In winter, there is such a shortage of fresh herbs and vegetables from the garden. What can you grow on your windowsill to enjoy natural products? The list of crops suitable for apartment conditions is quite wide - from parsley and lettuce to tomatoes and cucumbers.
You can grow greens on a windowsill in winter or summer in the same way as in the garden. But keep in mind that some plants are quite demanding. In this article we will look at easy-to-care crops.
If you are a beginner gardener, and therefore do not know what you can grow on the windowsill, then it is better to start with green parsley. And herbs - basil and rosemary - will not only come in handy in the kitchen, but will also spread their aroma throughout the apartment. More experienced amateurs can immediately start by growing cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers.
Children will also enjoy the winter garden. Even a baby can grow on a windowsill. Caring for plants will not only captivate the child and give him a new useful experience, but also provide him with vitamins.
After you have decided what to grow on the windowsill, you need to prepare pots, soil, and seeds. The set is the same for most cultures. Experienced summer residents who know how to grow seedlings on a windowsill already have almost everything they need.
To set up a vegetable garden on a windowsill, you will need deep boxes or wide flower pots for planting plants. They can be equipped with plastic covers to create a greenhouse effect. For these purposes, you can also use ordinary plastic bags.
The pots need to be filled with soil from a flower shop or a self-prepared substrate. It is better to avoid using soil from the garden or vegetable garden, as insect larvae and weed seeds may remain in it. If the soil from the street is not prepared and calcined, then there is a high probability that you can grow one weed on the windowsill.
You also need to prepare a container for settling water - tender young plants should not be watered directly from the tap. You will also need a spray bottle or a small watering can.
Foil placed behind plants to reflect sunlight will also be useful. If foil is not used, then boxes and pots with plants must be turned 180 degrees daily, otherwise they will tilt towards the window and grow crookedly.
If the plants are grown in spring and summer (planting in February-March), then they will have enough sunlight from the street. But a winter garden planted in the fall will require additional lighting. Fluorescent lamps are suitable for this.
You should understand that you can only grow undemanding herbs on a windowsill in winter without lighting, but you won’t be able to get a good harvest of tomatoes without using phytolamps. In winter, on sunny days, additional lighting will be needed in the evening, but in cloudy weather, the lamp will have to be turned on for the whole day.
Children are shown how to grow onions on a windowsill in kindergarten. This is the easiest crop to grow at home, it does not require special care, grows quickly and is very useful.
To force feathers, you can use both large onion sets (selections) and ordinary onion turnips. Feathers from a small bulb are more delicate, but the small head wears out quickly. A larger bulb produces abundant greens for a longer period of time.
Not only self-grown onions are suitable, you can also use those purchased at a supermarket or a store for summer residents. The easiest way to plant onions for forcing is in water. To do this, you need to take a small glass and fill it with plain water or a nutrient solution. The bulb must be installed so that only its tip touches the surface of the liquid. You need to change the water every day.
When planted in water, the bulb may begin to rot and emit an unpleasant odor. This can be avoided, since you can grow onions on a windowsill by planting them in the ground. The substrate should be poured into a shallow plastic box. If there are no drainage holes at the bottom of the container, then to prevent rotting of the roots, it is reasonable to pour a small drainage layer of expanded clay, pebbles, broken bricks, etc.
There is no need to bury the heads; plant them tightly; the bulbs are not afraid of close proximity. Plantings must be watered frequently, preventing the soil from drying out. Do not use all the seed material at once, it is better to break it into several portions and plant it 2-3 weeks apart, then there will be enough fresh onions for the whole winter.
Green onions can be grown not only in boxes. Onions for forcing can be planted vertically. To do this, you can purchase a special flowerpot at a store for summer residents or make holes yourself in a plastic bottle filled with soil.
What can a beginner grow on a windowsill? Another simplest crop to grow on a windowsill is watercress. It is known for its beneficial properties, and its unpretentiousness makes it one of the most common salads to grow at home. Watercress is ready for consumption within 2-3 weeks after planting. Seeds can be purchased at a gardening store.
To grow lettuce, you don’t need a deep container; a regular tray will do. As a substrate, you can use a thin (about 3 cm) layer of clay or peat soil, fabric folded several times, cotton wool or paper towels.
Watercress should be planted densely so that the young plants support each other. Press the seeds a little into the moist substrate. The plant does not require additional lighting; just place it on the windowsill.
How to grow lettuce on a windowsill? The main thing is not to let the soil dry out, although you shouldn’t overwater the salad either. The plant does not like heat. The optimal temperature is no higher than 18 degrees Celsius. To avoid overheating in winter, just move the container with the salad closer to the window.
In order for green watercress to be constantly present on the table, you need to plant it according to a scheme that is convenient for you. You can sow a new container every week or two or add a small amount of seeds every 3-4 days.
Growing leaf lettuce is already somewhat more difficult. To know how to grow lettuce on a windowsill, you need to take into account the variety of the plant being grown. The varieties Lollo Rossa, Lollo Bionda, Odessky, Vitaminny, New Year, and Red Credo perform best in apartment conditions.
