Watercress for winter

[alan refail]

I have written before about my success with watercress over the winter. Again I have two polystyrene boxes planted and growing well. I couldn't find a bunch of cress to buy this year with enough good roots showing. Fortunately I found just a couple of plants which had grown from seed shed by last year's crop. I cut these up and planted a dozen rooted stems in multipurpose. We are now getting a regular cut from these and they have already yielded enough stems to plant a second box.
If anyone is interested in growing a great winter salad have a look at this article which inspired me.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
I know Allan and myself had our differences over the years but dear God I miss him. Off forum we were actually quite good friends.
JB.

[John]

Hello Alan
I plant up shop bought water cress in the late autumn each year. I simply treat it as you would plant cuttings and put the short, thicker and stronger shoots into a good compost and they root very quickly. If you really want roots before planting up then they will root up very quickly in glass of water on the kitchen windowsill.
The pickings from established plants make an excellent addition to a mix of salad leaves all through the winter and all for the cost of a supermarket bag.

John

[Johnboy]

I have not grown Watercress for a considerable time but I used to grow it through the spring and summer as well. If by chance you have more crop than you can deal with I found it best to take further cuttings and as they come on retire the older plants.
I have grown using Allan's method during the winter but during the summer I used to grow on the outside benches in 9cm sq pots standing in trays part filled with gravel with the tray lifted at one end but about half an inch and every time the bench was watered the water would be changed as it runs out of the lower part of the tray. It is absolutely staggering the amount of root that they make. I used to feed them diluted FYM about every other week they do not need anything strong. Tip out some of the water in the gravel tray and substitute with the dilute and then do not water for a day or so then allow the water to start flowing again when watering. Works a treat.
JB.

[Primrose]

My question about watercress is a different one - how on earth do you keep it fresh and crisp once picked? We can buy beautiful bunches but whether I keep the roots in water or keep the bunch in a polythene bag in the fridge, it goes limp very quickly. Any magic solutions?

[alan refail]

Hi Primrose

That's precisely why we grow it. I have no answer to keeping bought fresh

[Primrose]

I was surprised, when my husband came home with some watercress bought from a market staffl today, to see that the leaves were different from the usual rounded leaves one associates with watercress. The leaves were pointed and rather frilly, looking rather like miniature tomato leaves. The watercress has the same flavour but it's the first time I've ever seen it with with "pointed" leaves and wonder if this is a new variety.

[alan refail]

Primrose

I wonder if it was land cress (Barbarea verna. I heard an outcry from a Hampshire traditional grower that land cress was being grown under cover and sold as watercress.

American land cress.jpg (105.42 KiB) Viewed 7497 times

[Primrose]

No Alan, the leaves were more pointed than this. If I can get my husband to take a photo and we can work out how to post a photo on here before it all gets eaten, I'll do so.

[goldilox]

Hi Primrose,
In answer to your question about how to keep watercress fresh, the best thing I've found is as soon as I get it home I cut a bit off the bottom of the stems and then put them in water on the windowsill, changing the water every day. They still don't last a long time, but they do last a while longer.
Hope that helps a bit.
I also plant the stems too for some free pickings.
Chris

[Primrose]

Well unfortunately the watercress all got eaten before I had the chance to try and get it photographed but perhaps there'll be another opportunity for this if we can get some more from the same source. As it's quite expensive to buy, it needs to be eaten while it's still nice and fresh.
Is there anybody on here who sows and harvests a regular crop of landcress? We have lots of the hairy bittercress weed growing in our garden. It's strange that we never seemed to have this plant/weed growing until one year I sprinkled some landcress seed all around our borders for random picking. It seeded quickly and never really achieved anything that was worth eating but since there we've had hairy bittercress everywhere. I'm wondering whether, as I believe it's of the same familly, some plants have the ability to revert/regress back to a wilder state?

[Elle's Garden]

I have just bought 2 lovely fresh bunches of watercress from our greengrocers and one has lots of roots on the stems, so I would really like to give planting some out a go. I have read carefully through the other link (thanks Alan) and am reasonably confident about how to go about it.

Just one question, I don't have a polystyrene box so I am looking to use a largish pot with a tray for the water - of whatever shape and suitability I can find. I have a fairly large window ledge outside my bedroom window where I have very successfully grown cherry tomatoes in the past and this would be convenient for keeping a daily eye on the water level but, is the idea of the polystyrene to protect the plants from frost?

Therefore should I be looking to keep my pots in the greenhouse instead?

Sorry, that turn out to be 2 questions,

[alan refail]

Hi Elle

A confession: my two polystyrene boxes of watercress in the tunnel were killed by temperatures down to -10C over long periods this winter

I'll be getting some going again now the weather is better.

Any large pot will be fine, but try for frost-free location for a while yet. Maybe greenhouse first then move outside.

Alan

[Elle's Garden]

Thanks Alan, I had put them in the greenhouse in anticipation of advice, so I will leave them there and see what happens.

Sorry to hear about yours

[alan refail]

Much more successful with a much milder winter. I still have about five boxes growing - showing signs of going to seed. But where it spills over onto the border soil it roots readily and grows extremely quickly and lush. We are eating large bunches every day. I have just planted another box of cuttings to see if I can keep it going through the summer, or whether it will just go to seed - which I suspect it will.