Growing Purslane: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Purslane has a genuine identity crisis: most gardeners spend years pulling it as a weed before realizing the same succulent, mildly citrusy leaves are a legitimate salad green, and a cultivated selection exists specifically bred for eating.
Frost-sensitive despite the weedy reputation
Direct-seed after your last frost, sown about half an inch apart and a quarter inch deep, then thinned to 4 to 6 inches apart. Transplanting also works, sown 3 to 4 seeds per cell in midspring and moved outside 8 inches apart after frost danger passes, handled carefully since the roots don’t like disturbance. Despite behaving like an unstoppable weed once established, purslane is sensitive to hard frost and won’t survive planting too early.
Cut, don’t pull
Harvest by cutting stems back to within 2 inches of their base rather than pulling whole plants. New stems and leaves regrow continually for several weeks from that same base, giving repeated harvests from a single planting.
Purslane has no recorded companions or antagonists in our data. See the full companion guide for purslane for how it’s tracked. At 4 plants per square foot, it’s a low, sprawling ground-level filler in the Garden Designer, useful in hot, dry spots that stress out less heat-tolerant greens.
Source: Purslane: Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Purslane · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Method: Either: Start indoors for an earlier harvest, or direct-sow outside for less fuss. Purslane tolerates either.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Purslane plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 4 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 4-8 in.
Varieties worth considering
- Straight-species purslane (Portulaca oleracea sativa): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this cultivated selection of the same species most gardeners know as a garden weed; the cultivated form has larger, more upright leaves bred for eating. (source)
Cited from the source shown next to each variety. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement.
Where to buy purslane seeds
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links on this page also go to other retailers we may earn a commission from as an affiliate, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products with a genuine consensus of positive, independent reviews. See the sources cited on each item.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing purslane" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Purslane: A succulent-leaved salad green, edible and mildly citrusy, that most gardeners know as a common weed rather than a deliberately grown crop.
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