In autumn and winter, leaf lettuce will need additional lighting. If the room is hot and dry, the plant does not receive enough moisture, then the leaves will become bitter, become coarse, and flower stalks will quickly form. Leaf lettuce loves moisture and coolness and feels good on a glassed-in balcony until late autumn.
Leaf lettuce is planted in the ground quite densely, at a distance of 1-2 cm. Before the first shoots, the container is covered to create a greenhouse effect. Over time, thinning to a distance of 4-5 cm will be necessary. The plant needs watering and good lighting.
After the bushes begin to produce arrows, they become unsuitable for consumption. They can be removed and new seeds planted in their place.
Many housewives wonder about the windowsill. After all, you often only need a few leaves of this plant, and you don’t want to buy a whole package in the store. In spring and summer, parsley can be grown from seeds. The plant is light-loving, so in winter it will need additional lighting. The seeds germinate rather slowly, but the bush will last a long time. Parsley is not picky about temperature; it grows well on a windowsill or balcony. Watering is done abundantly. In winter, parsley needs to be watered less often.
It will be possible to cut the first greenery only after a month and a half, but it will be possible to do this for a whole year. It is better to soak it in a solution of potassium permanganate before. You can plant parsley in small containers, in peat cups or directly in flowerpots.
In autumn and winter, because growing from seeds at this time is too long and labor-intensive? There is another way - forcing it from the rhizome. This method is somewhat simpler and better suited for the autumn-winter period. Planting material can be prepared independently in a personal plot or purchased at a regular grocery store.
The rhizome should show no signs of wilting, and the apical bud should be intact. The root crop should be placed in a pot and sprinkled with damp soil. Roots that are too long can be planted at an angle.
The first green shoots will appear within a few days after planting, and the leaves can be cut off in a couple of weeks. Greens will appear on the rhizome within six months.
What can you grow on a windowsill besides regular onions, parsley, and lettuce? Something more exotic like basil or rosemary.
The type of basil does not matter; green or purple will do. Basil can be propagated either from seeds or from cuttings. The plant is thermophilic - the optimal temperature is 20-25 degrees, and moisture-loving - good drainage and abundant watering are required.
Cuttings are a quick way to grow basil. You can simply buy a few branches in the store, put them in water and after one or two weeks move the seedling with roots into a pot. The young shoots will be ready for cutting in a couple of weeks. It is better to cut off the side shoots.
Basil planted from cuttings grows quickly, but also blooms quickly. As you know, after the start of flowering the plant is unsuitable for food. To have fresh basil on your table all the time, you need to replant the plantings every 3-4 months.
Planting basil from seeds will require more effort. But such a bush will not bloom for about a year. The seeds need to be soaked, covered, and the sprouts transplanted into pots. It is better to grow basil using seeds in the spring, since additional lighting will be needed in winter.
Rosemary on the windowsill will not only decorate the kitchen, but will also come in handy when cooking. This plant can be grown in the summer in the country, and in winter it will feel great at home.
You will need a wide pot with a thick drainage layer. Rosemary is demanding of light and air. It prefers the south side, and in summer the pot with the plant must be planted in open ground, taken out to the balcony or placed outside the window, otherwise the leaves will not accumulate a sufficient amount of essential oils.
Both seeds and cuttings are suitable for planting rosemary. The seeds of the plant have poor germination. They need to be soaked for 2 days, then placed on the ground without sprinkling on top, covered with film and sprayed every day with a spray bottle. If seedlings do not appear after 4 weeks, new seeds are planted. When the seedlings produce three or more leaves, they are planted in spacious pots.
It is easier to grow rosemary using cuttings. For this you need a woody shoot of the plant. It is placed in a container with water or wet sand, and after rooting it is transplanted into a pot.
Rosemary loves frequent but moderate watering. It is better to dry out the soil than to flood it. If there is a lack of moisture, the lower leaves of the plant will begin to turn yellow, and if there is an excess, the roots will rot, which will lead to the death of the plant.
If you provide the plant with a low temperature (up to 5 degrees) in winter, then rosemary will bloom in the spring. An adult plant needs to be constantly trimmed to form a bush.
Growing cucumbers on a windowsill in winter is a rather tempting prospect. This can be done not only by an experienced gardener, but also by a beginner. Cucumbers grow quite quickly; you can get the first harvest in just a month and a half.
Not every variety of cucumber is suitable for growing on a windowsill. Firstly, it must be self-pollinating. During flowering, the bush must be shaken daily for pollination to occur. Secondly, it will be much more convenient if the plant is a bush plant. Thirdly, an early variety is better suited for home growing. Finally, a shade-loving plant is ideal. You can grow cucumbers on the windowsill in winter of the varieties Connie, Masha, Legend, Debut, Polet, Babylon. Knowing the necessary parameters, you can choose another variety.
Growing cucumbers at home has its own subtleties. After all, providing all the necessary conditions can be difficult. Cucumbers are light-loving, so windows on the south and east sides are suitable for growing them. If there is still not enough light, then additional illumination will be required using fluorescent lamps.
