Growing Upland Cress: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 10, 2026
Upland cress delivers watercress’s peppery flavor without watercress’s constant-moisture growing requirements, since it grows in ordinary garden soil rather than needing a bog-like bed or running water.
Slow but steady germination
Direct-seed from midspring onward for full-size rosettes, sowing about 15 seeds per foot, a quarter inch deep. Germination is slow, so keep the seedbed consistently moist rather than assuming a bare patch after a week means the sowing has failed. Thin to 4 to 6 inches apart. For a baby-leaf crop instead, sow more densely at 3 to 5 seeds per inch in rows at least 2 inches apart.
Two harvest styles
Harvest full rosettes by cutting below the basal plate, taking the whole plant at once. For baby leaf production, cut individual leaves above the basal plate instead, which leaves the plant intact to regrow a second flush.
Upland cress has no well-established companion pairings, and nothing it needs to be kept away from. At 9 plants per square foot, it’s a dense, quick-turnover salad green for the Garden Designer, useful anywhere a peppery bite is wanted without watercress’s specialized growing conditions.
Source: Cress (Watercress & Upland Cress): Key Growing Information, Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
Companion planting guide for Upland Cress · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-11. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 4-8 in
Method: Direct sow: Direct-sow outside. It doesn't transplant well, or doesn't need the extra time indoors.
When to plant upland cress, by zone
Every zone upland cress grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2a & 2b | Not usually | May 13–May 20 | Jul 2–Jul 9 |
| 3a & 3b | Not usually | May 23–May 30 | Jul 12–Jul 19 |
| 4a & 4b | Not usually | May 8–May 15 | Jun 27–Jul 4 |
| 5a & 5b | Not usually | May 3–May 10 | Jun 22–Jun 29 |
| 6a & 6b | Not usually | Apr 18–Apr 25 | Jun 7–Jun 14 |
| 7a & 7b | Not usually | Apr 3–Apr 10 | May 23–May 30 |
| 8a & 8b | Not usually | Mar 18–Mar 25 | May 7–May 14 |
| 9a & 9b | Not usually | Feb 8–Feb 15 | Mar 30–Apr 6 |
| 10a & 10b | Not usually | Jan 23–Jan 30 | Mar 14–Mar 21 |
| 11a & 11b | Not usually | Dec 25–Jan 1 | Feb 13–Feb 20 |
Harvest dates are about 50 days after the sow or plant-out date.
Zone 2 sows before zone 3 here, which looks wrong and is not. USDA zones rank winter cold, not season length, and zone 2 is mostly interior Alaska, where hard winters come with warm summers. More on what a zone measures.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Upland Cress plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 9 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 4-8 in.
Varieties worth considering
- Straight-species upland cress (Barbarea verna): Johnny's Selected Seeds sells this species plain, without competing named cultivars, and notes it's similar to watercress but easier to grow, which is the whole reason to plant it. (source)
Why each variety is listed comes from the source shown next to it. We haven't grown these ourselves yet, so treat this as a research-backed starting point, not a personal endorsement. The buy links are separate from those sources: they go to seed suppliers that sell that exact variety, and we may earn a commission on some of them.
Where to buy upland cress seeds
High Mowing Organic Seeds (each supplier's upland cress seeds)
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing upland cress" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
Pin this for later
Growing Upland Cress: A peppery salad green with watercress's flavor but grown in ordinary garden soil, which makes it the more practical of the two for most gardens.
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