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Rocket

Peppery salad leaves in three weeks from seed, the fastest food in the garden.

1. Sow thinly in a band or short row, 1 cm deep.
2. Water gently and expect seedlings in 4 to 7 days.
3. Thin to 10 cm if you want big leaves, or leave dense for baby-leaf cutting.
4. Start cutting at 8 cm tall with scissors, 3 cm above the crown.
5. Water immediately after each cut and it regrows in 10 to 14 days.
6. Expect 3 cuts, then pull and resow.
7. Skip June to August in hot zones, rocket bolts within days in heat.

Soil

Any soil, pH 6.0 to 7.0. It is a weed at heart and needs no richness.

Sun

Full sun in spring and autumn, part shade in summer.

Water

Little and often, 15 mm a week. Dry soil makes it bolt and turn fiercely hot.

Spacing

10 cm apart for full leaves, or sow a dense band for cutting

Depth

1 cm deep

Care

['Keep it damp, that single habit decides whether it is mild or unpleasantly hot.', 'No feeding needed, though a weak liquid feed after the second cut helps.', 'Sow every 2 to 3 weeks, it goes over fast.', 'Wild rocket is slower and more perennial, but far more bolt-resistant in summer.']

Harvesting

Cut with scissors as a whole band, or pick individual leaves. Young leaves are mild, older ones are strong. Flower buds and flowers are edible and good in salad.

Storing

3 to 5 days in the fridge, washed and dried in a bag with kitchen paper. Does not freeze usefully. Treat it as a pick-and-eat crop.

Grow it next to

Lettuce, spinach and bush beans. Do not follow other brassicas in the same soil.

Problems

[{'cause': 'Flea beetle, which loves rocket above all brassicas', 'fix': 'Cover with fine mesh from the day you sow and keep the surface damp.', 'symptom': 'Leaves riddled with pinholes'}, {'cause': 'Heat, long days or dry soil', 'fix': 'Sow in spring and autumn only, in part shade, and keep watered.', 'symptom': 'Bolts to flower in a fortnight'}, {'cause': 'Drought stress or over-mature leaves', 'fix': 'Water more and cut younger, at 8 to 10 cm.', 'symptom': 'Leaves unbearably hot'}, {'cause': 'Overcrowding in a dense band', 'fix': 'Thin to 5 cm and cut the stand harder.', 'symptom': 'Yellow lower leaves and stunted plants'}]

Saving your own seed

Very easy. Let one plant bolt, dry the slim pods on the plant, and crush them out. It crosses with other rocket only, and a single plant gives thousands of seeds.

Containers

Ideal container crop. A 15 cm deep tray gives three cuts. Sow a new tray every fortnight.