Watercress

im thinking about growing some water cress, has anyone tried to grow it?
is it easy?

 

Hello Markr Merry Christmas and WELCOLM to GC.
Regarding watercress I find it a useful addition to my pond,I just bought some from the supermarket and threw some into the water and it grows and spreads easily.It just floats and roots readily in the water...No soil is needed.

 

Be very careful about eating it. It carries a liver fluke parasite that can be fatal.

 

thanks for the welcome roders, i was thinking about growing from seed rather than plants.
and i dont have a pond' i was thinking about some sort of container to grow it in :confused:

horbeam, where does the fluke come from' ponds ?

 

The liver fluke is Fasciola hepatica which is spread in its larvae form by pond snails. The larvae hatch from eggs, swim free and crawl onto vegetation including water cress. There they burrow into the soft tissues of pond snails and any sheep or humans that eat the water cress. Inside their host, they change into the adult form. They leave their hosts in excreta as adults to lay fresh eggs. The damage to humans and sheep is the same - liver damage. The word "hepatica" in the name indicates liver disease as in "hepatitis".

Commercially grown water cress is now only grown in beds of water drawn directly from underground springs or bore holes. The only safe wild water cress is that growing in fast flowing chalk streams away from the banks. Flora Britannica says that "even then, the only safe way is to cook the water cress as soup, killing all stages of the fluke."

Grow it in your pond for ornament or interest, but you are quite likely to go a horrid shade of yellow if you eat any :eek:

 

Thank you Hornbeam.
The brain (or lack of it ) is a wonderfull thing.
I had heard that there was a good reason for not growing your own water cress but had forgotten why. Your reminder is timly.
Question ?
In this very P.C. and litigus world that we live in how come seed producers and suppliers do not cover it with the 'Government Health Warning' or 'Tony's copout'.
ttfn and a Merry Chrismas to all my readers.

 

IN PRAISE OF WATERCRESS.

I had never heard all this bad press about watercress,we dont actually use it as food it helps to keep the pond water crystal clear.

Lets here what the Greeks have to say.

http://www.watercress.co.uk/did/

 

You can actually buy a land version of water cress, I think it's called American land cress and is pretty much the same as water cress. Having never heard of the above problems with water cress I have been eating mine for years with as far as I know no health problems. Regretfully after reading the above I'd better stop.

 

We used to eat watercress that my friend had growing on her land, lovely it was. Turned out where it was growing was an old soak-away :eek: :eek: Never been able to eat it since!!!!!

 

Crumbs,I contracted Infectious hepetitus as a child and went a horrible yellow colour.Even the whites of my eyes went yellow.I was quite poorly with it and a lot of my brothers and sisters went down with it,though my seemed to be the worst.I had to be given a fat free diet.My mum said when I had recovered that I could never be a blood donor,don't know why.They never did find out how I picked up the bug.I was nine at the time

 

I grow Watercress to help keep a fish pond clear. For some years it worked very well, the stuff grows for Britain! Tastes pretty delicious too. I don't know about the liver fluke thing, sounds nasty. Maybe I should get the cress tested. Mind you, all the leeches in the bed might gobble the flukes up for me! :D

 

I also developed hepatitis and no one could explain how.
If anyone wants to eat it - so be it. Just Google it and you may think again:

Wood UJ, Stephens WB, Porter DD.
Fasciola hepatica infection of the liver in a husband and wife occurred after they had eaten water cress exposed to pollution by cattle. Diagnosis was a problem. Both responded to treatment with chloroquine and emetine. The epidemilology and pathology of infection of the liver by Fasciola hepatica are described. The danger of eating water cress is emphasized for this momentary delight may lead to a chronic debilitating illness.

PMID: 1207583 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[The water-cress pools in connection with cases of human ...Experimental studies on 16 water-cress pools with cases of human fasciolasis in Limousin were undert... ... Fasciola hepatica Fascioliasis/epidemiology* ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=754620&dopt=Abstract - Similar pages

Investigaci�³n Cl�­nica - <B>Infecci�³n humana por Fasciola hepatica ...Rondelaud D, Vignoles P, Abrous M., Dreyfuss G. The definite and intermediate hosts of Fasciola hepatica in the natural water cress beds in central France. ...
www.scielo.org.ve/scielo.php?pid=S0535-51332003000300008&script=sci_arttext - 30k - Cached - Similar pages

Fasciola hepatica - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFasciola hepatica, commonly known as the liver fluke, is a parasitic flatworm of ... or in some cases, by humans eating un-cooked foods such as water-cress. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasciola_hepatica - 19k - Cached - Similar pages

Fasciola hepatica: Definition and Much More from Answers.comFasciola hepatica ( fə′sēələ he′padəkə ) ( invertebrate zoology ) A digenetic ... or in some cases, by humans eating un-cooked foods such as water-cress. ...
www.answers.com/topic/fasciola-hepatica-1 - 49k - Cached - Similar pages

[PDF] Fasciola hepaticaFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
watercress by the metacercariae of Fasciola hepatica and ... Rondelaud D, Mage C (1990) La fasciolose humaine et les cress-. onnie`res. Point Vet 21:899ââ?¬â??903 ...
www.springerlink.com/index/4U5C9UMELMBMEXB9.pdf - Similar pages

[PDF] Fascioliasis in Spain: A review of the literature and personal ...File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
those areas, since the consumption of water cress is undoubtedly the principal ... the cycle of Fasciola hepatica may be said to be: ...
www.springerlink.com/index/T35K22041507P1R4.pdf - Similar pages
[ More results from www.springerlink.com ]

Lots more where they come from...

 

Gosh, I'm attempting to grow it here and it is a very common thing to buy in the markets and grocery stores to chop up in your salads, half and half almost with lettuce! :eek: Must say it's very tasty and adds to a boring salad!

 

Oh don't be a killjoy HB; learn to love the bug within

 

If you don't get the bug / virus into your system, your system cannot become immune, I believe! Did I say that the right way around! :confused: Bit like a vaccine!