Mustard greens are easy to grow and remarkably healthy for you, even containing anti-cancer compounds. Though it’s not as cold-hardy as kale or collards, mustard will stand quite a bit of frost before dying, down into the mid-twenties. In fact, they’ll bolt if planted in warm weather. In central FL, you can plant them around November and harvest leaves through the winter.
Mustard germinates in about a month. If you cut off leaves, they’ll keep producing new ones.
Photos and descriptions from Burpee Catalog.
Classification
Family
Related species
Cultivars
Florida Broadleaf Mustard
A southern favorite. One of the first greens in spring.
Lahav Mustard
Delicious when harvested young or when full-grown. Vibrant green fringed-leaf mizuna has a mild tang and is excellent fresh or lightly stir-fried. Harvest as baby or mature leaf.
Miz America Hybrid Mustard
Red mizuna mustard with exceptional leaf color, shape and size.
Mizuna Mustard
Bright green, serrated leaves of Japanese mustard add pizzazz to salads. This Japanese mustard, reputedly Indian in origin, has a mild, slightly peppery taste. The heirloom’s leaves add pizzazz to gourmet mixed-green salads and are delicious sauteed or stir-fried. Bright green and heavily serrated, the leaves have a picturesque feathery look that adds interest to the garden bed. Heat-tolerant.
Red Giant Mustard
Organic, fast-maturing “greens” boasting beautiful, savoyed, dark red leaves with light green undersides.
Giant Red Japanese mustards make bold, versatile ornamental edibles. Upright, large rosettes up to 18″ tall, are very colorful, with deep red purplish savoy leaves edged and veined pale green. Easy to grow in spring, fall and winter gardens, these grow well mixed with flowers, herbs and other vegetables. The unique spicy flavor adds zest to a variety of dishes. Picked young, it makes delightful garnishes and spices up mesclun mixes. Excellent braised or steamed, in salads or stir-fries. Use like spinach or chard. Harvest whole heads or pick individual leaves.
Sefiron Mustard
Segal Mustard
Sow over multiple weeks for continuous harvest. Green to purple leaves are a great cut-and-come again addition to the spring and fall garden.
Days To Maturity : 35-45 days
Sun: Full Sun
Spread : 12-18 inches
Height : 12-18 inches
Planting Time: Fall, Spring
Life Cycle: Annual
Southern Giant Curled Mustard
All-America Selections winner for 1935 and long-time southern favorite with mild, mustardy flavor.
Days To Maturity: 50-70 days
Life Cycle: Annual
Tatsoi Mustard
Cold-hardy Asian variety you can harvest in the snow. Tatsoi, a long-time Asian staple, forms dense rosettes of mild mustardy-flavored leaves. Enjoy the leaves raw or stir-fried. Crunchy and flavorful, the midribs have a bright, celeryesque taste. Extremely cold-hardy. (Probably not for Florida.)
HEIRLOOM. One of the mildest mustards.
Characteristics
- edible
- edible leaves
- edible seeds
- edible flowers
- low maintenance
- cold tolerant
- frost tolerant
- some varieties heat tolerant
- cold-season green
- insecticidal
- fast growing
- conditions soil
- suppresses weeds
Description
Planting season
Sept – March
Growing season
Throughout winter and spring
Blooming season
summer
Harvesting season
Through the winter and spring. Some varieties can be harvested in the summer.
Lifespan
Annual
Uses
- Insecticide: Mustard can kill nematodes when used as a green manure. Hack some into the soil as soon as it starts bolting in the spring, then plant something else in the bed.
- If you let the plant go to seed, you can make your own delicious mustard from the resulting seeds.
Planting and Growing
How to Sow
- For optimum flavor, grow in cool weather.
- Prepare the bed by turning the soil under to a depth of 8 inches. Level with a rake to remove clumps of grass and stones.
- Sow in average well-worked soil in full sun. Do not plant where members of the cabbage family were planted in the past two years. Plant in early spring and again in midsummer for a fall crop.
- In rows 24 inches apart, sow seeds evenly and cover with ½ inch fine soil. Firm lightly and water gently.
- Seedlings emerge in 10-21 days depending on soil and weather conditions.
- For continuous harvest, sow every 14 days until the weather becomes hot.
- Thin gradually to stand 12 inches apart starting when seedlings are about 1-2 inches high.
How to Grow
- Keep weeds under control during the growing season. Weeds compete with plants for water, space and nutrients, so control them by either cultivating often or use a mulch to prevent their seeds from germinating. Avoid disturbing the soil around the plants when weeding.
- Keep plants well watered during dry periods to promote rapid, uninterrupted growth. Plants need about 1 inch of rain per week during the growing season. Use a rain gauge to check to see if you need to add water. It’s best to water with a drip or trickle system that delivers water at low pressure at the soil level. If you water with overhead sprinklers, water early in the day so the foliage has time to dry off before evening, to minimize disease problems. Keep the soil moist but not saturated.
- Monitor for pests and diseases. Check with your local Cooperative Extension Service for pest controls recommended for your area.
Harvest and Preserving Tips
- Harvest young foliage when it reaches 6-8 inches long, about 45 days after sowing.
- Pick the lower leaves or harvest the entire plant at once before the foliage becomes too tough.
- For a fall harvest, pick after a light frost as the frost improves the flavor.
- Stop picking once plants flower as the leaves will become bitter-tasting. Flowers are also edible.
- Mustard is great for salads or as cooked greens. You can also boil or sauté the foliage.
- Refrigerate the harvest to preserve until used.
- You can also blanch and freeze the leaves. They may also be pickled.
Requirements
Hardiness zone
Sun
full
Planting
When to plant
Plant around November in central FL.
Harvesting
Cut leaves throughout the growing season. The plants will produce new leaves.
Diseases/Pests
Cautions
Landscape Planning
Notes from the Jungle
Ownership
10/27/18 Bought a bunch of unpedigreed seeds from Home Depot.
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE 