Rocket is an easy to grow salad crop.
It adds a lovely pepper flavour to salads. Leaves can also be lightly cooked as a delicious spinach substitute.
Crops will be ready to pick in about four weeks. Late summer sowings will carry on cropping into the winter if the plants are protected by cloches or similar.
Sow from April to August in any fertile, well-drained soil. Sow thinly, 6mm (0.25in) deep in rows spaced 45-60cm (18-24in) apart.
When the seedlings are large enough to handle thin out to 23-30cm (9-12in) apart.
Keep the soil moist and the plants growing well to prevent premature running to seed (bolting).
Rocket is best eaten when the leaves are young. Pick the leaves individually or treat as a cut-and-come-again crop. Pick leaves over the whole row rather than just one or two plants. As the flower buds appear pinch them out to prolong cropping.
