Shahi, or Persian cress, is such a pleasure to grow. The spicy leaves are loved by many and the stems of seed pods are long-lasting additions to flower bouquets.

I started shahi on April 17th, and they were already germinating three days later! Because the starts grow so easily and quickly, I would recommend sprinkling them outside wherever you want to grow them (instead of growing them in a greenhouse) and keeping them moist.

I think cress really prefers to be grown in the winter in our climate in coastal Northern California. I say this because as the days got longer and hotter in early June, shahi decided it’s time to start flowering (bolting), which means its season was already coming to an end. When the plant starts bolting, it gets spicier and the leaves get smaller as they climb up the flower stalk. I’m hoping that this variety gets better at holding on later into the season, so I saved seeds from the 40+ plants that bolted the latest on the farm. It will take years of saving late-bolting plants for this to be a noticeable quality of this variety, but hopefully you also benefit from this selection!

Plants were collected for seed in mid-August, when they were completely dried down. Cress is very fun to thresh, with seed pods that reveal many seed when stepped/danced upon. Lightweight chaff is also very fun to blow away. I highly recommend saving seeds from shahi!