Blog
Vegetable of the Month: Arugula, aka rocket or roquette
By Rick Bogusch
This member of the mustard family is an annual, native to the Mediterranean basin and cultivated and escaped as a weed over much of the globe. Its peppery, slightly bitter leaves are enjoyed in salads and as a cooked green. In Asia, it is grown for its oil-rich seeds, which produce an oil similar to rapeseed oil.
From its basal rosette, arugula forms an 8-12-inch mound of deeply lobed, lyre-shaped leaves, rich in vitamins C, A and K. If allowed to bloom, creamy white, 4-petaled flowers with purple veins appear in summer on erect, 24-inch stalks. Like the leaves, these are edible and can also be added to salads or used as a garnish.
Arugula has been cultivated and used in cooking around the Mediterranean for centuries. In recent decades, its popularity has spread to Europe, the Americas, and Australia. It is used in herbal medicine as a diuretic and stimulant and to treat stomach ailments.
Easily grown in moist, fertile soils, arugula is tolerant of many conditions, including partial shade. It is very cold-hardy and can be harvested in winter if mulched or grown in tunnels or cool greenhouses. It will overwinter here in mild years without cover but quickly bolts when the weather warms.
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Flea beetles are a significant pest of arugula and many other crops. To avoid damage, it’s best to sow as soon as possible in late winter or early spring, when the soil warms to 45 degrees. Or grow arugula under a row cover or insect barrier to achieve a longer harvest period. At Bridge Gardens, we sow arugula every 2 weeks for continual harvest. It’s one of the first and last crops we sow and one of the last crops we harvest in fall. We cut about 1 inch above soil line when it’s 3-6 inches tall. We then fertilize generously with fish fertilizer and/or a side dressing of granular feed. In 7-14 days, we harvest again, repeat the process and cut for a third and final time.
Another tasty member of the mustard family is perennial wall rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia). This Mediterranean native has been wild harvested for food and medicine since ancient times and has long been cultivated in Italy as a salad green. Recently, it is becoming more widely grown in Europe, the U. S. and elsewhere and often sold as wild arugula.
Unlike arugula, wall rocket is perennial and can grow much larger, sometimes sprawling to a height of 3 feet, if not harvested. Flowers are numerous, small and yellow and appear all summer. A prolific self-seeder, perennial wall rocket can take over your garden if not controlled and is found naturally along roadsides, in meadows and old fields and on rocky hillsides around the world.
