Vegetablesalad leafStraightforward

Land cress

Barbarea verna

A hardy substitute for watercress that grows in ordinary damp ground rather than running water, with the same hot peppery flavour. It is at its best from autumn through winter, when there is very little else to pick, and it tolerates shade better than almost any other salad.

Position: Partial shade or Dappled shade or Full sun
Water: high demand
Drainage: Moisture-retentive, Tolerates wet ground
Grows to: 20–30 cm × 20 cm
Hardiness: H5
Harvest: May to February
Difficulty: Straightforward

August

Sow outdoors

Land cress’s year

Resolved for United Kingdom (general). Every window is stored against a climate event rather than a date, so a late frost pocket runs later than the band shows. What else August calls for.

Activity	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Sow outdoors			March.	April.			July.	August.	September.
Harvest	January.	February.			May.	June.				October.	November.	December.

Timing that travels

The band above resolves this plant's windows into months for one region. These are the windows themselves, stored against a climate event rather than a date — which is the form that survives being carried to a colder garden, a frost pocket, or next year.

Conditions it needs

Light: Partial shade, Dappled shade, Full sun
Frost: Very hardy
Hardiness rating: H5 (RHS)
Grows best at: 8–18 °C
Germinates at: 10–20 °C
Soil: Loam, Clay
Soil pH: 6–7
Drainage: Moisture-retentive, Tolerates wet ground
Water needs: high
Drought: poor tolerance
Waterlogging: good tolerance
Heat: poor tolerance
Wind and exposure: good tolerance

Where these figures come from

LightSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — position
Checked 2026-08-13
FrostSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — hardiness
Checked 2026-08-13
Hardiness ratingSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: RHS hardiness ratings
Checked 2026-08-13
Grows best atSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — temperature
Checked 2026-08-13
Germinates atSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Seed germination temperatures
Checked 2026-08-13
SoilSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
Soil pHSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Plant Finder — Missouri Botanical Garden: Barbarea verna — culture
Checked 2026-08-13
DrainageSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — soil
Checked 2026-08-13
Water needsHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
DroughtHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
WaterloggingHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
HeatHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Wind and exposureHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13

On your soil

Computed by comparing this plant's recorded requirements against each soil's recorded characteristics. A recorded horticultural fact overrides the comparison where GrowingHQ holds one.

Soil	Verdict	Why
Heavy clay	Prefers this soil	Heavy clay suits Land cress as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 6 to 7, and this soil is in that range. It tolerates ground that stays wet, which most crops do not. Clay is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering.
Sandy	Works, with one condition	Land cress will crop on sandy, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It has little drought tolerance and this soil dries out fast — it will check and bolt in the first dry spell without watering.Water and mulch will carry it through. On this soil the watering is not optional in a dry spell, which is the difference between a crop and a failure.
Chalky and alkaline	Struggles here	Land cress struggles on chalky and alkaline: The soil is substantially too alkaline for it: it wants pH 6 to 7, and this soil sits around 7.8 to 8.5. It has little drought tolerance and this soil dries out fast — it will check and bolt in the first dry spell without watering. A container or a raised bed of imported soil sidesteps the problem entirely.
Loam	Prefers this soil	Loam suits Land cress as it stands: The pH suits it: it wants 6 to 7, and this soil is in that range. Loam is among the soils it is recorded as suiting. The soil holds moisture, which saves a great deal of watering.
Silty	Grows well here	Land cress grows perfectly well on silty without special measures, though it is not the soil it would choose.
Peaty and acid	Grows well here	Land cress grows perfectly well on peaty and acid without special measures, though it is not the soil it would choose.
Shallow over rock	Works, with one condition	Land cress will crop on shallow over rock, but one thing has to be dealt with first. It has little drought tolerance and this soil dries out fast — it will check and bolt in the first dry spell without watering.Water and mulch will carry it through. On this soil the watering is not optional in a dry spell, which is the difference between a crop and a failure.
Made ground and urban soil	Grows well here	Land cress grows perfectly well on made ground and urban soil without special measures, though it is not the soil it would choose.

