Greenery on the windowsill in winter for beginners

Content

1 What greens are suitable for growing on a windowsill?
2 Important rules for growing herbs on a windowsill
3 Summarize

In winter, there is especially a shortage of fresh food and vitamins. You can make up for it with the help of foreign fruits and vegetables, the cost of which, as a rule, is quite high. An alternative to purchased fresh produce can be greens grown with your own hands on the windowsill. The technology for cultivating greens indoors is quite simple and accessible to every owner. You can grow any greenery on the windowsill, which will become a decoration and flavor “zest” of many dishes, a fresh source of vitamins and minerals. Below in the article we’ll talk about how to grow greens on a windowsill in winter without problems or hassle.

What greens are suitable for growing on a windowsill?

More often in winter, herbs such as parsley, dill, thyme, basil, cilantro or lemon balm are grown in the apartment. Also in demand in winter are lettuce, spinach, and onions. Each crop has its own agrotechnical requirements for growing conditions, so when deciding to cultivate this or that greenery on the windowsill, you need to know and remember the following features:

Parsley

You can grow parsley on a window in winter from the seeds or roots of this plant. For cultivation from seeds, parsley varieties such as “Astra”, “Vorozheya”, “Sakharnaya”, “Urozhaynaya”, “Biser” are chosen. Before sowing, it is recommended to prepare the seeds by soaking. To do this, they are wrapped in a fabric or gauze bag, moistened with warm water, placed in a plastic bag, leaving the bundle in conditions with a temperature of +23-+25⁰From for a day. After this, the grains are sown in a container filled with fertile soil to a depth of 5 mm. Before the sprouts appear, the container can be placed in a dark place, but as soon as the first shoots appear, the container with greens is placed on the windowsill.

Important! Parsley seedlings must be thinned out, creating an interval between plants of 3-4 cm.

The process of growing parsley from seeds is quite long: from the day of sowing the grains to the first tasting of the greens, approximately 1.5 months should pass. By this time the greens will be 8-10 cm high.

Advice! You can get greens much faster, in just 3-4 weeks, if you use parsley roots for growing.

To do this, select rhizomes with a diameter of 2 cm and a length of less than 5 cm. Such short and plump roots must have an apical bud. The roots need to be planted in a deep container on a slope so that a 2-3 cm layer of soil can be poured over the uppermost part of them. After planting the roots, the container should be placed in a cool place, and when the sprouts appear, place it on the windowsill. The optimal temperature for green growth is the range from +15 to +20⁰WITH.

Important! By analogy with parsley, you can grow celery greens from seeds or rhizomes.

Dill greens

Dill can be used in preparing many dishes. Such popularity makes dill one of the most popular crops on the windowsill in winter. For growing indoors, the varieties “Grenadier”, “Gribovsky”, “Uzbek-243” and some others are used.

Before sowing, green seeds are disinfected with a manganese solution and soaked for a day in warm water, changing the liquid every 6 hours. Sow the seeds in a container filled with light nutrient soil. To do this, make furrows at a distance of 10-15 cm. The seeds in the furrows are sprinkled with a layer of soil 1-2 cm thick. You need to grow dill on a windowsill at a temperature within +17-+20⁰C. Under such conditions, dill will germinate within a week, and fresh greens can be eaten in full within a month.

Important! For regular use of greens in winter, it is recommended to sow dill seeds every 3-4 weeks.

Thyme greens

Growing thyme on a windowsill in winter is very easy. To do this, prepare a deep and spacious container. A drainage layer is poured at its bottom, on top of which fertile soil is placed. Thyme seeds are planted in the soil to a depth of 1-2 cm. It is necessary to moisten the soil as it dries. Before the greenery sprouts, the containers are placed in a dark and warm corner. After the greenery germinates, they are installed on the windowsill. Heavily dense plantings should be gradually thinned out.

Important! Thyme is demanding of light, so in winter it needs additional lighting.

