Watercress Growing from seeds on a windowsill in winter at home The best varieties

Every day we think about our health and nutrition. When choosing what to cook, we try to make our diet the most complete and rich in vitamins. Unfortunately, in the bazaar or in supermarkets in winter, greens are often very expensive, and it may not be affordable for everyone to buy them in sufficient quantities. Many types of greens can be easily grown at home.

And lettuce is a crop that can be grown at home. In order to successfully grow lettuce on the windowsill at home, you should know some rules, but absolutely everyone can do it. Harvesting will not be long, but plentiful.

Let's try to figure out all the secrets of home farming, and find out how to grow lettuce on the windowsill at home.

The benefits of watercress

• It has a rich composition of useful substances: mineral salts, B vitamins, thiamine, rutin, carotene, mustard essential oil (gives a specific taste and aroma).
• The use of watercress improves digestion, increases appetite, lowers blood pressure, normalizes sleep, has a diuretic and antimicrobial effect, and strengthens the immune system in general (this is especially important in winter).
• Due to its low calorie content, it is a dietary product.

Growing watercress in indoor conditions does not require significant effort; children are happy to be involved in this process. You can cultivate it all year round by highlighting a place on the windowsill or glazed balcony. Fast growth rates and unpretentious care make watercress one of the best crops for the "home garden".

Preparing a place for a room "bed"

For each culture on the windowsill, be it parsley, dill or green onions, you need a special container. And as a dish for sowing salad, almost any container with a depth of at least 20-25 cm is suitable. These can be plastic or wooden boxes, flower pots. Green plantings look very original in ordinary kitchen utensils, which it is a pity to throw away and cannot be used, for example, an old teapot or a broken favorite cup. With this, your room "beds" will also become a design element of the interior. Just remember to arrange a drainage layer so that excess water flows down and does not accumulate around the roots.

Advice: apart from traditional expanded clay, pieces of ordinary synthetic winterizer can be used as drainage. It perfectly absorbs excess moisture, and when the soil in the pot dries up, it will give it back.

Video about growing lettuce at home
Now for the soil. Of course, it is easier to purchase ready-made soil for seedlings, but why spend money if you can save money. To grow a salad, land from a vegetable garden, flower beds or even a nearby park is quite suitable. The main thing is that it has a dense structure, because the crumbly soil with a high content of sand will dry out quickly and the moisture-loving salad may not get moisture. There will be enough nutrients in ordinary soil for the development of early ripening lettuce, but if you still doubt its fertility, then you can add a part of humus or concentrated organic fertilizer Humate.It is recommended to disinfect the prepared soil by heating it in an oven or microwave or generously watering it with a solution of potassium permanganate. In this way, unwanted microorganisms and fungal spores are killed. You need to fill the pots with soil not to the top, leave about 1.5-2 cm to the edge - it will be more convenient to water this way, and the earth pushed out by the growing root system will not fall out.

There will be enough nutrients in ordinary soil for the development of early ripening lettuce

Prepared containers with crops are placed on the southern or southeastern windowsills to provide the salad with maximum illumination on short winter days.

Preparing a container for growing watercress

In what container to grow watercress photo

When growing watercress, choose clear plastic containers with a lid; any food container will do.

You can use a shallow dish filled with seedling substrate, sawdust, foam or cotton wool as a substrate.

Watercress is grown:

• In the usual way, in the ground
• No land (there are many variations, more on that below).

How to plant watercress on a windowsill without land

How to grow watercress on a windowsill? To get juicy healthy greens, first of all, you need seeds. The seeds are purchased at specialized points of sale. The packaging is usually large - the seeds will last for a long time even with frequent sowing.

