How to grow lettuce at home in winter?

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

Lettuce roots 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 moisturize 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 top 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. They are plucked 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.

In winter, you need to think about your health, in particular about good nutrition. Greens will help to enrich the diet with useful vitamins and microelements. Growing a salad on a windowsill in winter will not be difficult - this culture is quite accessible in home cultivation.To get a good harvest of lettuce, you need to know the rules for planting and caring for the plant.

Lettuce has a number of health benefits. It contains vitamins and minerals that have a beneficial effect on the body. When using the product, the normalization of the working capacity of the heart and nervous system is ensured, blood pressure decreases, and immunity is strengthened. It is recommended for dieters, children and pregnant women. With a low-calorie content, the salad contains useful substances - the feeling of fullness lasts a long time.

Greens are used in cosmetology for skin rejuvenation and regeneration. It is used to make preparations for the improvement of hair and nails. The salad mask is an excellent tonic and prevents age-related changes in the skin of the face.

What varieties can be grown on a windowsill?

Before choosing which salad to grow at home, you should familiarize yourself with the characteristics of the various varieties. There are several popular varieties that are unpretentious in planting and care:

Varieties for growing on a windowsill are characterized by unpretentiousness, quick germination and high productivity.

Photo: Lettuce varieties

Requirements for growing lettuce at home

To get a good harvest of greenery in the winter in an apartment, you should adhere to the general requirements of cultivation:

1. Before planting a plant from seeds, the grains must be soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate for 3 hours.
2. The substrate for greenery should consist of vermicompost and coconut fiber in a ratio of 1: 2.
3. The soil should have a drainage of brick chips, pebbles or expanded clay
4. Additional lighting with phytolamps is required for 2-5 hours.
5. For growing lettuce, containers of 1-2 liters are selected.
6. It is better to moisten the plant with a spray bottle with water at room temperature.
7. Every week, fertilizing with liquid fertilizer should be applied during the active growth of the crop.

By adhering to simple rules, in winter you can enjoy delicious and healthy greens.

Features of planting indoor lettuce

Before planting a salad, you need to prepare everything - planting material, pot, soil, drainage. Planting stages:

1. A room bed is being prepared. To do this, choose a suitable container made of wood, clay, you can choose old dishes.
2. Drainage in progress. Experienced breeders recommend using not only pebbles, but also laying a synthetic winterizer on the bottom. It absorbs moisture well, and when the soil dries up, it gives it back.
3. The soil mixture is poured. You can buy ready-made in the store or take it from the garden and mix with sand. Outdoor soil should be disinfected before planting seeds - warm it up in the microwave or pour it with a solution of potassium permanganate.
4. Sowing seeds. The seeds are deepened by 0.5 cm, at a distance of 10 cm. Then they are covered with soil and watered.
5. Further, to create a greenhouse effect, the container is covered with glass and placed in a warm place. After the appearance of the first shoots. Reveals.

Further care for young shoots involves watering, feeding and providing additional lighting.

Reviews of gardeners about growing lettuce are only positive. Cultivating greens on your windowsill in winter is a great option that will allow you to enjoy a healthy product all winter. The culture does not require much maintenance. No difficulty in landing. The whole process of cultivation is a pleasure.

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 collected. 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 create a drainage layer so that excess water runs 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.

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 in 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 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.

The temperature regime is 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 sowing, 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 sowing, 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 way to "support" the growing salad sockets 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 varieties of lettuce, 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.

Rate the article:

(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5)

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 like 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 soil moisture 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?

In a room, 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