How to Grow Arugula in a Container Garden

Last Updated on January 18, 2021 by cmoarz

A great addition to your container garden is Arugula. It’s high in Calcium, Potassium, Folate, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin A, and tons of fiber, phytochemicals, carbohydrates and it’s low in sugar. So why wouldn’t you want to give it a try? Let’s learn how to grow arugula!

With a peppery punch, Arugula is an easy plant to grow and it’s perfect for your garden especially if you enjoy the occasional salad.

What size container should I use for my Arugula?

If you want to grow a lot of arugulas, you should get a wide pan. If you are just looking to grow a small amount something small will do.

Your pan does not need to be very deep as arugula roots are very shallow. So just about any dish a couple inches deep is perfect. You could probably even get by with glass dishware if you were really in a bind to find something to use. But realistically you can plant this just about anywhere.

You should also consider putting it in a greenhouse/grow tent for max results, we have a great list of them!

How to plant the arugula seeds

Much like it’s shallow root system, the tiny arugula seeds do not like to be planted deeply. They should be sat in front of a sunny window or grow light right away so remember to keep them watered.

Spread the seeds out on top of your potting soil and pat down gently, so they are just sticking into the dirt. Then layer a small bit of soil on top of them and pat that down as well. You don’t have to be too worried about spacing here, but you should try to keep them relatively uniform.

Watering Arugula plants/seeds

Given the gentle nature of the arugula seeds, you want zero pressure from your watering source. This is a good time to invest in an automatic watering tray specifically designed for these types of salad greens. In fact, Why not skip the dirt all together and get an affordable mini hydroponics kit? Automatic watering is great.

I recommend this one personally. While it’s a bit more expensive than it ought to be, it’s been fantastic with growing my greens rapidly and with low effort.

It’s also a wonderful product to dip your toes into hydroponics.

What to expect while learning how to Grow Arugula

If you intend to plant these seeds outdoors, do so once your certain there will be no more frost, Otherwise, it will kill the seeds before they even had a chance. If you are growing indoors, no big deal, Just keep the temperature and humidity low. It hates both of those things and becomes very bitter.

If you are using a micro hydroponics kit, like above, That’s all you need to do other than put them in the sun. If you’re doing it in a container, You will need to water it enough to keep the soil evenly moist.

Start the next batch of arugula every 2 weeks, as it will take 3-4 weeks for the first to mature. After that point, you should have a steady supply of this salad goodness.

Picking your arugula

It’s been 3 weeks and you’re finally ready to harvest the mouth-watering beauties, wonderful!

You can either rip them out of the ground, or you could harvest just the leaves by cutting at the base of the plant, this way that tray will continue to grow more leaves.

And that’s it, Fresh arugula for from your garden to your plate! Hope you enjoyed learning how to Grow Arugula!

How to store arugula you just harvested

Now that you’ve got a nice big bunch of fresh arugula it’s time to store it. I mean, assuming you don’t intend to eat it all right away!

The best way to store fresh arugula is to keep it moist with a 95% humidity.

But since the average fridge humidity levels barely break 35%, You will need to wrap them in a paper towel, then inside a plastic Ziploc bag poked full of holes.

Just roll em right up.

Place inside the crisper drawer in your fridge and set it to 35F.

These will keep for about a roughly 10 days.

To recap “How to store arugula” for our article skimmers:

How to cook arugula

How to cook arugula with pasta:

One of our favorite recipes for use with fresh arugula was written by Marie Nello. I really do love it and I know you will too.

It’s very simple, all you need is Spaghetti, Lemon’s, cream, parmigiana, garlic, butter, oil, and pepper.

Oh, and of course, your freshly grown arugula.

You can read the rest of the recipe here. Credit for the delicious photo also goes to Marie Nello.

How to cook baby arugula:

Cooking baby arugula is the same as cooking adult-sized arugula. Is that right, “Adult size arugula?”

Anyway, baby arugula is just a version of the plant that was harvest earlier in its life cycle so it’s more delicate and flavorful.

Sometimes it’s better to use baby arugula because it’s not as potent as it’s an adult version with regard to pepperiness and mustard tang.

It goes very well in a sauté!