Aquaponics FL

Crop lessons · Brassicas (cabbage family)

Growing Mustard greens in Florida

Brassica juncea · Brassicaceae (cabbage family)

Mustard is a fast, peppery cooking green for fall through spring, in green and red forms. Leaves are ready in about 40 to 50 days. Freezes damage it, and warm weather makes it bitter.1, 2

When to plant mustard greens in Florida

RegionMonths on the UF/IFAS calendar
North FloridaJanuary transplant with care · February transplant with care · March transplant with care · April transplant with care · August transplant with care · September transplant with care · October transplant with care · November transplant with care · December transplant with care
Central FloridaJanuary transplant with care · February transplant with care · September transplant with care · October transplant with care · November transplant with care · December transplant with care
South FloridaJanuary transplant with care · September transplant with care · October transplant with care · November transplant with care · December transplant with care

Months follow UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions, "What to plant by month"; "transplant with care" is their wording for crops that resent root disturbance. Not sure of your region? Find your county.

Planting1

How to startseed, or transplant with care
Seed depth (inches)¼ to ½
Spacing in the row (inches)5 to 10
Between rows (inches)12
Days to harvest40 to 50

SP 103 planting dates: north Sept to Apr, central Sept to Feb, south Sept to Jan. Broadleaf types need more room.

Varieties UF/IFAS lists for Florida1, 2

  • Southern Giant Curled
  • Florida Broad Leaf
  • Tendergreen
  • Giant Red
  • Green Wave
  • Mizuna

Growing1, 2

SunFull sun. SP 103 advises a garden spot with at least six hours of direct sun a day (general advice, not specific to this crop).
Soil pH5.8 to 6.3 (SP 103's general target for vegetable gardens on sandy soil; no change is needed anywhere from 5.5 to 7.0). No crop-specific figure was found.
WaterGeneral SP 103 advice: young plants need light, frequent watering and maturing plants deeper, less frequent watering; vegetables will not tolerate standing water. Sandy soils need watering more often than clay, muck or amended soils.
FertilizerSP 103 notes that leafy crops such as lettuce, kale and collards benefit from side-dressings of a nitrogen fertilizer during the season (general advice for leafy vegetables).

Raised rows or beds work well. Improve poor soil with compost a couple of weeks before planting, and keep weeds out especially in the first four to six weeks.

Pests and diseases in Florida2, 3

  • Caterpillars: Mustard suffers many of cabbage's pests; moth and butterfly larvae usually do the most damage, and insects are a bigger problem than diseases on greens.
  • Cole crop pests and diseases: Mustard is covered with the cole crops in the commercial Vegetable Production Handbook (CV122), which lists caterpillars, aphids, flea beetles, downy mildew and Alternaria leaf spot.

Harvest1, 2, 4

Pick the outer, lower leaves as they mature for a long harvest, or cut the whole plant. Wash well and cook within a day or two; refrigerated, mustard keeps a few days to about a week (FY1548).

In an aquaponics system

We haven't found a published source that covers mustard greens in aquaponics systems, so this lesson doesn't guess. The planting months above apply to a grow bed the same as to soil; the water does the watering.

What this lesson doesn't cover yet

  • No Gardening Solutions page devoted to mustard was found; facts come from SP 103 and the Greens page.
  • Neither SRAC 454 nor the FAO aquaponics manual names mustard greens.
  • The Gardening Solutions greens page and FY1548 give the name as Brassica juncea var. crispifolia; the commercial handbook (CV122) gives Brassica juncea.

Your county extension office and its Master Gardener volunteers can fill these in for your garden.

Sources

  1. Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide. UF/IFAS Extension, EDIS, SP 103. Read 2026-11-02.
  2. Greens. UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions. Read 2026-11-02.
  3. Vegetable Production Handbook of Florida, Chapter 6. Cole Crop Production. UF/IFAS Extension, EDIS, HS724/CV122. Read 2026-11-02.
  4. Healthy Harvest: Florida Brassicas, Cruciferous Vegetables, and Leafy Greens. UF/IFAS Extension, EDIS, FCS3405/FY1548. Read 2026-11-02.
  5. Recirculating Aquaculture Tank Production Systems: Aquaponics—Integrating Fish and Plant Culture. Southern Regional Aquaculture Center (SRAC), SRAC 454. Read 2026-11-02.
  6. Small-scale aquaponic food production: Integrated fish and plant farming (Somerville et al. 2014). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper 589. Read 2026-11-02.

Every fact above is restated in our own words from these documents, written 2026-11-02. Independent of the University of Florida.

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