How to Grow Winter Cresses USA
On this page
Winter cress (Barbarea vulgaris) — biennial or short-lived perennial.
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.
Winter Cress (Barbarea vulgaris)
2 sources cited · Verified
Soil & Growing Conditions
Water: moist conditions preferred; needs more water than Land Cress to stay leafy (NC State Extension, Gardenista)
Growth Stages
| Stage | BBCH | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sowing | 0 | Propagate by seed; readily self-seeds (NC State Extension). |
| Basal rosette (year one) | 1 | Forms a basal rosette of shiny, dark green, compound pinnate leaves in its first year (NC State Extension). |
| Cut-and-come-again leaf harvest | 3 | Kept cut back and not allowed to bloom, produces leaves through the year -- needs consistent moisture (Gardenista). |
| Flowering (year two) | 6 | Flowers mid-spring to early summer in its second year, golden-yellow racemes blooming about a month (NC State Extension). |
Quick Facts
| Factor | Value |
|---|---|
| Soil texture | clay, loam or sandy soil, prefers fertile loam or clay-loam (NC State Extension) |
| Drainage | well-drained or moist |
| Lifecycle | biennial or short-lived perennial |
| Edible parts | leaves |
At a Glance
Harvest & Storage
When to pick: Harvest young leaves, peppery like watercress, before the plant is allowed to bloom -- kept cut back, it produces leaves through the year (Gardenista). Leaves and flowering habit are hardy through winter, giving the plant its common name (NC State Extension).
Diseases
Pests
Winter Cress, a Different Species from Land Cress
Plan your Winter Cresses planting
When to sow and plant Winter Cresses depends on your own frost dates. Check the USA vegetable planting calendar. To work out where it fits in your beds, sketch your plot in the free Garden Layout Planner.
Growing Winter Cress in another region
Sowing dates, frost timing and local advice differ by country. Use the guide for where you garden.
Sources
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A perennial or biennial herb native to Europe and Japan in the mustard family, growing naturally in moist places, roadsides, stream banks and hedges. USDA zones 5a-9b. Full sun (6+ hrs) or partial shade (2-6 hrs). Soil: clay, loam or sandy; pH acidic to neutral; good drainage or moist conditions; prefers fertile loam or clay-loam, less vigorous in poor dry sites. Erect herbaceous habit, forms a basal rosette in year one, flowers mid-spring to early summer in year two. Golden-yellow, mildly fragrant, four-petaled flowers under 1 inch across, in racemes, blooming about a month. Edible young leaves are shiny, dark green, compound pinnate, glossy with dentate margins. Propagated by seed, readily self-seeds, occasionally forms colonies. No known diseases or insect pests documented. Contains saponins -- consuming quantities of leaves can affect kidney function; non-toxic to cats/dogs but problematic for horses.
These source is specific to this region. The full list of 2 sources behind this guide (Gardenista, NC State Extension) is in the references of our UK guide to winter cress; they describe the plant itself, which is the same wherever it grows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What problems affect winter cress?
Our data links 1 disease and 1 pest to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.
Plan next season before the problems start
Almost everything on this page resolves to your own frost dates rather than the calendar — the last spring frost moves by roughly two months between zone 3 and zone 10. The USA Garden Planner works from your zone so the timing is already decided before the season starts.
Get the USA Garden Planner →Instant PDF download · Written for US growing conditions
How this guide is put together
The growing data on this page — sowing windows, pests, diseases, soil and site requirements — comes from named horticultural sources, listed in References below, checked against USDA hardiness-zone and frost-date data, with Cooperative Extension sources cited directly where one exists for a crop. An automated pipeline assembles that verified data into the page you're reading: it selects which facts to lead with and builds the surrounding prose and layout. It does not invent a date, a source or a number — where a verified value for a field isn't available, the page leaves it out rather than guessing. A person reviews and publishes each page; nothing goes live unverified.
Last verified 2026-08-29
Related guides
More from the same group (brassicas & mustards):
Growing advice for your part of the USA
Timing and conditions change a lot inside one country. These guides cover frost dates and growing seasons region by region.
Where To Go From Here
Take this crop from reading into a written plan for your own beds.
Keep going
Plan the next step
Use the printable SoilCommander planner for your region to turn this guide into sowing dates, bed layouts and weekly garden tasks.