# Arugula/Rocket



## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

Arugula, also known as Rocket, is a great plant for fall flowering. I planted some 10 years ago and it is still reseeding itself every year. Just scatter the dried plants where you want it to grow next spring. The tiny seeds will fall and grow just about anywhere. It starts flowering in mid-summer and keeps flowering until there is a hard freeze. My bees loved it and worked those flowers hard until it was just too cold to come outside.

This plant is related to the cabbage/broccoli. It makes a nice salad green. The flowers are small white or yellow clusters, very pretty. I bought one seed pack that was advertised as 'wild' arugula. Never had to buy new seed. It is supposed to be an annual, but it is very frost resistant, and often the roots will survive and grow back the following spring.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruca_sativa


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Maybe mine is not the wild type. The roots will not survive and grow back the next Spring. 
The seeds will overtake my garden area, very invasive here. Spent 2 years to finally get rid of them. They have the white flowers not yellow.
One year they bloomed all Spring long and no bees on them at all. Why? Because there are better options out
there for my bees. The wild mustard and other fruit trees provide more that they cannot resist. I ruled out the 
rocket since. Dumped 2 big seed bags into the compost hole. Borage is invasive too that the bees like only in the summer dearth. When the wild mustard is blooming they don't even go near the blooming nearby Borage. The yellow blooming oxalis that others have seen bees on, mine will not work on those either as they have better options out there now. I can see that during a dearth the bees will work on what they have nearby. Try to grow some wild mustard in your garden and see if your bees will even go near the Arugula. If you need the wild mustard seeds I can send you some too.


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

They mainly seem to go to the rocket in the late fall, as you mentioned when there is not much else. I was impressed by how many frosts it survived, and the bees kept coming back.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Compare to the Hubam or white sweet clovers, these plants will not produce much nectar and
pollen for my hives. I plan to grow the canola and edible mustard for them in the Autumn. As always they will
find what is suitable here to forage on. They prefer the purple morning glory too.


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## Nu Bee (Jun 1, 2015)

I have a very difficult micro-climate in Central, dry Arizona: 4700 foot elevation, -10 in winters, 130 in summers

Arugula ROCKS here. I don't have to water it much. If it gets water, it takes over and I have to pull it to keep it out of tomato beds. It comes back year after year. It blooms from July through the end of September. The girls LOVE it! 

I started with two different types of seeds ten years ago and planted it because I like it on pizza and in salads and the stores don't sell it. If you want seeds, they are easy to harvest, easy to germinate. My blooms are yellow.

Did I mention that the girls LOVE it?


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

In some areas it is considered an invasive species. It sure is hard to elimate since it is self seeding and the seed can be viable for 20 years. The more you disc it the better it does. My son has it in his fields and lives with it as it does provide some fodder for his cows. It is in the same family as rape seed or canola. It is not as bad as canola for early crystallizing honey but my sons honey definitely does set up much quicker than mine.

Use it if you have it but if you are planting deliberately I think there may be better choices.


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## cohutt (Feb 13, 2017)

IN north Georgia it pretty much survives anything winter provides and then blooms in the spring. It, like cilantro/coriander, is a welcome weed in my garden that reseeds annually in several areas


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## Kuro (Jun 18, 2015)

Mine sometimes overwinter but this year all failed and started anew from self-sown seeds. Flowers are white, and attract small solitary bees but not honey bees and bumbles. I use leaves in salad and risotto.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Is the yellow flower type from the wild specie? The local store bought type only has white flower. Rarely do I see or have
try the yellow flower one. Maybe the bees like the yellow better than the white flowers?


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## AR1 (Feb 5, 2017)

beepro said:


> Is the yellow flower type from the wild specie? The local store bought type only has white flower. Rarely do I see or have
> try the yellow flower one. Maybe the bees like the yellow better than the white flowers?


I bought a package that said it was wild arugula. The flowers were yellow and bees really love it. It eventually replaced, over several years, all the regular arugula that also reseeds itself well. One thing I really like about it is that it flowers really late into the fall, right through several hard frosts.

Flavor-wise it tastes like arugula, but stronger and more bitter. I like it.


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## Kuro (Jun 18, 2015)

I Googled and it seems that the white flowered one is annual _Eruca sativa_, and the yellow one is perennial _Diplotaxis tenuifolia_ and is sold here (http://www.rareseeds.com/wild-rocket-arugula) as "wild rocket arugula".


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