Watercress ?

[Robert2502]

I've got a small river at the bottom of my garden which is located amid farm land on all sides in Buckinghamshire, the bank is shallow and muddy and could be turned into what I imagine is a watercress bed.

Anyone know how I can achieve a low maintenance supply of wild watercress ?

[Mr Bones]

Watercress is prone to harbouring liver fluke. If there are water snails present or if livestock are near the water the cress will need to be well cooked before eating (e.g. soup ). Might be safer to grow it in the garden using a poorly drained container filled with a mix of soil, MPC and grit.
Watercress can be grown from seed or buy a pack of supermarket ready to eat, select a few healthy looking stems and drop them in a glass of water until they root.

[Small pumpkin]

I grow it from seed in an old stone sink.
We have a lot of fluke around here, so wouldn't harvest any wild watercress.

[Mr Bones]

Just a thought, American (or land) cress has the taste of watercress but without the risk of fluke.

[Nannysally99]

I grow watercress in a builders bucket, easy to grow

[Bren In Pots]

I grow it from seed in an old stone sink.
We have a lot of fluke around here, so wouldn't harvest any wild watercress.

I grow watercress in a builders bucket, easy to grow

I've got some seeds so I'll give them a go thanks for the tips

[veggiechicken]

I've grown it in an old water tank kept beneath the GH guttering that dripped onto it whenever it rained.
Must do it again!!
Thanks for the reminder.
BTW there's a spring fed stream just beyond my garden fence in a field grazed by horses and sometimes sheep. I've thought about growing into it.......but not watecrress because of the risks.

[burnie]

I tried land cress years back and found it almost un edible, I didn't think it was remotely like water cress(one of my all time favourite salads)

[veggiechicken]

I like Landcress and always have some in the GH (it selfseeds) - adds a bit of pep to a lettuce leaf.

[jdlondon]

same here. really, really hot. much too strong and peppery for me.

i'll give it a go with supermarket watercress rooting in water.. never thought about it.

[jdlondon]

so just soggy soil? it doesn't have to be running water?

[Mr Bones]

so just soggy soil? it doesn't have to be running water?

Just in a container is fine. It'll grow without running water although you might need to cover it. I grew some in a large bowl of water which blackbirds insisted on using as a bath (despite there being a proper bird bath a few feet away ) so I moved the bowl nearer the house and filled it with soggy soil, grit etc and the blackbirds took great delight turfing through it sending the watercress flying. In the end I left it for their amusement.

[Robert2502]

OK, I'll ditch the idea of my own watercress beds, and grow it in a container, next pack of it I buy I'll try to get it to root.

[veggiechicken]

If buying supermarket watercress with a view to rooting it, have a good look at the bag contents first. You need some decent stalks in there - not just little sprigs of leaves.
We used to buy watercress with roots in bunches, but I haven't seen that for sale for years.

[Ocelot]

I've grown watercress from supermarket plants - they do fine and grow really quickly. Any straggling stem roots readily in water (in about a week in the summer - much quicker than mint).