What you need to know if you’re considering farming cress. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
Wikipedia Image/CC BY-SA 3.0
Cress is also known as pepperwort, peppergrass, pepper cress, and garden cress. The leafy green is an annual and belongs to the Brassica family of vegetables, though it has a distinct, decidedly non-brassica, flavor. It’s often grown as a micro green and used in salads.
Once cress starts to produce little tiny white flowers, the plant becomes bitter and unpalatable. It grows quickly, so it’s key to harvest before then. And, when it’s a few inches tall. Water cress requires wet growing conditions, which may prove difficult in drought-prone areas.
Cress prefers to be planted next to chive, onion and mint. It does not do well next to lettuce. Some issues farmers may face when growing Cress, include flea beetles, black rot, downy mildew and anthracnose.
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