Watercress is a garden crop that is quite popular among owners of summer cottages. And not without reason, because the plant has a peculiar taste - it has a spicy, slightly bitter taste, which makes it an excellent base for many salads and seasoning for a variety of meat, fish and first courses. This salad is able to turn even the simplest dish into a culinary masterpiece, improve the taste of scrambled eggs, fried eggs or boiled potatoes. Watercress is a dietary product that is indispensable for those who are unable to lose weight.
Since ancient times, culture is known for its amazing healing qualities. The ancient Romans, Egyptians and Greeks widely used this useful plant to treat many diseases. Following the advice of traditional medicine, it must be used to increase appetite, with diseases of the digestive system, as well as with anemia and high blood pressure. This is an excellent tool to overcome spring-autumn vitamin deficiency, since watercress contains a lot of useful trace elements (magnesium, calcium, iodine, iron, as well as vitamins of groups B, C, A), which are so necessary to maintain normal life. Moreover, modern medicine has found in the leaves of the salad special substances - indoles, which ensure the integrity of the structure of blood cells, and thereby several times reduce the risk of oncology. However, it must be borne in mind that it should not be eaten with colic, duodenitis or gastritis.
Cress salad is an excellent culture for beginner gardeners, because it is completely unpretentious to the growing conditions. It has matured and is resistant to low temperatures. It can easily be grown even on the windowsill of the apartment.
In this case, such varieties as broadleaf, curly, ordinary or pepper are ideal. It should be noted that watercress on the windowsill must be grown on the north-east side, in a sunny place, because the plant does not tolerate the lack of lighting - it discards part of the leaves and stretches. The temperature in the room should not exceed 12 C, otherwise the watercress will throw out a flower stalk and lose its unique taste.
You will need a soil mixture (for example, "Biogrunt"), which you need to fill the box about 10 cm and lightly compact it. When growing watercress in open ground, it is better to plant it on light fertile soils with row spacings of 20 to 40 cm. It is necessary to sow the plant to a depth of about 1 cm based on 2 g of seeds per 10 cm2 of soil. This way you get squat plants with large leaves.
Surprisingly, watercress can do without land. Flax, tightly laid paper towels (napkins), gauze or cotton wool are suitable as a filler.
The plant will give the first seedlings after 5-7 days, and the leaves will appear around the 2nd week. The process can be accelerated by providing round-the-clock lighting.
Abundant watering is all that watercress needs. No additional top dressing is required. Mineral fertilizers can be applied only after cutting the first leaves in order to quickly get a second crop.
At home, the culture can be grown year-round, and in the warmer months, move boxes with watercress to a loggia or balcony. However, the most suitable time for planting seeds is September or March. To constantly receive green leaves, it is worth sowing salad every 15 days. The plant propagates by seeds, which ripen approximately 60 days after the first shoots appeared.
Grow watercress on the windowsill and delight yourself and your household with fresh and healthy greens!