Growing Watercress

[Colin Miles]

What size pots should I use?

[Compo]

A wet one, I grow mine in a shallow pool rooted in gravel, you can grow it in shallow posts that you can stand in trays or saucers of water. Have you got seeds? If not there is a source I can dig out for you.

[Colin Miles]

I have seeds and will stand them in trays outside my greenhouse - a very convenient spot. So - 3 inch pots for individual plants - or maybe 4?

[Allan]

Start with quite small pots, if the plants take off you can increase your stock rapidly from cuttings, almost anything will root. Aim to have young plants to replace the older ones as you go. You can keep the supplies going that way through November. In some seasons regrowth is possible the next year from replants.
Allan

[mandylew]

any recommendations for compost, would aquatic mix be best?

mandy

[Compo]

www.buckingham-nurseries.co.uk/acatalog ... 19269.html

This web site seems to give some very good advice on growing out of water and will sell the seeds too

[Allan]

Yes, you can grow in a container but my experience is that if you want real bite in the flavour grow it on damp soil. It seems to get extra nutrients that way that are missing from plain water. However unless you want to spend all your time trying to eradicate chickweed the soil must be squeaky clean of competitive weeds, particularly chickweed and in so many cases where stacked manure has been added there will be chickweed contamination, it seems to like the same moist conditions. Hoeing it doesn't kill it off, it will sit quite happily on the surface and then re-grow.
Not sure about the Buckingham idea of shearing it off, we select individual sprigs which doesn't take all that long. At leas it's a lot better than Supermarket ready-to-eat, just limp,tasteless leaves that have to be eaten up within a day or thrown out.
Allan

[Colin Miles]

Many thanks Compo and Allan.

[Jenny Green]

How about sun or shade?
I've got an area I'd like to use but it's a bit shady.

[vivie veg]

They love the shade as it keeps them cooler in the summer and they are slower to flower..you want to keep them growing rather than flower..they get very hot if you let them start flowering.

On the otherhand how shady is shady?

[Jenny Green]

The area is about ten feet from the wall of my north facing garden. I think it probably gets about 2 hours of sun in the summer. Heuchera, bergamot, woodruff and cowslips grow pretty well there.

[Guest]

Go for it Jenny, what have you to loss

Just to repeat what Allan has said, you can take cutting....If you buy Super-market packs you will probably see roots already growing, just cut that end of the shoot off, pot up and keep moist, as more shoots grow, harvest them saving some of the roots for more plants.

I used to keep mine in 9 inch pots, sitting in a paddling pool with a hole in the pool about 3 inches up. If the water level feel too much I would top it up. I know I have said this before, but don't know were.

[vivie veg]

Whoop, above guest was me, I forgot to log in again

PLease note fell not feel!

[Jenny Green]

Thanks Viv.