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Gardening in Canada

growing grocery store cress

17 years ago

I got some cress from the grocery store and one of the pieces had roots forming at several of the leaf nodes. I like cress, and it's sometimes hard to find, so what the heck, why not give it a try? Besides which, I like to try anything once :-)

So has anyone grown this? I assume the stuff I bought was grown hydroponically, but will it grow in a pot of dirt? Does it have to be wet, boggy dirt, or can it be grown like many other greens?

BP

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Comments (8)

ianna
17 years ago
I understand they can grow easily. Aren't these normally located near streams or the other wet areas?

Ianna
bonniepunch
Original Author
17 years ago
I gather cress can be fairly invasive in streams, and that they need a fairly moist bit of soil to grow in if you're going to grow in in soil. But I'm curious about pots. I'm going to try it anyway, but I don't know if I can give it what it needs to grow well. Maybe if I place the pot into a tray of pebbles and keep water in that...

Experimenting is half the fun :-)

BP
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ianna
17 years ago
but of course it's fun. I actually have a propagation book which I can consult but it's not handy at the moment. I'd say just go ahead and do your planting anyway.

propagating things from the grocery is one of my most favorite thing to do. I've got a good sized meyer lemon plant grown from a seed taken from a grocery bought fruit.

Ianna
bonniepunch
Original Author
17 years ago
I have Ken Druse's 'Making More Plants', but cress isn't in there. I'd love to hear if your book has any info about it.

Grocery store gardening is great fun!I grew some ginger a couple of years ago - I had a pretty big clump of it in the fall. I've done sweet potatoes, lemon grass, and garlic (and inadvertently, pineapple tops in the compost!). I had several grapefruit trees grown from seed (not quite grocery store gardening, as the original grapefruit cane from my aunt's tree), but I got tired of the constant scale battle, so I turfed them.

BP
jroot
17 years ago
Bonnie,

Last year, I got some cress from the grocery store, and it was too much for my wife to use, so I stuck it into the waterfall area of my pond. Before long, there were long roots and cress growing prolificly. Yet indeed you can grow it,....until frost gets it.
ianna
17 years ago
I hadn't the chance to check my book last night and besides the home computer was in use. But, I see that you have your answer on the best way to root the plant. It loves water.
mapleleaf01
17 years ago
When we were kids one of our favourite things to do was to grow cress on an old sponge! we then made cress sandwiches with mayo when the cress could be cut with a scissors, it continued to grow as long as we remembered to add water. usually we forgot after we had a few feeds!
bonniepunch
Original Author
17 years ago
So I wound up tossing the piece of cress into a basin of water I have a pot of Callas sitting in - and it seems to be happy! It's already putting out growth from each leaf node, and I'm thinking I should break it into a couple of pieces and spread some more into another basin...

This basin gets flooded daily, so I assume the water won't be too stagnant for it. If it can grow on a sponge, then it should be fine where it is :-)

BP

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