Basil greens

Growing basil at home from seeds is quite difficult. This is due to cultural characteristics:

basil seeds contain a lot of essential oils, which is why they take a very long time to germinate;
The culture is thermophilic and for the successful growth of its greenery it is necessary to maintain a temperature of about +25⁰WITH.

If, taking these features into account, you still decide to grow basil from seeds, then it is recommended to soak them in warm water for 2 days before sowing. The water needs to be changed regularly. To sow, seeds are scattered over the surface of the soil and lightly covered with a thin layer of soil on top. The container with the crops is covered with polyethylene or glass and placed on the windowsill on the south side. As soon as basil shoots appear, the covering material is removed. When 5-6 leaves appear, the plants are pinched in order to obtain more lateral greenery. When buds appear, they are cut off. It is necessary to moisten the soil in which basil grows daily in the morning.

Important! You can quickly grow basil in a window by rooting fresh shoots.

Green cilantro (coriander)

Cilantro is valued for its deep and bright aroma and delicate leaves. Having decided to grow these greens at home, you need to pay attention to the varieties “Luch”, “Yantar” and “Smena”. It is these varieties that are suitable for growing greens on a windowsill in winter.

Before sowing in the ground, cilantro seeds should be germinated in damp cloth or sawdust. The best temperature for seed germination is +17-+20⁰C. As soon as sprouts appear on the cilantro grains, they need to be sown in moist soil, sprinkled with a layer of soil. It is not recommended to sow the seeds of this greenery too thickly. The optimal distance from one seed to another should be at least 5 cm. After sowing the seeds, the container should be covered with a protective material that will maintain the required level of humidity for the plants.Every day, the shelter needs to be removed for a while to allow the crops to ventilate.

Important! Cilantro does not tolerate drought, so it needs to be watered daily without allowing the soil to dry out.

Cilantro grows well at temperatures +10-+12⁰C. In an apartment in winter, such conditions can be found on an insulated balcony. Within a month from the day of sowing the seeds, cilantro will delight you with an abundance of green leaves. They must be plucked off and in no case should the stems be cut off completely, as this will lead to the death of the plant.

Melissa

Fragrant green lemon balm can be obtained not only in the summer by growing the plant in the garden, but also in the winter by growing it on the windowsill. Melissa is very unpretentious, grows at high and low air temperatures, in sunny areas and in partial shade.

Greens can be grown on a windowsill from cuttings, offsets, and lemon balm seeds. The easiest way to get this plant at home is to dig it out of the garden in autumn and plant it in a pot.

Growing fragrant lemon balm from seeds is labor-intensive and painstaking. To do this, the seeds are pre-treated with a solution of potassium permanganate, after which they are sown in a container with fertile soil to a depth of 1 cm. The container must be covered with film or glass. Young plants from a common pot dive into separate containers. It is important to provide lemon balm with regular watering and spraying of leaves, and the soil must have good water permeability. By analogy with lemon balm, you can grow sage on your windowsill at home.

Important! The longer the lemon balm is exposed to the sun, the more vibrant the aroma will be emitted by its greens.

Spinach

Spinach can be successfully grown at home in winter on a windowsill in flower pots or other containers more than 15 cm deep.Before sowing, spinach seeds are soaked in warm water for two days and treated with a manganese solution. They are sown in the soil to a depth of 1-2 cm. The distance between adjacent spinach grains during sowing should be at least 4 cm.

Spinach prefers to grow in sunny areas of the earth at temperatures up to +18⁰C. In conditions of short daylight hours, the growing temperature should be reduced to +10-+15⁰C. Greens should be watered and sprayed regularly. 3 weeks after sowing the grains in the ground, the spinach can be cut for consumption, and seeds can be sprinkled into the remaining containers for the next cycle of growing greens.

