Rocket · Reading, England, United Kingdom
When to plant rocket in Reading
Main outdoor window
20-30 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
17 April
In Reading, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
19 Apr - 4 May
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Reading
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow for overwintering
25 Aug - 15 Sep
Counting back 59 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
20-30 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
19 Apr - 4 May
Rocket through the year
Against the frost risk in Reading
Why these dates
Ready in a month. Sow every ten days spring and autumn; skip high summer, when it turns unpleasantly hot and bolts within weeks.
Withstands -7C and holds usable leaf well into winter under cover.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Rocket are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Reading.
The median frost-free season here is 210 days, against 30 to 45 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Reading
Other vegetables to time
Growing rocket in Reading
When should I plant rocket in Reading?
Aim for 20-30 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 8-18 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will rocket be ready to harvest in Reading?
Expect to start picking around 19 Apr - 4 May, based on 30 to 45 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will rocket tolerate?
Withstands -7C and holds usable leaf well into winter under cover.