How to grow lettuce leaves at home in winter?

Garden greens are rich in vitamins and various nutrients. It is used in various salads, in first and second courses, as well as to decorate festive dishes. But, if in summer there are no problems with where to get fresh greens, then in winter it is much more difficult to get greens. And the prices in stores in winter "bite".

Unfortunately, lettuce, unlike, for example, parsley or dill, is not stored frozen. But this plant lends itself well to growing at home. It does not require much effort and cost.

Choosing a salad variety

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.

We advise you to read

Early ripening varieties of lettuce:

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

Lettuce varieties that are resistant to lack of light:

• ballet;
• emerald lace NK;
• celtic.

Containers or pots?

To use this growing technology, plant seeds are needed that can be grown in pots. Watercress on the windowsill is the best option, since this particular type of plant is well suited for growing at home. You can use other lettuce salads as well. It is best if the word "small" is present in the salad variety.

The root system of the lettuce does not penetrate deeply into the soil, so lettuce can be grown in shallow plastic containers or pots. It is best to choose plastic pots and containers, as clay products absorb moisture, thereby draining the soil and causing the surface to dry quickly.

How to grow salad in ceramic pots?

Just as in plastic, only the walls of ceramic products need to be covered with plastic bags, in which holes are made in advance to allow water to drain. Drainage holes are required at the bottom of the pot or container.When watering is carried out, excess moisture flows into the saucer, which creates optimal conditions for the life of plants.

Planting lettuce seeds at home

Buy a standard soil mix for your plants. You can, of course, use a mixture of garden soil with humus, turf and sand, but if you want to grow salad without fuss, you do not need to fantasize, coming up with ways to disinfect such soil. Avoid using soil directly from your garden, as it always contains bacteria and insects that can damage your crops.

Fill the pot with soil high, but not all the way to the top. You should leave approximately 2.5-3 cm of empty space between the soil surface and the edge of the container.

Articles about indoor and ornamental plants

Sprinkle the seeds on top - with a pinch, as if salt it. Try not to plant too much in one place, but you don't need to worry too much about how far apart the seeds are. Subsequently, the seedlings will still have to be thinned out. You can, if the size of the container allows, poke holes in half a centimeter with your finger and throw seeds into them, or make even grooves - do as you like.

Sprinkle soil on top, covering the seeds with a layer of 0.5-0.7 cm. If you use more soil, the seeds will not be able to get the light they need to germinate.

Salad care at home

In the future, the care of crops consists in maintaining soil moisture and controlling the temperature in the room. At the same time, please note that the moisture content of the soil should not turn into waterlogging, otherwise the plants will begin to rot. Watering should be carried out by sprinkling every 2 or 3 days, it depends on the ambient temperature. The optimum temperature for the growth of lettuce is considered to be 16 - 20 ° C, although on a loggia during spring (mid-April) sowing, plants can ripen perfectly at 6 - 7 ° C. The elevated temperature and dry air of apartments have a negative effect on the culture, and therefore it is recommended to periodically spray lettuce leaves and more often arrange ventilation for crops on the windowsills. In the phase of 2 leaves, the seedlings are thinned at a distance of at least 8 cm. The torn seedlings can be planted around the edges of containers with tomato or cucumber seedlings, using the lettuce as a sealant plant.

Lettuce grows rather quickly under suitable conditions, building up a ready-to-eat leaf mass within 2 to 3 weeks. Ripe leaves of watercress are cut and used for food, they grow again after root feeding with mineral fertilizers. Other lettuce salads are uprooted, shaken off the ground and stacked vertically in boxes or baskets in one layer for storage. It is recommended to store them before use under a film in a dark place at a temperature of 1 - 2 ° C ..

How to grow watercress on a windowsill using soil or sawdust?

Indoors, you can grow watercress in the usual way using commercially available greenhouse potting mix or sawdust. Since the root system of watercress is relatively small, for planting, use dishes no more than 7 cm high.The dish is filled with soil or sawdust (it is advisable to pre-steam them in a water bath), the seeds are sown to a depth of about 0.5 cm, the distance between the rows should be about 10 cm, moisturize well. After the first shoots appear, the container is transferred to the windowsill, the temperature is maintained at + 8, and when shoots appear, it is increased to + 10 ° C. Seedlings need to be thinned, the distance between rows should be at least 5 cm.

