Rocket Varieties: Wild Rocket and Salad Rocket

Rocket varieties: An overview of new and well-tried varieties of wild rocket and rocket. We show the best and most productive varieties.

Rocket from your own garden [Photo: NinaMalyna / Shutterstock.com]

The numerous types of rocket differ mainly in their appearance, size, origin and harvest time. When buying seeds, one should pay attention to the respective properties. There are earlier and later varieties. There are also so-called sprouting varieties that overwinter outdoors. These form numerous smaller flowers in spring, a wonderful spring vegetable!

Below we have put together a few well-known and proven varieties that thrive well in our latitudes. Choosing the right variety is between wild rocket and rocket:

Wild rocket:

• Dragons Tongue : Breeding from England, which has proven to be very robust with regard to various growing conditions; around the leaf veins the leaf green is partly reddish in color; very good and spicy aroma.
• Venicia : Fast growing selection of wild rocket with a late flowering time. This enables long harvests and high yields; typically nutty and quite spicy taste.
• Napoli: Selection of the wild rocket; grows faster than the wild form and produces wider leaves (could possibly also be a hybrid with the rocket salad); high yield.

Not much can be guessed at the rocket cotyledons [Photo: makanna / Shutterstock.com]

Salad rocket:

• Speedy : As the name suggests, a fast-growing hybrid of wild and rocket salad; spicy and piquant aroma; Suitable for both outdoor cultivation and on the windowsill.
• Coltivata : Fast-growing, robust and broad-leaved variety of rocket; popular in Italy due to its very good aroma.
• Pronto : Modern cultivated form of the salad rocket with very fast growth; good taste.
• Buzzy : A variety mostly used to make arugula sprouts.
• Bologna : This variety is a hybrid of wild rock and rocket; the variety is fast growing and high yielding; balanced, good aroma.
• Wildfire : New variety with broad, light green leaves; In terms of taste, Wildfire should be quite hot and slightly reminiscent of the Japanese wasabi.
• Sylvetta : Fast growing variety with fine leaves and an early flowering point; nice, slightly nutty aroma.

Note: The “agano” variety is often sold as a red-leaved variant of the wild rocket, but it belongs to the brown mustard ( Brassica juncea ).

Have you decided on a type of rocket? Then it is now time to sow. To learn how to grow arugula properly, check out this article.