Rocket Salad Seeds

Rocket Salad grows quickly into broad, tender green leaves with a lively peppery and nutty-cress flavour for salads, sandwiches, pizza and garnishes.

Ready for a steady supply of tender, peppery leaves? Follow our step-by-step Rocket Grow Guide for Salad Rocket for sowing, germination, cool-season timing, repeat picking and bolting advice.

Quick Grow Facts

• Plant Type: Fast-growing cool-season annual leafy vegetable
• Scientific Name: Eruca sativa
• Seed Form: Raw seed; no pretreatment. Sow as supplied. Raw does not confirm untreated status, so follow the purchased packet.
• Available Pack Sizes: 10 g, 100 g and 500 g raw seed
• Best Sowing Time: Cool-season sowings from late summer through winter and into cool spring; use the coolest practical part of the packet’s spring-to-autumn window
• Position: Full sun in cool weather; morning sun or light afternoon shade as temperatures rise
• Sow Depth and Light: Cover with 1 cm of fine, loose medium as printed on the packet; no special darkness treatment; give bright light after emergence
• Germination: 7–14 days; aim for a seedbed around 10–18°C and keep it evenly moist, not saturated
• Spacing: 15 cm for full plants; 2–3 cm in rows 10–15 cm apart for an intensive baby-leaf cut
• Growth Form: Compact leafy annual rosette, about 30 cm before the later flowering stem develops
• Harvest: Begin checking from about four to six weeks; the packet allows 40–60 days
• Regrowth: Pick outside leaves or cut above the growing point for several light harvests; flowering ends the best leafy phase, so sow another short row every two to three weeks

Why Grow Rocket Salad?

• Quick annual growth suits short rows, containers and succession sowing.
• Broader, softer leaves are usually milder than Wild Sylvetta.
• Young leaves add fresh peppery flavour without taking much garden space.
• Sun or part shade makes it easy to place through the cooler months.

Garden and Kitchen Use

Grow a short row or 30 cm-wide container near the kitchen. Pick young leaves for salads, sandwiches, pizza, pasta and garnishes, or lightly wilt larger leaves into cooked dishes.

Growing Notes

• Direct sowing is easiest. Use clean trays only when flea beetles, slugs, heavy rain or drying wind make outdoor establishment unreliable.
• Keep the 1 cm cover fine and friable. Do not bury the seed deeper or let the surface crust.
• Maintain even moisture. Heat, drought, crowding and root restriction trigger early bolting and stronger, tougher leaves.
• Protect new rows with fine insect mesh before flea beetles arrive and seal the edges.
• No support or pinching is needed. Removing a first flower stem may briefly extend picking, but an old annual crop should be replaced.

Food and Seed Safety

Do not eat packet seed or use it for jar sprouts or microgreens unless the purchased lot is explicitly labelled for that use. Keep animals and raw manure away from the crop, use clean water and harvest tools, rinse leaves under potable running water, and do not use soap.

Brought to you by Ubuntuberg Seeds, where our mission is to cultivate humanity & harvest unity. Ubuntuberg Seeds: the highest quality seed stock in all of Southern Africa, sourced from sustainable farms, guaranteeing you the best quality seed stock.