Not sure which you have? Four hand tests will settle it.

Space and spacing

Mature height: 20–30 cm
Mature spread: 20 cm
Rooting depth: 20 cm
Spacing: 15–20 cm apart

Where these figures come from

Mature heightHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Mature spreadHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Rooting depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
SpacingSourced guidancemoderate confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — spacing
Checked 2026-08-13

Measured centre to centre. Plants set closer than this compete for light and water long before they look crowded, and the crowding cannot be undone once they are in.

In a container

Minimum volume: 5 litres or more
Minimum depth: 15 cm

Where the container figures come from

Minimum volumeHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13
Minimum depthHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13

Where and how you can grow it

Each way of growing is assessed separately, and “not assessed” is a real answer rather than a gap we have filled in with a guess.

Method	Suitability	What it needs
Open ground	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Traditional dug bed	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Raised bed	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Container	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Cold frame	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13
Greenhouse	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board — AHDB: Winter salad leaves under protection Checked 2026-08-13
Polytunnel	Well suited source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board — AHDB: Winter salad leaves under protection Checked 2026-08-13
Hydroponics	Workable source Sourced guidancemoderate confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Growing method suitability Checked 2026-08-13

Growing it

WateringKeep the ground genuinely moist. Land cress is a watercress substitute and behaves like one — dry soil makes it bitter, coarse and quick to run to seed.
SowingSow in late summer for the crop that matters. It is at its best from October to February, when almost nothing else is worth picking.

Where this guidance comes from

WateringSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — care
Checked 2026-08-13
SowingSourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — care
Checked 2026-08-13

Is it worth putting under cover?

Whether it will grow there is on the methods table above. This is whether the space is well spent, which is a different question and usually the one being asked.

Structure	What protection is worth	What decides it
Greenhouse	Extends the season source GrowingHQ editorial positionmoderate confidence What protection is worth for this crop, judged against the same standard as every other record in this file. GrowingHQ editorial synthesis — GrowingHQ Checked 2026-08-13	Winter light. Hardy enough to stand outside; cover keeps the leaves clean and pickable through the wet months rather than keeping the plant alive.
Polytunnel	Extends the season source GrowingHQ editorial positionmoderate confidence What protection is worth for this crop, judged against the same standard as every other record in this file. GrowingHQ editorial synthesis — GrowingHQ Checked 2026-08-13	Winter light, and rain. A tunnel bed of winter salad is the cheapest useful thing a tunnel does.

Harvesting

When it is readyPick the outer leaves once the plant has made a rosette, from about eight weeks after sowing. Its value is in the months when nothing else is standing: leaves picked from October to March are the point of the crop, and the flavour is closest to watercress in cold weather.
How to pick itTake outer leaves and leave the centre to grow on. A plant picked this way stands through the winter; one cut across the top in cold weather usually does not recover.

Where the harvest guidance comes from

When it is readySourced guidancehigh confidence: Royal Horticultural Society: Land cress — harvesting
Checked 2026-08-13
How to pick itHorticultural consensusmoderate confidence: No external citation — see the evidence type above.
Checked 2026-08-13

Keep picking

Regular picking keeps this plant producing. Fruit or leaves left to mature signal it to slow down or stop.

What goes wrong

Problem	How often	Notes
Flea beetle	common source Sourced guidancehigh confidence Royal Horticultural Society: Flea beetle Checked 2026-08-13	Shot holes across every leaf of a summer sowing. An autumn or winter crop largely escapes it.
Slugs and snails	common source Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence No external citation — see the evidence type above. Checked 2026-08-13

Sources for this page

Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board · GrowingHQ editorial synthesis · Plant Finder · Royal Horticultural Society

Each figure on this page carries its own citation, under the “where these figures come from” note in its section. Record last reviewed 2026-08-14.

If something is wrong with it

Holes eaten in leaves — 2 causes GrowingHQ holds for land cress

Something else? Work through it with the diagnostic tool.