Sorrel

Planting window

When to sow, by microclimate — foggier blocks run a different calendar than sunnier ones.

Sunlight

How well it does at each level of direct sun per day.

Soil depth

Root room it needs — useful for sizing raised beds and containers.

Soil pH

The soil acidity it grows best in — most crops sit just below neutral, so this mostly matters for heavily amended or long-reused beds.

Spacing

Room each plant needs — along the row and between rows — for sizing beds.

Growth habit

The shape it makes in the bed and how tall it gets — what tells you whether to give it a trellis, a stake, or just room.

Habit

Low mound

Mature height

1–2 ft

Low and self-supporting — no staking needed.

Growing in containers

Whether it does well in a pot, planter, or window box — the SF balcony-and-deck question, weighing its footprint, form, and staying power, not just root depth.

Happy in a pot, planter, or window box — no garden bed required.

How to start it

Sow it where it grows, or raise it under cover and set it out — and how far ahead to start the seedlings if it's the latter.

Usually

Direct-sow

Start indoors

3–4 weeks ahead

Sown straight into the bed it will grow in.

Getting started

How it goes in the ground — how deep to sow or set it, and the soil temperature it needs to wake up. The cold-soil floor is the real limiter for direct-sowing in a foggy SF spring.

Started from

From seed

Ideal soil temp

60–70°F

Sow depth

0.25–0.5 in

Time to emerge

7–21 days

Watering & feeding

How thirsty and how hungry it is — the water it wants and how much feeding the bed needs to keep it producing. In the fog belt even a thirsty crop drinks less than it would inland.

Water need

Moderate

Wants steady, even moisture — roughly an inch a week, a little more in a heat spell.

Feeding

Moderate feeder

A balanced feed worked into the bed at planting usually carries it through the season.

Keep the soil evenly moist through the growing season for a steady supply of tender young leaves — about an inch of water a week; an established clump shrugs off short dry spells. An undemanding perennial: a moderate feeder that gets by on a yearly topdressing of compost.

Pests & diseases

What tends to trouble this crop — what it is, what you'll see, and what to do about it, least-toxic first.

An easy, near trouble-free perennial — the RHS rates it generally disease-free, with only slugs and aphids worth watching. Leaf-mining flies occasionally tunnel a leaf; just pick off and discard any that are affected.

Harvest & storage

How to tell it's ready to pick, and how to keep it once it's in.

Keeps

DaysBest eaten within a few days of picking.

Ready to harvest

Start picking the young outer leaves once the clump is growing well, from early spring right through to fall, and keep cutting to draw out tender new growth; snip off any flower stalk that rises so the plant stays in leaf. The bright lemony tang is oxalic acid, so enjoy sorrel in moderation rather than by the bowlful.

Storing

Refrigerate the leaves loosely bagged in the crisper and use within a few days — like spinach they wilt fast and cook right down.

Culinary use & nutrition

What it's for in the kitchen, and the nutrients a 100 g raw serving is a notable source of.

Pollinators & wildlife

What this crop offers the garden's wildlife once it flowers — often the payoff for letting a bolting plant stand.

No notable draw for pollinators — its flowers offer them little.

Sorrel is dioecious and wind-pollinated — male and female flowers sit on separate plants and the wind carries the pollen between them, so its small greenish flowers court no insects. Most gardeners cut the flower stalks off anyway to keep the leaves coming.

Sources