TRANSITION FARM ORGANIC SEED
Quality 100% Certified Organic and Demeter Bio-dynamic NON-GMO Seed
Transition Farm Seeds have been cleared for importation into Western Australia.
If ordering from Western Australia, our next batch shipment date is 7 April 2025. For more options, check the POSTAGE page.
Vit Mache
Vit Mache
Valerianella locusta
Vigorous winter salad leaf with delicious nutty flavor and succulent, crisp texture.
Delicious nutty flavour
Winter Spring crop
Upright habit
Very cold-hardy, versatile green forming attractive rosettes of glossy leaves. Survives mild winters and an excellent hoophouse crop in harsher winters, tolerating cool, moist conditions and downy mildew.
Mache is the French name for corn salad - also known as rupunzel! If you know your fairy tales, then imagine a flavour so enticing, a pregnant woman drove her husband mad until he scaled the walled garden of an enchantress to satisfy her craving - and then - when he was caught - had to give the enchantress the child once born. Is this story trying to remind us the importance of a diverse winter diet - ensure you have a good nutrient intake throughout the cold months lest you fall to cravings? Or the smartness of an enchantress with a four season food and herbal bounty?
Open Pollinated
Certified Organic
SEED COUNT: 200 approx
Lot#17H346 Germination JUL 2024 76%
Seed Raising, Growing and Harvest Information
| Plant Type | Site | Spacing | Height | Sowing Depth |
Days to Germination |
Days to Maturity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardy Perennial |
Partial Sun | 15cm apart | 20cm | 6mm | 7-14 days @ 15-18°C |
50 days |
DIRECT SOW - The struggle with growing mache in autumn in Southern Australia has been establishing it ahead of losing daylight. Mache can be planted anytime soil temperatures range from 5-20°C with the optimum temperature of 18°C Do not sow if soil temperatures have exceeded 20°C. Mache has a germination inhibitor when the soil is above 21°C causing the seed to lie dormant. We have had great success waiting for an early Autumn break and sowing in a cooler area of the farm. We have also had great success sowing in late June so that the crop has germinate and responds to the increasing daylight.
From mid-autumn onward, sow 5 seeds every 10cm. Keep soil moist as the seed germinates slowly. Thin to 10cm apart. Cut young rosettes (entire plants) at the root attachment when 5-8cm tall. Mache can be used alone, or as a component of a salad mix.
Sowing should be heavy in autumn to counter the higher soil temperature - 500 seeds sows @4.5m at 30 seeds/30cm.
TRANSPLANT – Sow in small cells, 3 seeds per cell. Keep cool and moist as seed is slow to germinate. If autumn is still hot, we have used a fridge as a germination incubator. Remove as soon as germination has occurred. Transplant out as small rosettes spacing every10cm in rows about 10-45cm apart. Harvest as whole rosettes or trim leaves as desired.
NOTE – will self-seed if left to flower and set seeds.
