Growing Saltwort: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Saltwort is a Japanese salt-marsh green with a crisp, briny bite similar to samphire, adapted to salty soil but perfectly happy growing in ordinary garden dirt too.
Sow thick, no thinning required
Direct-seeding is recommended, done anytime from spring through midsummer, an eighth to a quarter inch deep at 1 to 2 seeds per inch, in rows 12 to 18 inches apart. Unlike most crops, saltwort doesn’t need thinning; it continues to grow well even sown thickly. Successive sowings every few weeks keep a continuous harvest coming.
Harvest before it gets woody
Leaves can be harvested for fresh use once plants are established, but timing matters here: harvest promptly rather than letting the plant grow too long, since delayed harvest produces woody stems and leaf tips too prickly to eat comfortably.
Saltwort has no recorded companions or antagonists in our data. See the full companion guide for saltwort for how it’s tracked. At 9 plants per square foot, it’s a dense, quick-turnover specialty green for the Garden Designer, an interesting option for a bed with naturally saltier soil.
Source: Saltwort: Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Saltwort · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. Saltwort doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Saltwort plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 9 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 0.5-1.5 ft.
Varieties worth considering
- Straight-species saltwort (Salsola komarovii): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this species plain, without competing named cultivars; it's a specialty crop grown for its distinctive briny flavor rather than bred variation. (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 saltwort 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 saltwort" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Saltwort: A Japanese salt-marsh green with a crisp, briny bite similar to samphire, one of the few crops here adapted to salty soil though it grows fine in ordinary dirt too.
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