How to sow watercress without soil

Sowing is carried out in a simple way:

• Seeds should be spread over the bottom of the container, keeping a small distance of 2-3 mm, so that the plants have a place to germinate.
• For 1 m² of area, 5-8 g of seeds are consumed. Spray with a fine spray.
• To germinate the seeds, cover the container with a transparent lid, sprouts will appear literally in a day.
• Observe the level of humidity inside the container, if necessary (1 races in 1-2 days) spray from a spray bottle and close again.
• When the plants are well up, the lid can be removed.

To harvest regularly, sow at intervals of 7-14 days.

Sowing rules and norms

It is possible to get a good harvest of lettuce in a limited amount of soil only if the sowing norms are observed. This is especially true of leafy or cabbage varieties, the excessive thickening of which does not allow the rosette to form successfully.

Sowing lettuce into boxes, leave at least 10 cm between the rows, and the seeds are buried no more than 0.5 cm. Following these tips, we proceed to sowing:

• the soil before sowing is watered or abundantly moistened from a sprinkler;
• the surface is leveled and shallow grooves are made using a wooden stick;
• sow seeds, leaving 2-3 cm between them - as the outlets grow, the extra ones will be torn off for consumption, and the rest will continue to grow;

It is possible to get a good harvest of lettuce in a limited amount of soil only if sowing norms are observed

• now the box is placed in a warm place and covered with a piece of glass or wrapped in transparent plastic wrap to keep moisture better and the seeds germinate faster;
• after the first shoots appear, they are transferred to the windowsill, in a cooler and well-lit place.

In the future, simple care and care of crops will bring the first harvest of tender, juicy, environmentally friendly greenery.

How to care for watercress salad

Provide indirect lighting for the first few days after germination. Watercress is rather shade-loving, and can even be grown in a kitchen cabinet (so the plant will not be harmed by pets). Protect from direct sunlight, especially young shoots.

Air temperature

High temperatures are unfavorable for the plant: place away from heating systems.Maintain the air temperature within 15-20 ° C, the optimal mark is 18 ° C.

How to water

It is best to spray from a fine spray to wash the leaves as well (they will be more delicate and fragrant). Spray crops from the spray gun with several clicks once a day or two, controlling the level of humidity: the container should always be damp. Due to a lack of moisture, the stems stretch out, and taste is also lost (the leaves turn yellow and acquire an unnecessarily bitter taste). The worst outcome is leaf fall.

Useful tips for gardeners

Tip # 1. Get a spray gun. Lettuce reacts negatively to insufficient moisture, responsive to frequent water treatments, which improve the condition of the plant and its taste. Spray the leaves at least once a day.

Prolongation of daylight hours and regular water bath - lettuce will gratefully respond with good growth and a high yield of vitamin leaves

Advice number 2. When preparing the soil for planting, be sure to provide drainage in the form of stones or expanded clay at the bottom of the container (1-3 cm). In addition to the function of water drainage, the drainage layer is intended to saturate the soil under the roots with oxygen.

Council number 3. When choosing a soil mixture for planting, give preference to the soil, the most saturated with nutrients and trace elements. The short growing cycle allows crops to be grown without additional fertilization costs.

Veronika Sazhina, specialist in mixed cultivation of fruit and vegetable crops: “Responsibly approach the preparation of your own soil. For cooking, take the components in the following proportions:

• peat - 20%;
• rotted manure - 20%;
• compost - 20%;
• garden land - 40%.

Remember to disinfect the mixture to kill pathogens. Add nitrophosphate, urea and ash to the composition. This will accelerate seed germination, increase yields, and nourish the salad with useful substances. "

Watercress on the windowsill: how to grow effectively

Who among us does not like fresh vitamin greens, which can be eaten raw or added to different dishes? But, unfortunately, it can be grown in the garden only in the summer season. “You can buy greens in the store at any time,” you say, but who knows what chemicals were used to grow them. There is another very simple and affordable way to get natural greenery - is to grow it at home, on a windowsill, at any time of the year. One of the healthiest plants to grow on a windowsill is watercress.