The room temperature should not be below 20 degrees, so you should not move flowerpots too close to a cold window. Cucumbers love moisture very much, so you need to make sure that the soil does not dry out. The flowerpot with the plant can be placed in a bowl of water. The leaves need to be sprayed with a spray bottle twice a day.
Many people think that growing tomatoes on a windowsill is a very difficult task and inaccessible to a beginner. But this is not true at all! Moreover, there are special varieties for indoor cultivation.
When visiting a gardening store, note that some seed packages say “Recommended for pot growing”, “Window harvest”, “Home garden”. And the names of the varieties themselves are telling - Room Surprise, Balcony Miracle, Japanese Room. There are also hanging varieties that will look great in flower pots - Peruvian Homemade, Cherry, Talisman.
Even if you don’t find special indoor varieties, regular ones will do. Please note that these tomatoes must be determinate (short, or better yet dwarf), self-pollinating (for pollination, the bushes are shaken during flowering) and small-fruited. For example, Alaska, micro, Pearl (red and yellow), Canada News, Minibel, Pinocchio, etc.
Tomatoes can be planted immediately in large pots or picked, choosing the strongest sprouts. During the period of flowering and fruit set, tomatoes need to be watered generously and the leaves should be sprayed.
The room where tomatoes grow needs to be regularly ventilated - plants do not like stagnant air. In winter they need additional lighting. The plant must be fed periodically. The first fruits can be obtained in 3-4 months.
Tomato is a perennial plant. At home, with good care, it will bear fruit for several years. After a period of active fruiting, the bush needs to be transplanted into a larger pot and updated by pruning the branches. In addition, tomato can be propagated by cuttings. A plant grown from a cutting will begin to bloom within a few weeks.
How to grow peppers on a windowsill? Doing this is no more difficult than growing tomatoes. True, you will have to wait longer for the harvest - 5-6 months. But pepper is a perennial plant; with good care, annual replanting and pruning, it will bear fruit for several years. The plant can be propagated not only by seeds, but also by cuttings. Caring for peppers is also similar to caring for tomatoes, but with one significant difference - while the tomato does not tolerate stagnant air, the pepper is afraid of drafts, so it is better not to place them on the same window.
Self-pollinating early-ripening varieties are best suited for growing in an apartment - California Miracle, Oda, Jupiter, Patio-Ivo.
Pepper needs good light, warmth, and loose soil (it is necessary to loosen the soil regularly). This plant is not capricious, and will delight you with its fruits for a long time. You can also grow hot peppers at home, but these plants should not be in the same room, otherwise cross-pollination will occur.
Leaf lettuce is a cold-hardy plant that can be grown all season long. In order to harvest lettuce in winter, it can be planted on the windowsill. To grow leaf lettuce in winter, it needs to be provided with additional water, as well as the right container for sowing and soil composition.
Lettuce grows well in light, fertile soil with a slightly acidic or neutral acid-base balance. The homeland of lettuce is the Mediterranean. This region is dominated by sandy loamy peat soils and a hot climate, so two parts of peat, one part of calcined river sand and a little garden perlite are used to prepare the soil mixture. Additionally, complex mineral fertilizer and wood ash can be added to the soil. To normalize the acid-base balance of the soil, slaked lime or dolomite flour must be added to the soil.
The prepared soil mixture is poured into a previously prepared container. The height of the container must be at least 10 cm.
Use a juice box as a container for planting lettuce. Its interior is covered with foil, which provides additional reflected light illumination for the salad. Make drainage holes in the side and bottom of the box to ensure water drainage.
A drainage layer must be placed at the bottom. Pebbles, small stones or broken bricks can be used as drainage. Then the container is filled with soil mixture.
Before planting lettuce, the soil must be watered with a solution of Fitosporin. If you warm the soil before planting, the lettuce seeds will sprout faster, so the solution of the drug must be hot. The soil must be left for 12 hours. When Bacillus subtilis and other possible bacteria are killed, lettuce seeds can be planted.
The seeds are mixed with river sand for easy sowing. They should not be deeply buried in the soil, otherwise the germination of the lettuce will decrease. The maximum sowing depth of seeds is 1 cm. After planting the seeds, the soil is moistened with a spray bottle. Then the container with the seeds is covered with a plastic bag until the first shoots appear. After they appear, the bag must be removed, since the greenhouse effect has a bad effect on the above-ground part of the plants.
Greens grown in the garden are rich in vitamins and various nutrients. It is used in various salads, in first and second courses, as well as for decorating holiday 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 prices in stores in winter “bite”.
Unfortunately, lettuce, unlike, for example, parsley or dill, is not stored frozen. But this plant lends itself perfectly to growing at home. It does not require much effort or financial costs.
Lettuce varieties that are resistant to low light:Containers or pots?
To use this growing technology, you need plant seeds 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 leafy lettuces. It is best that the word “small” be present in the salad variety.
The root system of lettuce does not penetrate deep into the soil, so you can grow lettuce in shallow plastic containers or pots. It is best to choose plastic pots and containers, since clay products absorb moisture, thereby drying out the soil and causing the surface to dry out quickly.
