How to grow Mustard greens

Brassica juncea · leaf mustard, Indian mustard

Fast-growing cool-season leafy green with a peppery flavour, eaten raw in salads or cooked. It tolerates frost but can be damaged by a hard freeze; leaves can be picked young or the plant cut when mature.

Quick facts

Type	Vegetable
Family	Brassicaceae
Light	Full sun
Soil pH	6–7
Frost	tolerates light frost
Soil for sowing	from 7 °C
Germination	5 days
Sowing to harvest	40 days
Where it grows	Greenhouse, Open ground, At home

When to plant

It tolerates light frost: sow straight into the bed about three weeks before your last spring frost.

In an unheated greenhouse everything moves about three weeks earlier.

The first harvest comes about 40 days after the shoots appear.

Frost dates · When to plant

Care

Greenhouse

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Germination	every 2 days	—	—
Growth	every 3 days	—	nitrogen, at the start of the stage; nitrogen, 20 days into the stage
Harvest	every 2 days	—	nitrogen, at the start of the stage

Open ground

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Germination	every 3 days	—	—
Growth	every 4 days	—	nitrogen, at the start of the stage; nitrogen, 20 days into the stage
Harvest	every 3 days	—	nitrogen, at the start of the stage

At home

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Germination	every 2 days	—	—
Growth	every 2 days	—	nitrogen, at the start of the stage; nitrogen, 20 days into the stage
Harvest	every 2 days	—	nitrogen, at the start of the stage

Growing notes

Light

Best in full sun; tolerates partial shade.

Soil

Deep, well-drained, fertile soil rich in organic matter; pH 6–7.

Care

Sow 1 cm deep and thin to 5–10 cm apart. Keep the soil evenly moist and water in dry spells — heat and drought make the leaves tough and strong-flavoured. Feed nitrogen at sowing and again about 25 days later, and lightly after a cut to help new leaves. Pick outer leaves while young and tender or cut the whole plant. Spring sowings flower as the days grow long and warm, so harvest them before flower stalks form.

Pests and diseases of Mustard greens

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.