We grow watercress at home

Useful properties and main types of watercress

This fragrant greens from the species of cabbage plants is a real storehouse of vitamins, essential oils, ascorbic acid and microelements useful for our body.

This herb is popularly called fever grass, garden cress, horseradish, tsitsmati, etc.

If you regularly eat watercress, you can:

• improve immunity;
• cure different types of cough;
• avoid the occurrence of vitamin deficiency and anemia (anemia);
• clear the bronchi;
• for asthmatics - to prevent asthma attacks;
• normalize blood pressure and metabolism;
• improve the work of the digestive tract;
• to strengthen the naughty nerves;
• get rid of tormenting insomnia;
• quit smoking faster (watercress can reduce nicotine cravings).

Avocado, watercress and orange salad

And homemade ointments, lotions and creams made from crushed leaves of this salad will help you quickly get rid of acne and heal the traces of acne.

In addition to its useful properties, such a salad has an unusual pungent taste, similar to the taste of horseradish (it is not for nothing that the people call watercress a horseradish), and it is also completely unpretentious in care.The main advantages of growing watercress at home: the very minimum of care, rapid growth of the salad, its cold resistance and high shade tolerance.

Herbalists use watercress as a blood purifier

Today, there are 3 main varieties of watercress.

What do you need to grow watercress in the "kitchen garden on the windowsill"?

Watercress: growing

The process of growing this salad does not require serious preliminary preparation and hard-to-find funds. First of all, decide on a watercress variety and buy seeds.

Important! When buying seeds, always pay attention to the type of packaging. The seed bag must not be dented or torn. Remember to check the expiration date of the seeds.

Next you will need:

growing container with a height of about 9-10 centimeters. Suitable: plastic container, bowl, bowl, plate, tray or not too deep flower pot;

Container for growing watercress

Automatic germinator "Green Vitamin" (Sprout)

Hydrogel as one of the options for replacing the substrate

Nutrient soil for seedlings

Variety selection

Before planting a salad on the windowsill, you should buy a suitable variety of seeds. The most successful option would be early maturing species:

• Snowflake.
• Zorepad.
• Excitement.
• Grand Rapids.
• Golden ball.
• Odessa.
• The ball is crimson.
• Red creed.
• Lollo bionda and lollo rossa.

Also, varieties that are resistant to a lack of light are suitable for growing lettuce on a windowsill. These include: ballet, celtic, emerald lace and others.

It is recommended to use large pots as a container for planting (at least 1–2 liters in volume). This culture does not tolerate transplantation, which means that it is better to immediately sow seeds in a suitable container. It is desirable that it be a plastic pot (clay tends to absorb moisture, which is why the soil dries faster).

If earlier another plant grew in the container, then it must be thoroughly cleaned. Otherwise, the remaining bacteria and pest eggs will destroy the salad over time. Warm water and regular soap will help you get rid of most potential threats. You can also wash the container with a solution of one part bleach and nine parts water. Treatment with a soda solution with further rinsing with potassium permanganate will be no less effective.

If you do not have a suitable container at home, then you can grow a salad on a windowsill using a thick plastic bag. Place it on a pallet, fill with moistened soil, and poke a few small holes in the sides (so that excess liquid seeps through them). A lettuce grown in a bag will be no different from its potted counterparts.

The soil for planting salad at home on the windowsill should be as nutritious as possible. You can use a ready-made potting mix from your local grocery store, or you can make your own. In the latter case, you will need: two parts of garden land, one part of rotted manure, one part of compost and the same amount of peat.

You can also use another composition - combine one part of vermicompost and garden soil and add two parts of coconut fiber.

In order to get greens at home in winter, it is best to choose its leafy varieties. Lettuce on the windowsill can grow even at low above zero temperatures, and it does not require very deep containers, since it has a superficial root system. Before planting a salad at home, you need to purchase its seeds of a suitable variety.