Lettuce leaves

Leaf lettuce is light-loving, so it is recommended to grow it only on windowsills oriented to the south. Otherwise, you will have to regularly illuminate the greenery with fluorescent lamps. However, it is worth remembering that some special varieties of lettuce can grow successfully in partial shade, for example, “Snezhinka”, “Vitaminny”, “Zorepad”, “Lollo”, “Raspberry Ball”. These lettuce varieties allow you to get greens on any windowsill in winter without much hassle.

Growing greens on a windowsill in winter can be done using lettuce seeds. They are sown in previously prepared loose and nutritious soil. The container should be deep enough and spacious enough. After filling the container with soil, you need to make grooves up to 1 cm deep. The rows of lettuce should not be placed too close to each other. The optimal distance between them is 10-15 cm. Before germination, the salad is covered with film or glass to obtain a greenhouse effect. When the first shoots appear, the cover is removed. As the lettuce grows, thin out.

Important! You need to water and spray the salad regularly. With a lack of moisture, lettuce leaves begin to taste bitter.

Bow feather

Onion feathers are the best greens on the windowsill in winter for beginning gardeners. If desired, even a schoolchild can grow it.

Grow a bunch of green onions You can do it without any soil at all, in water. To do this, fill a small container with liquid. The onion is scalded with boiling water and trimmed. The top part of the plant must be removed. Only the roots of the onion are dipped into the water to prevent it from rotting. The greens of such an onion can be cut regularly until the quality of the onion itself deteriorates (over time it will wrinkle).

A more difficult way to grow bulbous feathers on a windowsill is to use soil. To do this, fill a small container with a nutrient substrate and drop the onion into it, immersing it by a third. The plant is watered regularly. You can additionally retain moisture in the soil by adding hydrogel to the soil mixture when planting onions.

Important! By planting bulbs at intervals of 2 weeks, you can constantly provide yourself with greens throughout the winter season.

Thus, the question “What greens can be grown at home on the windowsill?” has a clear answer: “Any!” The list of possible options is not limited to the plants listed above. If desired, you can grow garlic, watercress, chives, oregano, mustard and other crops on the windowsill. At the same time, it is necessary to choose one or another plant based on existing conditions: temperature, light, humidity.

Important rules for growing herbs on a windowsill

When deciding to grow greens on a windowsill, it is important to remember some important principles and rules:

The soil for growing herbs on a windowsill should be light and well-drained. A mixture of vermicompost and coconut fiber is ideal for use. The proportion of the mixture should be 1:2. It is recommended to disinfect soil from the garden before use.
To create a drainage layer, you can use expanded clay, broken brick or pebbles. The thickness of the layer in the container must be at least 2 cm.
The container must have drainage holes.
It is better to water the greens at home with a fine spray. Once every 2-3 weeks, liquid complex mineral fertilizers should be added to the water for irrigation.
To illuminate the greenery, only fluorescent lamps are used. Regular table lamps produce a lot of heat and little light.
It is recommended to grow low-growing, bushy, early plants on the windowsill;
It is necessary to germinate green seeds in early autumn, when daylight hours vary in length. Warmth and light will help seedlings to germinate faster.
Daylight hours for most green plants should be 10-13 hours. For illumination, lamps are placed above the plants at a height of 10-50 cm.
To ensure uniform growth of green mass, plants on the windowsill are recommended to be rotated 180⁰ once a day.
To feed greenery on the windowsill, you can use mineral fertilizer complexes. Organic matter in an apartment can become a source of unpleasant odors.

You can familiarize yourself with some other rules for growing greenery on a windowsill in the video:

The video clearly demonstrates the process of growing various greens and allows you to hear valuable comments from an experienced gardener.

Summarize

Growing greens in winter is, of course, troublesome, but no less enjoyable.After all, while nature is resting under the cover of snow, wonderful green leaves and twigs grow in a small garden bed in the apartment, which contain many vitamins and minerals. Using them for food is, first of all, a manifestation of care for your family and friends. The gardener himself, taking care of green plantings, takes pleasure in remembering warm summer days with nostalgia.