How to grow lettuce in ceramic pots?Just like in plastic ones, 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 drains into the saucer, which creates optimal conditions for the life of plants.
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 lettuce without fuss, you don’t need to fantasize about ways to disinfect such soil. Avoid directly using soil from your garden as it always contains bacteria and insects that can damage your crops.
Fill the pot high with soil, but not all the way to the top. You should leave approximately 2.5-3cm of empty space between the surface of the soil and the edge of the container.
Sprinkle the seeds on top - a pinch, as if you were adding salt. Try not to plant too much in one place, but you don't have 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 half a centimeter holes with your finger and throw the 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 receive the light they need to germinate. 
In the future, caring for crops consists of maintaining soil moisture and controlling the temperature in the room. Please note that the soil moisture should not become waterlogged, otherwise the plants will begin to rot. Watering should be done by sprinkling every 2 or 3 days, depending on the ambient temperature. The optimal temperature for lettuce growth is considered to be 16 - 20 °C, although on a loggia during spring (mid-April) sowing, plants can ripen well at 6 - 7 °C. Elevated temperatures and dry air in apartments have a negative impact on the crop, and therefore it is recommended to periodically spray lettuce leaves and provide frequent ventilation for crops on window sills. In the 2-leaf phase, the seedlings are thinned to a distance of at least 8 cm. The torn seedlings can be planted along the edges of containers with tomato or cucumber seedlings, using lettuce as a sealing plant.
Under suitable conditions, lettuce grows quite quickly, producing ready-to-eat leaf mass within 2 to 3 weeks. Ripe leaves of watercress are cut and used for food; after root feeding with mineral fertilizers, they grow again. Other lettuce leaves are pulled out by the roots, the soil is shaken off and stored vertically in boxes or baskets in one layer. It is recommended to store them under film in a dark place at a temperature of 1 - 2 °C until use.
In indoor conditions, you can grow watercress in the usual way, using commercial soil mixture for greenhouses or sawdust. Since the root system of watercress is relatively small, for planting use a dish no more than 7 cm high. The bowl 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 approximately 0.5 cm, the distance between the rows should be about 10 cm, well moisturized. After the first shoots appear, the container is transferred to the windowsill, the temperature is maintained around + 8, and when sprouts appear, it is increased to +10ºС. The seedlings need to be thinned out; the distance between the rows should be at least 5 cm.
Watercress is a moisture-loving crop, so it needs to be watered often, but without fanaticism; excess moisture also harms the plant, as does drying out the soil. When the first pair of leaves appears on the plant, it’s time to feed: dilute 2.5 grams of urea per 1 liter of water, pour this solution over the watercress. After 14 days, the plant is fed a second time: take superphosphate - 2 g, ammonium sulfate - 1 g, potassium salt - 1.5 g, dilute all this in a liter of water. 
The first harvest of lettuce can be cut within 10 days; the bulk of the leaves ripen approximately 18 days after sowing. Watercress is usually cut twice. After the plant reaches a height of 10-15 cm, it is removed. In this way, you can grow watercress even in winter, all you need to do is stock up on seeds.
The salad contains a huge amount of useful substances. 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.
Lettuce can easily be grown at home. Both in winter and in summer. But this plant at home requires a lot of attention.
For his growth needs a lot of sunlight. On short winter days it needs additional lighting. If there is not enough light, it begins to bloom early. Does not tolerate drought or heat. At the same time, the leaves become bitter. Beginners should not attempt to grow cabbage forms in an apartment. They are very capricious.
This is an early ripening crop. To constantly have greens at home, you need to plant them once every 10 to 14 days.
Batavia is the most suitable variety of salad for an apartment
The most suitable variety for an apartment is considered Batavia. This is what they most often sell in grocery stores.
It grows even without additional lighting. Can withstand short-term drought and high air temperatures.
The most famous varieties for cultivation on the windowsill:
Lolla Rossa is distinguished by a brown head of cabbage and curly light green leaves. Counts the most vitamin. Has a delicate taste.
Lolla biond - the most beautiful. The leaves are wavy. Yellow-green color. The taste is pleasant, bitter with a nutty aftertaste.
They also grow in the apartment watercress. This is a moisture-loving plant. The best varieties for the windowsill:
Broadleaf Cress
Lettuce roots do not go deep into the soil. Large containers are not needed for its growth. It is better to choose a plastic pot. The capacity must be volume 1–2 liters. Depth – 10 – 35 cm. Depending on the variety. There should be holes at the bottom of the container.
Soil can be purchased at the store or you can use garden soil. Acidic soil is not suitable for planting. Better option - a mixture of turf soil, humus, sand. Another option is garden soil, coconut fiber, vermicompost. The ratio of the last two is 2:1.
For sowing, it is necessary to use drainage: pebbles, expanded clay, broken bricks, small pebbles.
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 2.5 - 3 cm to the edges.
Some varieties can be grown without soil. One of them is watercress. For cultivation, improvised materials such as sponge, cotton wool, and paper are used.