Early ripening varieties are especially good choices for growing houses on the balcony. When choosing a variety of lettuce to grow at home, it is also worth noting varieties that are resistant to lack of light.Below are examples of lettuce varieties suitable for growing in the winter at home on the balcony.

Early ripening varieties:

• snowflake;
• excitement;
• golden ball;
• zorepad;
• the ball is crimson.

• ballet;
• emerald lace NK;
• celtic.

It is impossible to grasp the immensity. Therefore, we will focus on a few popular and widespread varieties. They illustrate the nutritional and vitamin qualities of a full line of home-grown salads.

Growing watercress: easy step-by-step instructions

So, you have decided to grow watercress on your windowsill and have already prepared all the necessary ingredients for this. To begin with, there are 2 main ways to grow this salad at home: using soil or substrate. Choose the one that suits you best. The cultivation method does not in any way affect the germination of the seeds and the taste of the plants.

Method number 1. Growing in a substrate

Step 1. Take a suitable container and place the selected substrate on its bottom. The layer should be at least 1.5-2 centimeters. We moisten everything with a small amount of warm water (preferably boiled or at least settled). If you have chosen peat or wood chips as a breeding ground for watercress, then before using such a substrate you need to pour boiling water over it, which will avoid the appearance of mold in the future.

Preparing soil and containers

Cotton wool can be used instead of soil

The substrate needs to be moistened

Step 2. Take a glass and pour the seeds from the bag into it, and then fill them with water. The water should completely hide the seeds. This is necessary for each seed to acquire its own shell.

Step 3. We are waiting for a couple of seconds. Then we shift the seeds with a teaspoon or simply pour the water with the seeds from the glass into the prepared dish with a layer of the nutrient medium. Gently and slowly distribute all the seeds in one layer.

Transfer the seeds to the substrate

Filled seeds - photo

Step 4. We cover our container with seeds with foil or cellophane to create greenhouse conditions and put it on the windowsill, where there is no direct sunlight.

Please note that there should be no hot battery near the seeds.

How to create a greenhouse effect

Step 5. Check the seeds a day later. Most likely, you will see barely noticeable sprouts hatching from the seeds. And a day later, when real sprouts appear, you can remove the film.

The salad has risen, the film is no longer needed

Caring for this salad is very simple: you just need to water it regularly, turn the container with sprouts around its axis (otherwise the plants will stretch in one direction) and, if possible, moisten it with water from a spray bottle (watercress is very fond of moisture). You can feed the plants with any mineral fertilizers (for example, potassium solution or urea).

It is very important not to allow the soil to dry out in a container with plants, as this can lead to a thinning of the salad and a loss of its taste.

Step 6. In just 1.5-2 weeks, the salad is ready to eat.

Preparation

Having stocked up with everything you need, we choose a place for the garden. Experts recommend a kitchen window sill - it is more humid and warm there than in the rooms. However, before trusting expert opinion, decide on a list of plants: some (basil, oregano, spinach) really love light and warmth, while others (marjoram, watercress) need shade and coolness. These can be planted on a glazed loggia.

We plant each type of greenery in its own pot - not only because of differences in care and climate, but also because most plants cannot stand close proximity to others. If there is not enough space, but you want to plant a lot, it is better to use hanging pots or racks.

We fill the drainage at the bottom of the pots, and then lay out the soil. Its thickness depends on what we plant. The seeds can be soaked in a little water for several hours - they are usually wrapped in cheesecloth and laid out in a saucer of water.The optimal moment for planting is when sprouts begin to hatch from the seeds.

Before planting, the soil is loosened, moistened, the seeds are laid to the desired depth, after which the soil is slightly tamped and watered again. Cover with a lid or polyethylene until sprouts appear.

To prevent the plant from growing crookedly, leaning towards the window, the "bed" must be turned 180 degrees daily. An alternative for the lazy is to attach foil to the pot to reflect sunlight.

What does watercress look like?

