Content: 100 Piece (€0.42 / 1 Piece)
20 % when pre-ordering
Content: 6 Piece (€0.71 / 1 Piece)
20 % when pre-ordering
Growing rocket: sowing, planting, harvesting
Rocket is one of the fastest crops in the bed: four to six weeks after sowing you can cut for the first time. You will also find it as arugula, roquette or rucola.
Salad rocket or wild rocket?
Salad rocket (Eruca sativa) has broad, mild leaves and grows quickly. It is the one in most salad mixes. Wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) has narrow, deeply cut leaves, tastes noticeably sharper and is perennial: it regrows after every cut and survives mild winters outdoors.
Site and soil
Partial shade beats full sun. In midday heat rocket bolts quickly and turns bitter. The soil should be rich and evenly moist; waterlogging is not tolerated. Rocket is a brassica, so do not grow it where cabbage, radish or mustard stood the previous year.
Sowing and planting
Direct sowing from mid-March to early September, 1 cm deep, rows 20 cm apart, thinned to 5 cm in the row. For an earlier harvest use young plants: they are about three weeks ahead of direct sowing and can go out from March into the bed, a window box or a raised bed. Planted in succession every two to three weeks, you harvest from May into November.
Harvesting
Cut the outer leaves about three centimetres above the ground; the heart stays and regrows. Two to four cuts are usual. Once flower buds appear the leaves turn sharp and tough — time for the next sowing. The white to yellow flowers are edible.
Common problems
Small round holes in the leaves almost always come from flea beetles, which love heat and drought. A fine crop protection net straight after sowing plus even moisture keeps them out reliably.