Some varieties of lettuce can be grown without soil - on paper or cotton wool
The first shoots can be seen in 4 – 5 days. You need to protect it from direct sunlight. On bright sunny days it is necessary to shade it - the leaves can get burned.
Salad loves warmth. For its good growth, a temperature of 17–21 degrees is required. During a strong drop in outside temperatures, the container with plants should be removed from the windowsill.
Culture needs thinning. This is done 2 times:
If the lettuce grows thickly, you will not be able to get a good harvest.
The salad needs to be thinned twice
Watering should be abundant. If the soil moisture is insufficient, arrowheads begin to form earlier than usual. Water with settled water once every 1-2 days.
If the container is on the south side - more often. In winter - less often. Do not over-moisten the soil - 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.
They feed Once every 1.5–2 weeks. Fertilizers are suitable for indoor plants. This is a fast growing crop. If fertile soil has been chosen for planting, it will grow well without them.
Do not apply large amounts of nitrogen fertilizers - lettuce can accumulate nitrates. If you use potassium iodide-based fertilizer, you can get a plant with a large amount of iodine in its composition.
Light-loving plant. In winter, on short autumn - spring days, you need to use additional lighting- fluorescent lamps. They need to be turned on for 2 – 5 hours. Hang 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. You cannot illuminate it during the day. The greens need to rest.
If it is not possible to provide additional light to the plant, it is best to plant it at the end of winter.
Lettuce has very fragile, shallow roots. Loosen the ground under the seedlings it is forbidden.
Greenery grows quickly. It can be collected over several weeks. Uproot or tear off outer leaves. After 3 - 5 weeks, arrows form. The plant is removed. Other seeds are sown in its place.
Experienced gardeners plant lettuce once every 10 days. From one plant you get 40–50 grams of greens. But it all depends on the variety.
Leaf lettuce can be grown both in open ground and at home. But when planting it in an apartment, you need to remember that it requires daily care.
Grows quickly. 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 ensure that our diet is as complete and rich in vitamins as possible. Unfortunately, greens at the market or in supermarkets in winter are often very expensive, and not everyone can afford to buy them in sufficient quantities. Many types of greens can be grown quite easily at home.
And lettuce is a crop that is quite accessible for home cultivation. In order to successfully grow lettuce on your windowsill at home, you should know some rules, but this is accessible to absolutely everyone. The harvest will not be long, but abundant.
Let's try to understand all the secrets of home agriculture and find out how to grow lettuce on the windowsill at home.
In order to get salad greens at home in winter, it is best to choose leafy varieties. Lettuce on the windowsill can grow at low temperatures above zero, and it does not require very deep containers, since it has a shallow root system. Before planting lettuce at home, you need to purchase seeds of a suitable variety. Early ripening varieties are a particularly good choice for growing at home on the balcony. When choosing a variety of lettuce to grow at home, it is also worth noting varieties that are resistant to low light levels. Below are examples of lettuce varieties suitable for growing at home on the balcony in winter.
To grow leaf lettuce on the balcony, you need to select a container with a depth of 20-25 cm. If you nevertheless decide to grow a cabbage variety, the container for planting it will need to be selected deeper - about 35 cm. In order to have fresh greens at home in winter, everything time, it’s worth preparing several containers and sowing the seeds once every two weeks.
If you don’t have any suitable containers at home, then in order to grow lettuce on a balcony or windowsill, you can simply use a thick plastic bag. The bag 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 escape through them. Lettuce grown in a bag will be no different from its counterparts from a container.
The soil for growing lettuce must be nutritious. You can buy the ready-made mixture in a special store. And if you want to make the soil mixture yourself, you can use the following composition:
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 also use a mixture that is easy to prepare using the following composition:
The soil in which you grow lettuce should be slightly moist at all times. But at the same time, stagnation of this moisture is strictly forbidden. If there is excess moisture, the root collar and lower leaves may begin to rot. Therefore, before planting lettuce in a container, you need to take care of drainage. As a drainage material, you can use simple pebbles, expanded clay or padding polyester.
Before sowing seeds, it is necessary 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 sown not very densely in the grooves, lightly sprinkled with damp soil and pressed down. As a rule, the first shoots sprout quite easily and quickly, but to speed up their germination, you can create greenhouse conditions by stretching a plastic bag. If you have 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 shoots and film, and protect the young shoots from damage.
After the shoots emerge (usually this takes from 2 to 5 days), the film must be removed. If the lettuce has sprouted very thickly, the seedlings are thinned out. Further care of your plantings at home on the balcony is quite simple. They need to be moistened every couple of days. At the same time, they moisten both the soil and the leaves themselves, which are good to spray from a spray bottle. It is convenient to water the salad using a watering can with a long spout, especially when the leaves grow. In winter, lettuce that grows at home on a windowsill or on a balcony must be illuminated with special lamps, as there will not be enough ultraviolet radiation for its successful growth. You can always buy these lamps in specialized stores, and 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 install it at a height of 50-60 cm from the plants. Daylight hours 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 harvest.
