There are several good reasons to grow mustard. First of all, you can use it year-round as green manure for your vegetable beds. But you can also harvest the seeds. You can of course make mustard from them, but they're also popular for pickling gherkins and other vegetables, and as a cooking spice. You can also continuously pick the young leaves for salads or herb quark and similar dishes.
Facts and figures
Planting & harvest times of Mustard
Green manureDirect sowing from Early March to Mid August.
Green manure 2Direct sowing from Mid August to Late October.
SummerDirect sowing from Early March to Late March. Transplant to bed from Early March to Late March. Pre-grow about 14 days before transplanting, approximately between Mid February and Mid March. After a growing period of 210 days, harvest can begin around Early October and continues until Late October.
Sow and plant Mustard
For green manure you can sow from the beginning of March until the end of October. Watch out that the mustard doesn't reach seed maturity, which happens roughly 6 to 8 weeks after sowing. Sown in autumn it grows more slowly and usually doesn't set seed, so you can leave it on the bed until frost kills it off and it forms a mulch layer. Work this in lightly about two to three weeks before the next sowing. Very late sowings from the end of September onwards don't produce much plant material, depending on the weather.
Summer shows the sowing for seed saving. Sow the seed directly in May, or plant out seedlings raised 14 days earlier. Space them about 15 cm apart, with 20 cm in the row.
You can harvest the leaves right up to flowering.
Location and soil
The soil shouldn't be acidic — ideally neutral or slightly alkaline, which you can achieve by adding lime. Other than that, mustard isn't fussy. It copes well with both full sun and partial shade. Just keep the soil evenly moist.
Good and bad companions of Mustard
Avoid planting mustard next to other brassicas.
Predecessors and successors of Mustard
You should also avoid brassicas in the crop rotation.
Varieties
Black mustard has the hottest seeds. These are processed together with brown mustard, which has the next hottest seeds, into hot mustard. White mustard has the mildest seeds, which are made into medium-hot mustard.
For green manure there are varieties resistant to beet cyst nematodes. They attract the nematodes but stop them multiplying in the root.
Care and fertilising
Mustard is undemanding — you just need to keep it slightly moist. It doesn't need any fertiliser.
Diseases and pests
Harvest and processing
You can start harvesting leaves about 4 weeks after sowing. Always pick the outer ones — they're the most tender. For the seed harvest, you'll need to wait until October. Once the pods are brown and dry and the leaves are starting to wither, you can harvest the pods. The easiest way is to put them in a sack and bash it against a wall or something similar. The lighter pods rise to the top and you can collect them that way. Let them dry on newspaper for another month, then you can store or process them. If you grew the plants as green manure, simply cut them down before they flower and leave them on the bed. Even easier — run the lawnmower over them and spread the cuttings evenly across the bed.
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