White mustard: varieties, growing and uses

Quick growth with a family check

Mustard's speed makes it attractive for a vacated bed, but it remains a brassica. Do not use it thoughtlessly where brassica diseases are involved. If brassicas occupy much of your garden, look for an unrelated cover. A nematode-control or disease-resistance claim belongs to a specific, substantiated selection and use; ordinary mustard's yellow flower does not prove it.

Allow room for the next sowing

Before sowing, check how long the bed remains free. Young green growth is easier to cut and incorporate than a dense field of tough flowering stems. To retain flowers, choose a smaller area deliberately and prevent unwanted seed spread. Give new seed suitable soil and time after incorporation; do not scatter fine seeds among fresh tough residues. Record actual termination rather than just the expected first frost.

Scent, flavour and use

This is Sinapis alba as green manure. Do not treat it as an automatically edible mustard leaf variety.

Care, cutting and harvesting

Sow a clean, workable patch within the supplier’s window; De Bolster specifies August to late September. Water during dry germination and assess whether the chosen family suits the bed.

Terminate the green manure crop before stems harden and the following crop approaches.

Incorporate young before unwanted seed formation. Frost sensitivity can help with dieback, but do not count on guaranteed winter termination in every mild winter.