If you have a lot of free space on your balcony or windowsill at home, we can advise you to plant at least some of the seedlings in separate cups when your seedlings have two true leaves. Growing lettuce greens in separate pots will produce bushes with much larger leaves than those grown in a common container.
In order to grow lettuce 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. Mullein must be diluted in a ratio of 1:10. Plants are watered with this solution once a week. This is how you can get salad on the windowsill.
To summarize, it should be noted that getting lettuce on the balcony in winter will require some effort. But the delicious taste of home-grown greens and the peace of mind that you're eating healthy, chemical-free greens are definitely worth it!
How in the winter you want to crunch on juicy green leaves, not purchased in a supermarket with a whole range of nitrates, but environmentally friendly, freshly picked. In this case, you need to master growing lettuce on the windowsill, especially since this is not particularly difficult, because the crop is early-ripening and unpretentious.
For each crop on the windowsill, be it parsley, dill or green onions, you need a special container. And almost any container with a depth of at least 20-25cm is suitable as a container for sowing lettuce. These can be plastic or wooden boxes, flower pots. Green plantings in ordinary kitchen utensils that are a pity to throw away and cannot be used look very original, for example, an old teapot or a broken favorite cup. With this, your indoor “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 synthetic padding polyester as drainage. It will perfectly absorb excess moisture, and when the soil in the pot dries out, it will give it back.
Video about growing lettuce at home
Now, as for the soil. Of course, it’s easier to purchase ready-made soil for seedlings, but why spend money if you can save. To grow lettuce, soil from a garden, flower bed, or even a nearby park is quite suitable. The main thing is that it has a dense structure, because crumbly soil with a high sand content will dry out quickly and the moisture-loving salad may lack moisture. There will be enough nutrients in ordinary soil for the development of early ripening lettuce, but if you still doubt its fertility, you can add some humus or concentrated organic fertilizer Humate. It is recommended to disinfect the prepared soil by heating it in the oven or microwave or generously watering it with a solution of potassium permanganate. This kills unwanted microorganisms and fungal spores. You should not fill the pots with soil to the top, leave about 1.5-2 cm to the edge - this will make watering more convenient, and the soil, pushed out by the growing root system, will not fall out.
There will be enough nutrients in regular soil for the development of early ripening lettuce.
Prepared containers with crops are placed on southern or southeastern windowsills to provide the salad with maximum light on short winter days.
You can get a good harvest of lettuce in a limited volume of soil only if you follow the sowing standards. This is especially true for leaf or cabbage varieties, the excessive thickening of which does not allow the rosette to form safely.
When 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, let's start sowing:
You can get a good harvest of lettuce in a limited volume of soil only if you follow the sowing standards
In the future, simple care and attention to the crops will bring the first harvest of tender, juicy, environmentally friendly greenery.
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 is also important. We prefer cool salads, but raising the temperature above +15°C leads to drying out of the tips of the leaves, loss of taste, and will certainly cause bolting of the rosette. Therefore, it is better to place containers with crops on a loggia, a glazed balcony, on a window in the hallway 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 lighting. When sowing in spring, natural daylight will be enough for lettuce seedlings. But at the end of autumn - beginning of winter, when daylight hours are minimal and the weather is cloudy most of the time, additional lighting will be required, otherwise the plants will stretch out and you will no longer be able to grow lush green mass.
When sowing in spring, lettuce seedlings will have enough natural daylight
Mineral fertilizers for lettuce are not needed; the nutrients contained in the soil will be sufficient for its short growing season. It is unwise to use traditional organic fertilizers in an apartment because of the characteristic odor. The only way to “support” growing rosettes of lettuce is to add the same Humate when watering - it’s healthy, harmless and doesn’t smell, but you can do without fertilizers altogether.
With proper care, in about three to four weeks it will be possible to harvest the first harvest. Of course, in leaf or head varieties of lettuce, you can pinch off the first crispy leaves even earlier and use the greens gradually, without waiting for a full-fledged rosette to form. And by sowing seeds periodically, at intervals of 1-2 weeks, you will provide your family with fresh herbs throughout the cold period.
An almost win-win option to get fresh herbs in winter and without any hassle at all is watercress salad on the windowsill. It can be successfully grown in any small bowls or dishes, on trays, or even just in the lid of a shoe box covered with polyethylene. It’s even easier with the substrate: it can be a 2-3 centimeter layer of ordinary soil, peat or even sawdust. If this is not at hand, then a soft cloth folded in several layers, paper towels, ordinary table napkins or sponges, for example, moistened with water and placed on a plate, are suitable for seed germination.
Watercress seeds are sown densely enough so that the growing tender stems support each other and do not fall. Shoots appear faster than leaf varieties, no later than 5-7 days, and the seedlings themselves are more patient with growing conditions - cool, +15...+17°C air near the window is favorable for them, and scanty winter sun is enough for them .
Video about how to grow watercress
Advice: children are especially enthusiastic about home gardens, and if you trust them to grow tender greens on their own, they will eat them with great appetite!