The annual vegetable plant is popular with culinary specialists. When figuring out how homemade watercress grows, it's worth noting that it has a thin stem with lots of leaves and a simple root. As long as the stem is white, the plant is considered young and can be eaten. Flowering is observed in June or July, so during this period white or pink flowers appear, after which a pod fruit is formed. Watercress, whose species differ in appearance, is undemanding, so there should be no problems with cultivation.

1. Whole-leaved. The plant can be early or late maturing. Its rosette is large, and the leaves are narrow and little cut.
2. Curly. The rosette is small and is 17 cm. The leaves of the grown watercress on the windowsill will be heavily cut and raised. There are early and mid-season varieties.
3. Sowing. In this species, the rosette is large and is 19-21 cm. The leaves grow horizontally and have a wide, solid shape.

A few words about how to properly eat the grown watercress on the windowsill. It is best to include it fresh in recipes, so it retains the maximum benefits. It is worth noting that the taste of greens is similar to a pungent mixture of horseradish, radish and garlic. It is best to combine watercress with olive oil. The young plant perfectly emphasizes the taste of cheese, cottage cheese, cold soups and sauces. It goes well with legumes, pears, apples, eggplants and other vegetables. It is better to tear the salad with your hands, not cut it.

The main types of lettuce

When choosing seeds, preference should be given to indoor varieties with an early ripening period, resistant to shooting and short daylight hours. The most popular types of lettuce that can be grown in an apartment:

• Iceberg... It is this type of salad that chefs use to prepare Caesar salad. Neat heads of cabbage with crispy, juicy leaves retain their nutritional value and presentation for a long time. Iceberg is cold-resistant, picky about light and humidity level. Heads of cabbage reach 8-10 cm in diameter.
• Lettuce... Green or burgundy leaves are collected in a rosette up to 15 cm high. The salad contains a large amount of potassium and iron. The greens have a light bitterness and a delicate nutty flavor.
• Romano... Loose heads of cabbage with oblong leaves reach a mass of 300 g. The top with wavy edges curls inward. It is used both fresh and after heat treatment. The taste of the leaves is intense with a characteristic mustard-nut aftertaste.
• Arugula... Smooth, elongated leaves resemble a dandelion in shape. Thanks to essential oils, it has a spicy aroma and rich taste. Prized for its high vitamin C and iodine content. Used for preparing salads and meat dishes.
• Oaklif (Oakleaf)... Decorative leaves are collected in a spreading variegated rosette. The color ranges from pale green to reddish brown. Oaklif is picky about care, needs a spacious bowl and a constant temperature regime.

Most lettuce salads go well with each other to taste, so you can choose several varieties for your home garden on the windowsill. In this case, it is advisable to select varieties with similar requirements for growth conditions.

How to plant watercress on a windowsill?

If desired, you can grow any vegetable and greens at home, which cannot but please people who do not have a land plot. First, buy fresh seeds (they should not be older than six months) and be sure to check their integrity. Planting watercress at home can be done in several ways:

1. Using an inert substrate. The advantages of watercress include the fact that it can be grown without soil. Take a container and put a sponge, sawdust, cotton wool, gauze or other substrate on the bottom, the thickness of which should be 1.5-2 cm. Pour it over with settled water and soak the seeds separately. After that, transfer them to the prepared substrate, placing them as evenly as possible. Cover with plastic wrap to create a greenhouse effect. Place the container in a semi-shaded place away from hot batteries. Within a day, sprouts will appear, and the film can be removed. To grow watercress on the windowsill, do not forget to water the seedlings and turn them 180 ° every day. Carry out feeding, which will be discussed below.

   

2. Using soil. In a container 8-10 cm high, put drainage on the bottom, for example, expanded clay, and its layer should be 2-3 cm. It is important that there are holes in the flowerpot for excess moisture to escape. Pour a layer of 3-4 cm of soil into it and pour the previously soaked seeds on top. Put a 1 cm layer of soil on top. Moisten slightly using a spray bottle and cover with foil or glass. Further actions as in the first method.

