand growing near cabbage-family crops outdoors quietly breeds more moths rather than fewer. Grown indoors as a tray crop, none of that risk applies, and that is where the plant earns its place.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 6–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6–6.8
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 20 in
- Mature spread
- 12–24 in
- Plant spacing
- 2–6 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
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African Eggplant
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Alfalfa
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
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Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
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Anise
Pimpinella anisum
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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