Rocket – Wasabi
€1.80
Description
Rocket – Wasabi is an exciting new type of rocket which has a strong taste similar to horseradish and wasabi. It’s a wild rocket type but is more vigorous. It’s best to harvest rocket Wasabi as a baby leaf.
Rocket Wasabi and all Oriental brassicas are excellent from late summer onwards right through the winter if grown under protection. Because they are very prone to flea beetle attacks in spring they are best avoided unless grown under a fleece.
Sowing:
Sow small amounts every 3 weeks from late June until late September. Rocket wasabi seeds can be sown directly into the ground or into modular trays (5 seeds per cell) and can be planted out 4 weeks after sowing.
Spacing:
Between rows: 25cm
Between plants in the row: 25cm (5 seedlings per station)
Approx seed count: 350sds
Soil and site:
Any moderately fertile and moisture-retentive soil is suitable, preferably in a sheltered position.
Sowing:
Oriental salads grows best in the cooler parts of the year. As the days get longer the plants quickly run to seed.
Seeds can be sown directly in early spring as soon as the soil can be worked or even in late summer or early autumn. The plants are quite hardy and can cope with a few degrees of frost. Because plants are quite short-lived, sow in succession of about two to three weeks.
Seeds can also be sown in modules (4 seeds per cell) and later transplanted. It is important that the seedlings never get stressed (through irregular watering or being pot bound) as this will definitely cause the plants to bolt.
Potential problems:
Flea beetles are the worst enemy of the oriental brassica salads but they do not affect the non brassica salads. They are tiny jumping beetles which eat hundreds of little round holes into the leaves especially in the spring. You may find that you can’t grow them in spring or early summer in your garden unless you protect them throughout their entire life with a fleece or bionet. The late summer and autumn sowings should be safer.
