Key Features
- Distinctive Variety: Wrinkled Cress is a fast-growing garden cress with deeply crinkled, ruffled leaves.
- Fresh Green Foliage: Produces attractive medium to dark green leaves with a crisp, textured appearance.
- Compact Growth: Well suited to containers, raised beds, window boxes, and small-space gardens.
- Peppery Flavor: Young leaves have the characteristic pleasantly pungent flavor associated with garden cress.
- Versatile Garden Crop: Excellent for salads, sandwiches, soups, garnishes, baby greens, and microgreens.
Growing Benefits
- Grows quickly, making it rewarding for gardeners who enjoy fresh greens.
- Performs well in containers and other small growing spaces.
- Can be harvested as tender baby greens or allowed to develop further.
- Cool-weather growth makes it useful for spring and fall gardening.
- Successive sowing can provide a continuing supply of fresh leaves.
Seed Specifications
- Common Name: Wrinkled Cress, Garden Cress, Pepper Grass
- Botanical Name: Lepidium sativum
- Plant Type: Annual leafy vegetable and culinary herb
- Colors: Green leaves; small white flowers
- Height: About six to twelve inches when grown for leafy harvest; plants allowed to mature fully may grow taller
- Sunlight: Full sun to partial shade
- Soil: Moist, fertile, well-drained soil
- Water: Regular moisture; avoid allowing soil to dry excessively
- Germination Time: About three to ten days under suitable conditions
- Sowing Depth: About one-quarter inch
- Spacing: Thin to about four to eight inches for larger plants; closer sowing is suitable for baby greens
- Growing Zones: Adaptable across a broad range of growing zones; best treated as a cool-season crop
- Flowering/Maturity: Baby leaves can be harvested within a few weeks; mature plants eventually produce small white flowers and seed pods
- Uses: Salads, sandwiches, soups, garnishes, baby greens, microgreens, and culinary dishes
Growing Tips
- Sow directly into the garden because cress is quick-growing and does not need extensive transplanting.
- Keep the soil evenly moist during germination and early growth.
- Grow during cooler weather for tender leaves and a milder flavor.
- Make successive sowings to maintain a continuous supply of young cress leaves.
Seed Storage
Keep unused seeds in their original sealed packet or an airtight container. Store them in a cool, dry, dark place away from humidity, heat, and direct sunlight. Make sure seeds remain completely dry during storage.
Unique Facts About Seeds
- Wrinkled Cress is a variety of garden cress, scientifically known as Lepidium sativum.
- Garden cress is also commonly known as pepper grass or pepper cress because of its distinctive peppery flavor.
- The deeply curled texture of Wrinkled Cress gives its leaves a distinctive appearance compared with smoother-leaved cress varieties.
- Cress is particularly well suited to cool weather, while hot conditions can encourage premature flowering and stronger-flavored leaves.