Cress (water cress, curled cress or pepper cress) all 3 varieties have a pepper flavor, much like mustard..cause they are from the mustard family. They are super proliferate, and therefore I would highly recommend that you container grow them. They are "cut and come back" crop. So you'll get a lot of continuous crop from them. They are best as a part of a leafy green mix.
They are however a cool weather crop, so at about 85F, they may start to wilt in our 115F outdoor temps. They may survive outdoors as long as you keep them in a puddle of water, but You'll likely want them to become an indoor microgreen at those temps.
Wild cress..often found by ponds, streams..etc.. but I dont recommend consuming it. Wild cress can be contaminated with a parasite called fluke worm, and fluke worm will attack and likely destroy your liver. Dont eat it, be safe, buy from a known source and grow them on your own where you can control the water source and conditions.
My watercress adventures: I located a local source (Sprouts Market & Trader Joes) and purchased 4 bags of it that still has the root ball intact! These are pretty nice sized bags for about $2.50 each. Took them home, and potted them in a 100% coco coir; keeping it very moist,in tray of water. See my side by side experiment notes here
Watercress, is extremely proliferate, and "cut and come back"..is an understatement. If taken care of, not only will those 4 bags continue to produce a constant source of fresh cress greens for many, many months, but it will grow many more shoots..and rather quickly too. So if you grow cress of any variety.. I STRONGLY SUGGEST you container garden it.
You should be able to take several clippings and start them in a simple glass of water to produce and propagate.
I did not have great success with seed starting cress, but I'm still perusing that avenue.
Here is a video showing from seed method:
This 3rd video shows how this person grows his watercress in a total hydroponic environment - no grow medium other than water.
Watercress will do very well in that set up as you will see.
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