🌍 Built for UK, USA, Canada & Worldwide Gardens Free Growing Guides for Every Region Love It or Your Money Back Secure Checkout Instant PDF Download Checked Against RHS, USDA & Agri-Food Canada Data Free Garden Layout Planner
🌍 Built for UK, USA, Canada & Worldwide Gardens Free Growing Guides for Every Region Love It or Your Money Back Secure Checkout Instant PDF Download Checked Against RHS, USDA & Agri-Food Canada Data Free Garden Layout Planner
Move through the SoilCommander growing library like a course: keep the navigation in place, open the next lesson, and build your garden plan step by step.
Unlike an annual crop, the work here is front-loaded into establishment: get the planting and the site right and the same plants crop for several seasons.
Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.
PFAF: sow in spring under glass, only just covering the seed. Seedlings are prone to damping off, so avoid overwatering and keep them in a very sunny, well-ventilated position.
Pricking out and transplanting
2
PFAF: prick out seedlings into individual pots once large enough to handle, and do not plant out until all risk of frost has passed -- the plant "will be killed even by a light frost."
Establishment and growth
3
PFAF: grow on in full sun -- "cannot grow in the shade" -- in well-drained soil; genuinely tolerant of poor and even saline ground once established. PMC: independently confirms strong salt tolerance, with irrigation up to 35 dS/m (roughly seawater strength) showing no adverse effect on biomass.
Harvest
8
PFAF: pick the thick, succulent leaves and stems through summer as needed, eaten raw or cooked as a spinach substitute. First frost ends the season for this half-hardy annual.
Prefers well-drained soil (PFAF); tolerates light/sandy, medium/loamy or heavy/clay soils, mildly acid to mildly alkaline, and genuinely saline conditions -- PMC: irrigation up to 35 dS/m (roughly seawater salinity) showed no adverse effect on biomass.
Lifecycle
PFAF: a true perennial in its native range, but "not very hardy in Britain and will be killed even by a light frost" -- grown here as a half-hardy annual, sown under glass and set out after the last frost.
When to pick: PFAF: pick leaves and stems as needed once plants are established and growing strongly through summer -- they are thick and succulent with a slightly salty tang, best used while young and crisp.
Storage
Best eaten fresh, as for other tender succulent salad leaves; PFAF also notes the leaves can be pickled.
PFAF: tolerates light, medium or heavy soils and genuinely saline conditions -- confirmed independently by a peer-reviewed trial finding irrigation up to 35 dS/m (roughly seawater strength) had no adverse effect on biomass.
The tiny, glistening, water-filled bladder cells covering the leaves and stems are what give this plant its common name -- they catch the light like scattered ice crystals.
Habitat: maritime sands and salt marshes, South Africa; naturalised southern Europe. Hardiness: USDA zones 8-11, UK hardiness zone 9 -- "not very hardy in Britain and will be killed even by a light frost," grown as a half-hardy annual. Soil: light/sandy, medium/loamy or heavy/clay, prefers well-drained, tolerates mildly acid to mildly alkaline and saline soils. Sun: full sun only, "cannot grow in the shade." Moisture: prefers dry or moist soil. Propagation: sow spring under glass, only just covering the seed; prick out into individual pots; transplant outdoors after the last frost; seedlings prone to damping off, avoid overwatering, keep in a very sunny, well-ventilated position. Size: perennial in native range, growing to 0.1m height by 0.5m spread. Edible use: leaves and stems eaten raw or cooked as a spinach substitute, thick and succulent with a slightly salty tang; also pickled or used as a garnish; fruit and seed also used. Medicinal use: demulcent and diuretic, used for inflammation of pulmonary and genito-urinary mucous membranes. Pests/diseases: young plants prone to root rot and damping off.
Controlled cultivation trial (soilless system, LED lighting, growth chambers) comparing wild (Almeria, Spain, coastal) and cultivated ice plant. Salinity: three nutrient-solution electrical conductivity levels tested (3.0, 4.0, 6.0 dS/m); separately reports that irrigation solutions of up to 35 dS/m had no adverse effect on biomass production, demonstrating strong halophyte tolerance. Temperature: plants grown at a constant 20-22C. Light: LED lamp type affected biomass, with horticultural-spectrum lamps (NS1, AP67 Valoya) outperforming standard white LED. Yield: fresh plant mass 124-138g per plant depending on treatment, higher under higher salinity. Growing window: cultivation ran between May and July 2022 (about 2-3 months). Edible use: leaves described as having a "crispy, salty, and slightly sour flavor," eaten raw in salads, used to season seafood, or cooked. No pest or disease information given (a controlled-environment study, not an open-field/garden account).
2 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What problems affect ice plants?
Our data links 2 diseases to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.
Plan next season before the problems start
This page gives you the thresholds; the planner turns them into your own calendar. It works from what you can observe and measure in your garden rather than from dates written for somebody else’s latitude.
Science-based growing guides · Thresholds that hold in any climate
This guide states the conditions the plant itself responds to — soil temperature, frost tolerance, day length — rather than dates, because the same calendar month means opposite seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres. Anything genuinely restricted to one part of the world is named as such rather than presented as universal. Written and maintained by our editorial team against international horticultural research and extension sources.
Sketch your exact plot shape, pick your crops, and get a spacing-accurate bed layout with companion pairings and a rotation plan. Spacing, companion pairings and rotation are the same in every climate and both hemispheres — pair the layout it gives you with when to plant to set your own timing from soil temperature.