The main thing in growing watercress is to never allow the soil to dry out, which can quickly and irrevocably destroy the crops, but stagnation of excess water also leads to rotting of the roots.
The first harvest of watercress is harvested when it grows to 8-10cm. Plants are carefully cut with scissors immediately before eating - such greens are not stored for long. Considering that almost all varieties of watercress grow quickly, it is recommended to sow them at intervals of 3-4 days so that the delicate greens on your table do not waste away.
In winter, our body often suffers from vitamin deficiency. To fill this gap, you can organize a small vegetable garden on your windowsill. It will allow you to grow any edible greens, rich in nutrients. Lettuce is one of many crops suitable for home growing. To get a good harvest, you need to know and follow some rules of agricultural technology. However, it is worth it - abundant, juicy greenery will delight you all year round.
Before planting lettuce on the windowsill, you should buy seeds of a suitable variety. The most successful option would be early ripening species:
Also suitable for growing lettuce on a windowsill are varieties that are resistant to low light levels. These include: ballet, celtic, emerald lace and others.
It is recommended to use large pots (at least 1–2 liters in volume) as planting containers. This crop does not tolerate transplantation well, which means it is better to immediately sow the seeds in a suitable container. It is advisable that it be a plastic pot (clay pots tend to absorb moisture, causing the soil to dry out faster).
If another plant previously grew in the container, then it needs to be thoroughly cleaned. Otherwise, remaining bacteria and pest eggs will destroy the salad over time. Warm water and regular soap will help 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 followed by rinsing with potassium permanganate will be no less effective.
If you don’t have suitable containers at home, you can grow lettuce on the windowsill using a thick plastic bag. Place it on a tray, fill it with moistened soil, and make several small holes on the sides (so that excess liquid leaks through). Lettuce grown in a bag will be no different from its counterparts from a pot.
The soil for planting lettuce at home on the windowsill should be as nutritious as possible. You can use a ready-made soil mixture purchased at a specialty store, or make it yourself. In the latter case, you will need: two parts of garden soil, one part of rotted manure, one part of compost and the same amount of peat. To make this mixture more fertile, it is recommended to add 1 kg of river sand and the same amount of wood ash, 1 tbsp. l. urea and 2 tbsp. l. nitrophoska. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
You can use another composition - combine one part of vermicompost and garden soil and add two parts of coconut fiber.
The soil on which you are going to grow this crop must be moist all the time. At the same time, stagnation of this moisture is highly undesirable. If there is excess water, the lower leaves and root collar of the plant may begin to rot. Therefore, before planting lettuce in a container, you need to ensure good drainage. Typically, simple pebbles, broken bricks, synthetic padding polyester or expanded clay are used as drainage material. Place a moisture-absorbing layer at the very bottom of the container in which the greens will grow. These materials absorb excess liquid and evaporate it, humidifying the air.
Now fill the containers with soil. Pour it all the way to the top, leaving about 2-3 cm from the edge. Before sowing seeds, moisten the substrate generously. Then make shallow grooves. Maintain a distance of at least 15 cm between adjacent furrows. Sow seeds in them densely, sprinkle them with damp soil on top and lightly press them down. To make the planting material germinate faster, it can be pre-soaked in warm water for 50-60 minutes, and then kept in damp gauze for 24 hours.
As a rule, the first shoots appear quite quickly (after about 4-5 days). Greenhouse conditions will help speed up their germination. To create them, stretch a plastic bag over the container. If the soil is poured to the very edges of the container, you can place arcs of bent sticks or wire. Wrap the frame with transparent film on top. This creates an air space between the soil, young seedlings and covering material. It will protect fragile plants from damage.
For further development of lettuce, the average daily temperature must remain between +17 ° and +21 °C. Therefore, during the heating season, do not place pots close to the radiator or other heating devices. Since plants require a lot of light, place containers with seedlings on windows facing the south, southeast or southwest side of the house.
After the shoots emerge, remove the film. If the lettuce has sprouted too thickly, thin out the seedlings. Remove the weakest shoots, maintaining a distance of 7-8 cm between the remaining plants. This will give them enough space for active growth. Do not throw away excess seedlings, but rather plant them in separate containers or eat them - young seedlings are edible and taste very similar to mature leaves.
Be sure to provide the seedlings with good watering (once every couple of days). At the same time, moisten both the soil and the leaves themselves by spraying them from a spray bottle. When the leaves grow, it will be convenient to water the greens from a watering can with a long spout. Use settled tap water or collected rainwater. Remember that drying out the soil speeds up the bolting process of the plant.
When growing lettuce at home on a windowsill, you need to supplement it with special devices (phytolamps, fluorescent lamps, etc.). This is especially important in winter, since during this period the plant does not have enough ultraviolet rays. You can purchase these lamps in specialized stores. If you cannot afford such a purchase, use a regular fluorescent lamp. Place the lighting device at a height of 50-60 cm from the seedlings. Daylight hours for them should last at least 12-14 hours.
