Last edited on November 02, 2026. View history
Rocket
The mainstay of salads during spring and autumn, easy to grow and fast to the eating stage. Larger leaves are also tasty stir fried, and the nutty-tasting flowers can go in salads. Direct sow by sprinkling into prepared beds, covering while germinating to keep birds off. Repeated harvesting delays it going to seed.
- 4
- plantings
- 1
- harvest
- 3
- seed packets
Rocket facts
Lifespan
Grown for
seed harvested 1 timeCrop cycle
Optimal light
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For rocket, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 8°C and a shortest growing cycle of 70 days at its best temperature, about 840 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your rocket will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow rockets
Sunniness
Planted from
Harvested for
Photos
Rocket plantings
Video
Where rockets grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about rockets
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Who's planted rockets
- Doveoscar Upper greenhouse · Wing,...
- Batchelor Vertical · Auckland, NZ
- shiny The Deck · Wellington, NZ
Rocket harvests
-
shiny harvested not specified.
almost 7 years ago
Find rocket seeds
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 70 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Eruca sativa Miller
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Capparales Cruciferae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect, acaulescent (or rosette plants) |
| Optimal soil depth | shallow (20-50 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
Learn more about rockets
Resources outside Growstuff.