Lettuce lovers: Plant Arugula!!!!!!

[jmoore]

I planted a succession planting last week and it's already about 1" tall. I should be flush with Arugula and Mesclun for a good while.

I think this is the most successful plant in my garden this year!

[gixxerific]

I planted a succession planting last week and it's already about 1" tall. I should be flush with Arugula and Mesclun for a good while.

I think this is the most successful plant in my garden this year!

I believe it is in mine as well. You can't seem to stop it. That's good though no bug or pest are bothering the arugula so I can pick off it every day if I want.

[catlady65]

Hi, I am a newbie here... just wanted to let you knoe I have planted arrugula both in containers and in the ground - the ones in the ground grew much taller and were more productive than those in containers, at least here in Los Angeles. Hope this helps.

[valley]

I planted a mix that has arugula also. I also planted a couple other mustards.


Richard

[veggiedan]

Be advised that while arugula has a nice nutty taste, it can have a very spicy aftertaste. If you don't like hot peppers (and I mean relatively mild ones like anaheim or serranos), you won't like arugula. I like the stuff, but my wife does not, for that reason.

[imafan26]

Arugula is easy to grow. It is best to plant it in cool weather and eat it young. Then it does not taste as bitter. As it ages and when it gets hot it gets more bitter. The smell of arugula is also distinctive. To me, it smells like sesame. I grow it for my friends, I can only eat it when it is young. I don't like it once it gets bitter.

[erins327]

I grow about 4-5 arugulas every winter here in Central Texas. And those 4-5 give me more than enough to eat on mixed with my other greens. However this year it got really attacked by the arugula flea beetle? Anyone have encounters with that? It didnt kill it, but surely made the leaves look like swiss cheese!

[RogueRose]

I WISH I could grow arugula all year round!!! I love the stuff! It tastes SOOO much better to grow yourself than the stuff you get from the store. It's so much 'lighter' and just more complex than the stuff in the store. It is easy as heck to grow and all the animals hate it. It just gets too hot and humid to grow here during the summer and bolts pretty fast and gets too bitter. I have a salad that I LOVE to make that is a homemade (simple) dressing with chive flowers, avocado, and shaved parmesan.

The dressing:

lemon, evoo, garlic, salt, pepper


sooooo goooood

[hendi_alex]

I grow arugula through the entire summer here in S.C. The trick about bolting is to make another planting in the late spring or early summer. When planted that late, the plants will not usually bolt. Another trick is to make several plantings a few weeks apart. Young fast growing arugula tolerates the heat and stays milder than is the case with older plants. My over wintered arugula bolted very early, but we replanted in early spring. That arugula was planted so early, in very cool weather, and it bolted early also. Even after bolting, the leaves are still good for harvest as long as you don't mind a little pepper flavor. As soon as flower heads started showing on our second planting, we planted a third planting. It should be ready to start harvesting in about another week. We are still getting a limited harvest from the older plants, to blend with other salad greens. I'll start a fourth planting in early fall, about 60 days before the first frost. Arugula will do well in the winter down to mid twenties, and covered it would probably do well to even colder temperatures.

[!potatoes!]

I was quite excited to find two new varieties the other day at seeds savers exchange. They have a variety called 'Apollo' which is an improved form of 'Rocket' that has a milder flavor. They also have a variety named 'Sylvetta ' which is slower to bolt in the summer.

just to add to the confusion...

there is an arugula variety named 'sylvetta', but there is also a related plant (same family, different genus) called 'sylvetta' or 'sylvetta arugula' that's a shrub-forming perennial to zone 7... somewhat smaller leaves, rich arugula flavor. and perennial. good stuff. seeds are available a few places. Diplotaxis muralis / tenuifolia.

/advocating perennial vegetables

...speaking of which, I've been really excited about my turkish rocket (Bunias orientalis) plants this year. another perennial relative. similar arugula flavor, but this one looks like a fuzzy dandelion. good flavor, but the texture of the leaves isn't exactly...refined. but in the spring, they send up a bunch of little raab-type flower buds, which are quite nice. perennial broccoli-raab, basically. well-established plants can make a lot of food. my little two-year-old plants have produced 8 or 9 little raabs each so far and are hinting at more (though I've left some going in hopes of seed)...

...I like that regular arugula, too, just sayin'