Lettuce seedlings should be fed periodically. This is due to the fact that it is considered a fast-growing crop. For this purpose, use mullein solution. Dilute it with water in a ratio of 1:10 and water the plants once a week. Complex fertilizers also give good results. The dosage, method and frequency of use are described in the attached instructions.
If all the above conditions are met, in a month (depending on the variety and variety of lettuce) you will be able to harvest your first harvest. Try to cut off the outer leaves first. In the meantime, internal ones will develop further. After a few weeks, the bushes will stop forming new greenery and will go into arrows. In this case, they must be removed and a new batch of lettuce sown.
To summarize, it should be noted that to obtain fresh greens in winter you will have to make a lot of effort. Before planting lettuce on the windowsill, you will have to select high-quality planting material, a suitable container, arrange drainage and prepare fertile soil. Good care is also important, including timely watering, loosening the soil, thinning, fertilizing and other measures. However, the delicate taste and beneficial properties of home-grown greens are definitely worth it!
It is used for preparing many vegetable dishes, serving the table, or filling well-known burgers.
Perhaps the most popular dish in which it is included is Caesar salad.
So that you can always afford to prepare delicious and healthy dishes using this plant, let's talk about growing Iceberg lettuce.
We will start planting on the windowsill by choosing the soil. When growing crops in open soil, a variety of fertilizers are used, but we do not need such fertilizing and there is no need to disturb the plant again, because it does not tolerate any interference in the root system.
Therefore, we go to a flower shop and buy fertile loose soil, which has an acidity within 6-7 pH (neutral or slightly acidic). Give preference to soil that has the highest fertility levels, since lettuce needs a lot of nutrients to grow and develop. 
An alternative option is a mixture of coconut fiber. This composition is superior to chernozem in all respects and does not saturate it with unnecessary nitrates and other harmful substances. The mixture is prepared as follows: to create 1 kg of substrate, take 350 g of vermicompost and 650 g of coconut fiber, mix them thoroughly and leave for a while.
Important! When purchasing ready-made soil in a store or from individuals, do not be lazy to heat it in the oven to disinfect it. The mixture of vermicompost and coconut fiber does not require heating.
As we mentioned above, head lettuce does not like having its root system disturbed, much less removed from the ground.
That is why the pot must be selected based on the maximum possible size of the plant, so that it does not have to be replanted.
Such a container should be wide, with a minimum volume of 1.5 liters. Choose a pot whose height is 10-14 cm so that the root system can develop normally.If you are going to grow many plants in one pot, then choose a pot with a larger diameter, otherwise the salad will be very crowded.
Continuing the topic of how to plant Iceberg lettuce, let's talk about pre-planting preparation. 
First of all, it is worth remembering that some varieties or hybrids are bred specifically for growing in pots. Therefore, preference should be given to these seeds. If you cannot find a similar seed, buy seeds of early ripening varieties.
Now about the preliminary preparation. Before sowing, the seeds need to be kept for about 15 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate so that they germinate better and are not affected by fungal diseases.
If you are using a fertile or vermicompost mixture, then after soaking we immediately sow it. If you use a mixture of garden soil and store-bought soil, then you will have to postpone planting Iceberg for a while and buy additional cubes into which we will bury the seeds and plant them in the soil mixture.
Did you know? The salad got its name when the American company Fresh Express decided to transport the greens across the country in cars with ice. People, seeing such a picture, shouted “The icebergs are coming.” After that, the name stuck and everyone began to call the salad “Iceberg”.
Growing on a windowsill requires compliance with the planting pattern and depth, which will be discussed below.
Regardless of whether you used peat cubes or not, the seeds are placed at a depth of 1-1.5 cm. We do not recommend digging them deeper than 2 cm, otherwise they may not have enough strength to overcome the soil layer.
There is no specific planting scheme, but we advise you to space 2-3 cm between seeds, otherwise the young plants will begin to interfere with each other. If you want to plant in rows, then we recommend spacing 3-3.5 cm between rows, and leaving a gap of 2 cm between plants in a row.
After sowing, Iceberg requires a certain microclimate. It is at this stage of cultivation that the slightest failure to follow the instructions will lead to the death of the sprouted seeds.
Immediately after sowing, moisten the soil with warm, settled water and cover the pot with film. Next, we transfer it to a cool place where the temperature should not rise above +18 ˚С. In such conditions we keep the pot for 2 days.
As soon as the first shoots appear, the film must be removed.
Important! If the temperature rises above +20 ˚С before the first shoots appear, the plants may die.
Now you know how to grow Iceberg lettuce on your windowsill or balcony. Therefore, next we will talk about proper care of the formed salad.
It’s worth remembering right away what it is, so after the arrow forms, it needs to be disposed of. 
When real leaves begin to grow on it, the plant needs to be sprayed daily with a spray bottle, thereby increasing the humidity. For rapid growth, daylight hours must be at least 12 hours. In winter, it is possible to extend it with the help of additional lighting (it is better to use light bulbs that provide light close to sunlight; pure white light or with unnatural shades is not recommended).
Also, do not forget to loosen the soil so that a crust does not form. Do this carefully, otherwise you may damage the root system.
