How to grow watercress on the windowsill easily and quickly?

Who among us is not enthusiastic about fresh vitamin greens? But in the garden it can be grown only in the summer. Of course, the store sells greens at any time of the year, but in quality it will be completely different. Get natural greens at any time in a simple and affordable way - just grow a watercress on the windowsill. How to grow a salad, and this article will tell.

Useful properties of watercress

Why watercress? The answer to this question is simple - it is a very useful plant that is easily grown on a windowsill.

Cress-salad is a fragrant greens of the cabbage type. It contains a huge amount of various vitamins, essential oils, ascorbic acid and various useful trace elements.

Regular use of watercress in food significantly helps the body, namely:

• Increases immunity;
• Heals cough due to alkaloids and resins included;
• Prevents the occurrence of vitamin deficiency and anemia;
• Cleanses the bronchi;
• Asthmatics prevent asthma attacks;
• Normalizes blood pressure and improves metabolism;
• Improves the functioning of the organs of the gastrointestinal tract;
• Strengthens the nervous system;
• Relieves insomnia;
• Helps to stop smoking.

In addition, chopped leaves of this salad are part of home ointments, lotions, creams that significantly reduce acne and make less visible traces of acne.

Also, watercress is loved because of its unusual acute taste, similar to the taste of horseradish (in the people it is also called horseradish).

Despite a huge number of advantages, the plant is unpretentious in care. That's why it is very easy to grow cress-salad on the windowsill all year round: it grows quickly, does not require special attention, cold-resistant, shade-tolerant.

Varieties

Today, there are three varieties of watercress:

• Curly - is distinguished by a small rosette of leaves (17 cm) and raised, strongly dissected leaves (for example, "openwork").
• Sowing - is distinguished by a large rosette (up to 21 cm) and horizontal, broad, solid leaves (for example, "dansky", "fun").
• All-leaved - is distinguished by a large rosette, narrow little-cut leaves (for example, "ducat").

Because of its early maturity, there is often a watercress "Dansky" on the windowsill. How to grow it - is described further.

What will it take to grow a watercress on the windowsill

Serious preliminary preparation and hard-to-reach means for cultivation of watercress will not be required. Initially, you need to choose the most suitable variety and buy seeds. When choosing seeds, it is important to carefully inspect the packaging. It should not be rumpled or torn. It is also important to check the expiry date of the seeds.

Then you should prepare:

• Capacity for growing salad. Its height should be about 10 cm. As a container, you can use a plastic container, a bowl of pial, a plate, a tray or a shallow flower pot.
• The nutrient medium (substrate) for cultivation. Such a substrate can be cotton wool, cotton wheels, foam rubber, gauze, peat or well-ground wood shavings. The substrate can also be replaced with a hydrogel.
• Food film or cellophane bag.
• Ordinary or purchased nutrient soil.
• A mug and a teaspoon.

How to grow watercress on the windowsill? The ways for this are completely different. Consider the main ones.

Growing cress-salad in a substrate

It is necessary to take a container and lay a suitable substrate on the bottom in a layer of 1.5-2 cm. The substrate should then be moistened with boiled or superseded water. If peat or wood shavings are used as a substrate, then it is doused with boiling water to avoid the appearance of mold.

After the substrate is cooked, you need to take a glass, pour seeds into it and pour it with water so that the water completely conceals the seeds. Thus, each seed will be in its shell.

In the water, the seeds should be held for a few seconds, then put a teaspoon of them from a glass in a prepared container with a nutrient medium, and gently distribute them in one layer.

To create greenhouse conditions for seeds, the container should be topped with a food film or cellophane package and placed on a window sill. It is important to put the jar so that it does not get direct sunlight, and away from the hot battery. So in the bank with seeds, a greenhouse effect is created.

In a day you need to check the seeds, usually at this time there are already slightly sprouting outgrowths. Another day should appear already good sprouts, then the film is removed.

It is very simple to take care of this salad: water it in time, sometimes turn it to the light by the other side (so that the plants grow straight). It's good to sprinkle it with water from the spray gun. If desired, you can feed the salad with potassium solution or urea. The main thing is not to overdry the ground, since the salad press loves the moisture, and its deficiency thins the plants and worsens their taste.

After 1.5-2 weeks, the salad can already be eaten.

... and in the soil

In the container you need to fill in the fertile soil (about 7 cm). After this, make even grooves (depth 0.5 cm). The distance between grooves should be 10-15 cm. Seeds are covered with a thin layer of soil (about 1 cm).

Seeds can be sown and in a chaotic order - just pour them out of the glass after soaking, leveling and filling up with earth.

After that, the container should be covered with a film. If the room is warm enough (20-23 degrees), then you can leave the capacity without the film.

With this method, the seeds will rise a little longer (about 2 days), as they germinate through the soil. When the shoots appear, the temperature should be reduced to 10-15 degrees. This will help develop a strong root system of the plant and prevents them from stretching.

After emergence of seeds, care should be taken for the plants in the same way as described in the first method.

The most interesting ways to grow watercress

Because of the unpretentiousness of watercress grow it any way and anywhere. Let's consider some interesting ways of cultivation:

• This method does not require land and capacity for cultivation, and plants will not need daily watering. You need to take a small tea strainer and a cup for water. Seeds are poured into a strainer and poured with warm water (it eventually remains in the cup). After that, a cup of sieve can be removed on the windowsill, a week later the greens will be ready. Growing in this way has a big advantage - a salad can be eaten with roots.
• This method is quite common. Salad is grown in a container, the bottom of which is covered with moist gauze. The disadvantage of this method is that many seeds are required. But these seeds very quickly germinate.
• Growing in an electronic pot. In this pot, lettuce can be grown all year round, while doing absolutely nothing, just pour the seeds. True, there is such a pot quite expensive.

Above, there have been described ways how to quickly grow a watercress on a window sill. In this case, all of them are quite simple.

Features of salad collection

How to grow watercress on the windowsill in winter, we considered, it's time to harvest. It is also necessary to do this correctly.

Cut the salad is possible when the stems grow to 8-9 cm. It is better to do it in the morning or in the evening. Watercress should be eaten fresh, i.e. Do not store. In the refrigerator, it can be stored for no more than a day (preferably in water). If you store salad for more than a day, then it quickly turns yellow and remains without its useful properties.

When the salad is up to 13-14 cm, it should be cut, and as close to the base as possible. After the salad is cut, the rootlets will not grow back, so for continuous harvesting the watercress should be sown every 2 weeks.

Secrets: How to grow a watercress on a windowsill correctly

• To the rosette of leaves was large, the distance between plants should be at least 5 cm.
• Before sowing the soil should be well sealed.
• Sow the seeds in succession, about once every 10 days, so that it grows continuously.
• It is important to water in time, because the watercress loves moisture.

So, we figured out how to grow a watercress on a window sill to make it fragrant and extremely useful. This small garden does not require much space, does not require special care, but brings a lot of pleasure. By the way, watercress can be grown on a window sill as well as on a garden bed.