Watercress is a moisture-loving culture, so it needs to be watered often, but without fanaticism, excess moisture also harms the plant, like overdrying the soil. When the first pair of leaves appears on the plant, it is time for feeding: dilute 2.5 g of urea in 1 liter of water, pour the watercress with this solution.After 14 days, the plant is fed a second time: take superphosphate - 2 g, ammonium sulfate - 1 g, potassium salt - 1.5 g, dilute it all in a liter of water.

The first harvest of lettuce can be cut after 10 days, the bulk of the leaves ripen about 18 days after sowing. Watercress is usually cut 2 times. After the plant reaches a height of 10-15 cm, it is removed. In this way, you can grow watercress even in winter, for this you just need to stock up on seeds.

Check also our articles

How to grow salad at home video

The salad contains a huge amount of nutrients. Therefore, many lovers of this greenery want to grow it not only in their summer cottage, but also at home. Is it possible to grow lettuce from seeds on a windowsill at home? This will be discussed further.

Is it possible to grow lettuce on a windowsill

Lettuce can be grown at home as well. Both in winter and summer. But this plant at home requires a lot of attention.

For his growth needs a lot of sunshine... On short winter days, it needs additional lighting. If there is not enough light, it begins to bloom early. Does not tolerate drought, heat. In this case, the leaves become bitter. Beginners should not take on growing head forms in an apartment. They are very moody.

This is an early maturing culture. To constantly have greens at home, it must be planted 1 time in 10 - 14 days.

The best varieties of lettuce to grow at home

Batavia is the most suitable salad variety for an apartment

The most suitable variety for an apartment is considered Batavia... In grocery stores, it is most often sold.

It grows even without additional illumination. Can withstand short-term drought, high air temperatures.

The most famous varieties for cultivation on the windowsill:

• Lollo rossa
• Emerald lace
• New Year
• Lollo bionda
• Vitamin

Lolla rossa is distinguished by its brown head, curly light green leaves. Counts the most vitamin... It has a delicate taste.

Lolla bionda - the most beautiful... The leaves are wavy. Yellow-green color. The taste is pleasant, bitter with a nutty flavor.

The apartment also grows watercress... This is a moisture-loving plant. The best varieties for the windowsill:

• curly;
• pepper;
• broadleaf;
• ordinary.

Broadleaf watercress

Choosing a container for sowing and preparing the soil

The roots of the lettuce do not go deep into the soil. Large containers are not needed to grow it. Better to choose a plastic pot. The capacity should be volume of 1-2 liters... Depth - 10 - 35 cm. Depending on the variety. There should be holes at the bottom of the container.

The soil can be purchased at the store or used garden soil. Acidic soil is not suitable for planting. Better option - a mixture of sod land, humus, sand... Another option is garden soil, coconut fiber, vermicompost. The ratio of the latter two is 2: 1.

For sowing, it is necessary to use drainage: pebbles, expanded clay, broken brick, small stones.

When using garden soil, the soil should be disinfected with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. The soil is filled into the pot, not reaching the edges of 2.5 - 3 cm.

Some varieties can be grown without soil... One of them is watercress. For cultivation, they use such improvised materials as a sponge, cotton wool, paper.

Some lettuce varieties can be grown without soil - on paper or cotton wool

Sowing seeds

• Before sowing, seeds are disinfected in a solution of potassium permanganate. Time is 2-3 hours.
• A drainage layer is placed on the bottom of the pot.
• The drainage is covered with earth. Watering.
• Make a groove. Depth - 5 mm... Distance between rows - 10 cm.
• Seeds are placed in the groove. Fall asleep with a small amount of earth. Slightly compacted.
• Cover the container with a bag - create a greenhouse effect.
• They are placed in a dark place.
• When the first shoots appear, the bag is removed. Transferred to the windowsill.

The first shoots can be seen after 4 - 5 days... You need to protect it from direct sunlight. On bright sunny days, it is necessary to shade it - the leaves can burn.

The salad loves warmth. For its good growth, a temperature of 17-21 degrees is required. During a strong drop in temperatures outside, the container with plants should be removed from the windowsill.

Culture needs thinning... This is done 2 times:

1. After 1 week, as the first shoots appear; Leave a distance of 1–2 cm between them.
2. When 2 true leaves are formed; Distance - 4-5 cm.

If the lettuce grows densely, you will not be able to get a good harvest.

Lettuce needs to be thinned twice

Watering

Watering should be abundant... With insufficient soil moisture, arrows begin to form earlier than usual. Watered with settled water 1 time in 1 - 2 days.

