Sinapis alba
White mustard, yellow mustard: this plant was long considered a simple field-edge weed before gardeners rediscovered its talents as a green manure. Fast-growing, hardy, and generous, it deserves far better than its reputation.
Characteristics:
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Fast growth: annual plant that can exceed 1.20 m within a few weeks, with leaves measuring 15 to 40 cm.
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Improves the soil: as green manure, it cleanses the soil, structures the earth through its roots, and naturally smothers weeds.
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Used as a condiment: its seeds, yellow despite its name, have been used as a condiment since Antiquity.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: sunny; it grows quickly in full light.
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Soil: all types of soil, including poor, clay, or calcareous soil—it adapts remarkably well. No fertilization is necessary; it is the plant that will enrich the soil. It simply appreciates moist soil when germinating.
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Method: sow directly in place by broadcasting, from spring to the end of summer, on raked soil. No pots or pre-soaking needed: germination is very rapid, often in less than a week. See how to sow your seeds.
Care advice:
- None. Mow before it goes to seed if you do not want it to reseed, then leave it as mulch or lightly dig it into the soil.
Beneficial pairings:
- In rotation with white clover or phacelia, it diversifies the green manures in the vegetable garden. However, avoid growing it before or after cabbages: as members of the same family, they share the same diseases. Everything is explained in our article on green manures.
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Its yellow flowers, when it is allowed to bloom before being dug in, are heavily visited by bees and other pollinators at a time when food resources are becoming scarce.
- Its dense root system nourishes soil life as it decomposes—see the basics of living soil.
Uses:
- Its seeds are widely used as a condiment, particularly in the production of mustard. The young leaves can also be eaten in salads, with their characteristic spicy flavor.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Let the siliques (slender pods) turn brown and dry on the plant, then remove the seeds by hand or rub them between your palms over a container. Be careful—it reseeds very easily: allow only as many plants as you need to go to seed. See how to store your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose reproducible, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to reseed, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
Add white mustard to your garden for living soil protected from weeds!