   

3. Using a tea sieve. Thanks to this method, you can collect watercress very quickly at home. Pour seeds into a sieve, put it in a cup and pour warm (temperature 30 ° C) water through it. Put it on the windowsill and wait for the result.

   

Harvesting

Greens grow quickly. It can be harvested over a period of several weeks. Plugged out by the roots or the outer leaves are torn off... Arrows form after 3 to 5 weeks. The plant is removed. Other seeds are sown in its place.

Experienced gardeners plant salad every 10 days... 40-50 grams of greens are obtained from one plant. But it all depends on the variety.

Lettuce can be grown both outdoors and at home. But when planting it in an apartment, you need to remember that it requires daily care.

1. This is a moisture-loving plant. The soil should always be slightly damp. But excess moisture can kill him.
2. The best place is a windowsill on the south, southeast side. It is impossible to grow it without enough light at home.

Watercress - growing conditions

If you want to make a small vegetable garden on the windowsill, then follow a few simple recommendations:

1. Lighting. Lettuce can be grown on both the north and northwest windowsill. In cold weather, it is recommended to use additional lighting - phytolamps or daylight lamp. The device should be at a height of 0.5 m from the watercress on the windowsill. When using LED lamps, they can be placed at a height of 5 cm from the plants. The duration of daylight hours should not exceed 14 hours.
2. Temperature. When growing watercress on a balcony or windowsill, it must be borne in mind that an increased temperature can lead to drying out of the soil and the death of plantings. Indicators from 17 to 20 ° C are considered ideal.
3. Thinning. Experts recommend regularly removing excess young plants. The first time the procedure should be carried out a week after the emergence of shoots, but keep in mind that the distance between the shoots should not be more than 2 cm. The second time it is recommended to remove excess shoots after the formation of several leaves. After that, there should be at least 5 cm between the plants. Thanks to this, the watercress on the windowsill will grow, and not stretch up.

Watercress greens - soil

If it was decided to plant a plant in the ground, then it is best to go to the store for it. Choose a universal "Biogrunt", which will contain all the important substances and does not require preparation, that is, the removal of microbes, and so on. When planting watercress at home, keep in mind that there should be a lot of humus in the soil. This is at the expense if ordinary earth is used, which must be roasted in the oven so that there are no bacteria.

How to water watercress at home?

For rapid growth, it is important to constantly maintain soil moisture, because if the soil is allowed to dry out, the plant will quickly age and taste bitter. Use a long-nosed watering can for watering. Growing watercress at home on a windowsill also includes regular spraying of the plantings, for which use settled water at room temperature.

Watercress on the windowsill - dressing

It is recommended to apply fertilizers several times:

1. When the first real leaf appears, use a urea solution, for which you need to take 25 g of urea in a bucket of water. It can be applied at the root and sprayed.
2. In order for the watercress greens to grow well, a week after the first feeding, apply fertilizers, for which mix 20 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium salt and ammonium sulfate each. The amount shown is based on a bucket of water. After harvesting, apply fertilizer again to provide the growing plants with nutrients.

Common grower mistakes when growing

Mistake # 1. At home, amateurs neglect the observance of the light regime.

Lack of lighting forces the lettuce to stretch in height, slows down the formation of green mass and accelerates shooting and flowering. Varietal and species characteristics dictate the required daylight hours - 9-14 hours.

Mistake # 2. Heat is a spoiled crop.

Lettuce easily tolerates low temperatures, but has a negative attitude towards overheating. A temperature of 15-20 ° C meets the requirements of both leafy and head varieties. Overheating leads to early shooting (appearance of a flower arrow) of these plants.

Mistake number 3. Thickening of the planting.

Despite its unpretentiousness, the salad does not like a thickened planting. This leads to a lack of light, which we have already mentioned, and a lack of supply area. As a result - a slowdown in development, late harvest or even its absence.