If the container is on the south side, more often. In winter - less often. It is impossible to moisten the soil too much - the roots and lower leaves will begin to rot. The air in the room should be humidified. The leaves are sprayed with water from a spray bottle.

Top dressing

Feed Once every 1.5-2 weeks... Fertilizers are suitable for indoor plants. It is a fast growing culture. If fertile soil was chosen for planting, it grows well without them.

You cannot apply a large amount of nitrogen fertilizers - lettuce is capable of accumulating nitrates. If you use a potassium iodide-based dressing, you can get a plant with a lot of iodine in the composition.

Lighting

Light-loving plant. In winter, in short autumn - spring days, you need to use additional lighting - fluorescent lamps. They need to be turned on for 2 - 5 hours. Hang it at a height of 50 - 60 cm above the plant.

Daylight hours when growing lettuce should last 12-14 hours

In total, daylight hours should last 12-14 hours... It is impossible to highlight during the day. The greens need to rest.

If it is not possible to add additional lighting to the plant, it is best to plant it at the end of winter.

Loosening

Lettuce has very fragile, superficial roots. Loosen the ground under the seedlings it is forbidden.

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.

Growing fast. Doesn't take up much space. But you need to choose the right variety for the pot.

Every day we think about our health and nutrition. When choosing what to cook, we try to make our diet as complete and rich in vitamins as possible. 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.

Choosing a salad variety

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.

Varieties that are resistant to lack of light:

• ballet;
• emerald lace NK;
• celtic.

Sowing preparation

Choosing a container for sowing and preparing the soil

To grow lettuce on the balcony, you need to pick up a container with a depth of 20-25 cm.If you still decide to grow a cabbage variety, you will need to pick up the container for planting it deeper - about 35 cm.In order to have fresh greens at home in winter everything time, it is worth preparing several containers, and sowing the seeds every two weeks.

If you do not have any suitable containers at home, then in order to grow salad on a balcony or windowsill, you can simply use a thick plastic bag. The package is placed on a dish, moistened soil is poured into it, and many small holes are made on the sides so that excess water can come out through them. A lettuce grown in a bag will be no different from its container counterparts.

The soil for growing lettuce must be nutritious. You can buy a ready-made mixture in a special store. And if you want to make the potting mix yourself, you can use this composition:

Garden land	2
Peat	1
Rotten manure	1
Compost	1

In order to make this mixture nutritious, it is recommended to add 1 kg of sand and wood ash and 1 tablespoon of urea and nitrophoska to a bucket of this mixture.

At home, you can still use a mixture that is easy to prepare using this composition:

Garden land	1
Biohumus	1
Coconut fiber	2

Drainage and seeding

The soil in which you grow the lettuce should be slightly damp at all times. But at the same time, stagnation of this moisture is categorically not allowed. With excess moisture, the root collar and lower leaves may begin to rot. Therefore, before placing lettuce in a container, you need to take care of the drainage. As a drainage material, you can use simple pebbles, expanded clay or synthetic winterizer.

Before sowing seeds, it is required to moisten the soil. Then shallow grooves are made. In order for you to grow lush bushes at home, the distance between adjacent grooves should not be less than 15 cm. Seeds are not sown very densely into the grooves, lightly sprinkle them with moist earth and crush them. As a rule, the first shoots sprout quite easily and quickly, but to accelerate their germination, you can create a greenhouse conditions by pulling a plastic bag. If you poured the earth to the very top, you can put arcs of bent wire or sticks, and put a bag on them. This will create an air space between the ground, young seedlings and the film, and keep young seedlings from debating.

Care of young seedlings

After sprouting (it usually takes 2 to 5 days), the film must be removed. If the salad has sprouted very thickly, the seedlings are thinned out. Further care for your plantings at home on the balcony is quite simple. They need to be moistened once every couple of days. At the same time, they moisten both the earth and the leaves themselves, which are good to spray from the spray bottle. It is convenient to water the salad from a watering can with a long spout, especially when the leaves grow up. In winter, lettuce, which grows at home on the windowsill, or on the balcony, must be supplemented with special lamps, so ultraviolet radiation is not enough for its successful growth.These lamps can always be bought in specialty stores, and you can enjoy growing many crops at home all year round.

If you cannot afford to buy a special lamp for plants, you can take a simple fluorescent lamp and set it at a height of 50-60 cm from the plants. Light day for salad should last at least 12-14 hours.

If these conditions are met, in a month you will be able to harvest your first grown crop.

If you have a lot of free space on the balcony or on the windowsill at home, you can advise, at the time when your seedlings have two real leaves, to plant at least some seedlings in separate cups. Growing lettuce greens in separate pots will produce shrubs with much larger leaves than those grown in a common container.

Fertilization of crops

In order to grow a salad at home on the balcony, it is not at all necessary to fertilize it, if a nutritious soil mixture is initially selected. If you are not sure that the soil in which you sowed the seeds is nutritious enough, then your plants should be fed periodically. This is due to the fact that lettuce is a very fast growing crop. You can use any complex fertilizer or mullein solution for feeding. The mullein must be diluted 1:10. Plants are watered with this solution once a week. This is how you can get a salad on the windowsill.

Outcomes

Summing up, it should be noted that getting lettuce on the balcony in winter will take some effort. But the delicate taste of home-grown greens and the certainty that you are eating healthy greens without chemicals is definitely worth it!

How, in winter, you want to crunch with juicy leaves of greenery, and not purchased in a supermarket with a whole set of nitrates, but environmentally friendly, just harvested. In this case, you need to master the cultivation of lettuce on the windowsill, especially since there is no particular difficulty in this, because the culture is early ripening and unpretentious.

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.

Tip: in addition to traditional expanded clay, you can use pieces of ordinary padding polyester 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 warming up 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 window sills to provide the salad with maximum illumination on short winter 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 safely.

Sowing lettuce in boxes, leave at least 10 cm between the rows, and deepen the seeds 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 break down 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, to 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.

Crop care and harvest

The main conditions for growing moisture-loving lettuce are regular, moderate watering. Young plants do not need much water, but as they grow, the frequency and volume of watering will increase.

Temperature conditions are also important. We prefer cool salad, but an increase in temperature above + 15 ° C leads to drying out of the tips of the leaves, loss of taste, and will most likely provoke the shooter's rosette. Therefore, it is better to place containers with crops on a loggia, a glazed balcony, on a window in a corridor or on a veranda, where it is not hot and the temperature does not drop below + 5 ... + 7 ° C.

And a few more words about illumination. With spring crops, lettuce seedlings will have enough natural daylight. But in late autumn - early winter, when daylight hours are minimal and the weather is cloudy for most of the time, additional lighting will be required, otherwise the plants will stretch out and you will no longer grow a juicy green mass.

With spring crops, lettuce seedlings will have enough natural daylight

Mineral dressing for the salad is not needed, the nutrients contained in the soil will suffice for its short growing season. It is unreasonable to use traditional organic fertilizers in an apartment because of the characteristic smell. The only thing that can "support" the growing rosettes of the salad is to add the same Humate during watering - it is useful, harmless and does not smell, but you can do without fertilizers altogether.

With proper care, the first crop can be harvested in about three to four weeks. Of course, in leafy or head lettuce varieties, the first crispy leaves can be pinched off even earlier and use the greens gradually, without waiting for the formation of a full-fledged rosette. And by sowing seeds periodically, at intervals of 1-2 weeks, you will provide your family with fresh greens during the entire cold period.

Features of growing watercress

An almost win-win option to get fresh greens in winter, and besides, without any hassle, is watercress on the windowsill. It can be successfully grown in any small bowls or dishes, on trays, or even just in a shoe box lid covered with polyethylene.It is even easier with the substrate: it can be a 2-3 cm layer of ordinary soil, peat or even sawdust. If this is also at hand, then a soft cloth folded in several layers, paper towels, ordinary table napkins or sponges, for example, moistened with water and laid in a plate, are suitable for germination of seeds.

Seeds of watercress are sown densely enough so that the growing tender stems support each other and do not fall. Seedlings appear faster than those of leafy varieties, no later than 5-7 days, and the seedlings themselves are more patient with the growing conditions - the cool air is favorable for them, + 15 ... + 17 ° C, the air at the window, and the meager winter sun is enough for them ...

Video on how to grow watercress

Advice: children are especially enthusiastic about home "beds", and if they are entrusted with growing tender greens on their own, then they will eat it with great appetite!

The main thing in growing watercress is in no case to prevent the soil from drying out, which can quickly and irrevocably destroy crops, but the stagnation of excess water also leads to root rot.

The first crop of watercress is harvested when it grows to 8-10cm. Plants are carefully cut with scissors just before eating - such greens are stored for a short time. Considering that almost all varieties of watercress grow quickly, it is recommended to sow them every 3-4 days so that the delicate greens on your table are not transferred.