Winter Vitamin Mini-garden In The Apartment

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

I think it is already obvious to everyone how pleasant it is to serve dishes decorated with green sprigs of fresh herbs to the table in winter. And beautiful, and tasty, and healthy. And most importantly, in general, it is quite affordable.

I do not mean, of course, the greens that are sold in the form of bunches barely visible to the eye in our vegetable markets. Strictly speaking, you cannot call it greenery. Naturally, we are talking about fresh herbs grown by our own hands.

There are theoretically two options here: either you methodically and consistently freeze fresh herbs in the freezer throughout the summer, or, if this option does not appeal to you, in the fall you start equipping a mini-vegetable garden in your own apartment.

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If desired, a wide variety of green crops can be grown at home. At the same time, it is better to do "gardening" in winter and spring, of course, in a room with windows facing south, southeast and southwest, where there is more light and heat. And if you also provide the plants with additional artificial lighting and proper care, then a good harvest of greenery will grow in any room. Although it is quite possible to get some kind of harvest of greens without artificial lighting.

After all, why should a kitchen window sill be idle? It is worth starting it in the autumn-winter cycle, and a bunch or two of vitamin greens will always be at your fingertips and practically at no extra cost. And the vitamins contained in plants will help strengthen your body and increase its resistance to various diseases, which, in general, is also good.

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By the way, in this way, you can drive out not only onions, but also garlic, parsley, celery, lovage, beets. Young tender leaves of these crops are good in salads and soups.

You can also go the other way - start growing seedlings, for which a variety of seeds are suitable. This direction is very popular now both in the east and in the west.

Chives and tempting garlic from chives

Our poor northern table without green onions is simply unthinkable. And it is he, along with garlic, that is easiest to grow on a windowsill. I have grown both for many years, but now I give a clear preference to garlic, the young greens of which, I think, are much tastier.

In principle, of course, there are no special tricks here: a lot of options for both the containers and soil used, and the technology itself. Everyone, probably, without exception, knows the most commonplace of them - just put the onion in a jar of water. But, naturally, it is better all the same, keeping in mind the constant "acidification" of the water, to use some kind of soil.

I will list the basic rules that will help speed up the harvest of green onions and increase its volume.

1. It is best to plant "awakened" onions, ie. those that have a green sprout. "Sleepers" are best cleaned of dry scales and soak for a day in warm water (about 30 ° C). The preferred diameter of the bulbs is 3-3.5 cm. But small non-marketable onions with a diameter of 2 cm are also suitable (I just use these for forcing in the room and for early spring forcing in a greenhouse).

2. Such an agrotechnical method is also effective. You can heat the onion (garlic) for 24 hours. Heated bulbs will quickly give much needed vitamin greens. And in "not awakened" onions right before planting it will not hurt to cut off the neck with a sharp knife.

3. It is better to use flat containers as containers for planting (it is convenient to take packing containers from under any products; milk bags located horizontally, with a cut out side wall, etc.).

4. It is imperative to put drainage on the bottom of the containers, and put a small, about 5-6 cm, layer of loose soil with the addition of charcoal above.

5. The very care consists in very moderate, but timely watering with settled lukewarm water (roots rot from cold, and chlorine inhibits the development of plants).

6. As for fertilizers for the onion plantation, they will not be needed, because the crop is formed due to the nutrients accumulated in the bulb during the growing season.

7. The situation, when, after several harvests, the growth of leaves on individual bulbs stops, and the bulbs themselves wrinkle, indicates that the accumulated supply of food has been exhausted, and, therefore, these bulbs must be replaced with new ones.

8. At a high temperature in the room, the feather forms more quickly, but seriously loses its quality. Therefore, the best harvest for those "home gardeners" who prefer coolness at home.

9. Illumination has a significant effect on the number and taste of grown feathers. Therefore, it is better to equip your home garden not on the northern windows, otherwise backlighting may be required. Although for several years the garlic has developed well on the north window without any illumination and gave decent yields. Of course, the volume and quality of the feather harvest increased sharply after the start of the seedling growing season, when, willy-nilly, I was forced to turn on the fluorescent lamps for tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables. Garlic also got some light. The difference, of course, was significant. But still, from my point of view, using additional lighting only for an onion and garlic plantation is quite an expensive pleasure.

10. It is better, as I said above, to grow onions and garlic in the soil. Onions and garlic cloves are planted, placing them close to each other. At the same time, it is not required to cover them with soil entirely; it is enough to simply "press" the onions into the soil by about one third when planting.

Perennial bows in winter are also quite good

For the autumn-winter-spring forcing, you need to choose those varieties of perennial onions that have a very short dormant period. Thanks to this, perennial onions continue to produce greens even in indoor conditions since autumn.

In the first place here, you can safely put the slime onion, and then the chives. Fragrant onions can also be grown, but they are less productive. As planting material, you can take onion "sod" starting from the age of three. To provide yourself with a continuous conveyor of onion greens, it is better to plant, of course, even before the soil freezes (in our Ural conditions - in the first half of October) several pots with dug out rhizomes.

Then most of them should be left in a cool room for future forcing (remembering that the harvest of onions is wave-like), and two or three should be immediately set on the window. As for the cool room, in this capacity I use the entrance where the temperature does not drop below zero (we have a part of the entrance area next to the apartment fenced off). You can, of course, use the basement, cellar and similar premises for this purpose.

Water the plants very sparingly. As the yield on the "sod" in the room weakened, they must be replaced with rhizomes that were previously in a cool room. And the whole process begins again.

As for the features of growing perennial onions in a room, then there are no particular difficulties. But still I will list the basic rules, which are best not to forget.

1. It is possible to grow perennial onions on the northern windows, which means that with some lack of lighting. However, chives and scented bows are more demanding for light than slime onions.

2. Considering the temperature, in general, cool rooms are preferable. At the same time, if the slime will grow at a temperature of the order of 10-14 ° C, then warmer conditions are needed for chives (as well as for fragrant ones): about 20-22 ° C. However, after the onion begins to grow intensively (after about two weeks), it is better to lower the temperature to 15-17 ° C, so that the feather is more elastic. True, the growth rate will, of course, slow down a little.

3. It is better to use flat containers as containers for planting (it is convenient to take packing containers from under any products; milk bags located horizontally, with a cut out side wall, etc.).

4. It is imperative to put drainage at the bottom of the containers, and above it, pour a small, about 2-3 cm, layer of loose soil with the addition of charcoal, place the prepared turf sills closely and fill the gaps between them with soil.

5. I would like to emphasize that, unlike forcing onions and garlic, perennial onions require fertile soil and regular feeding after the next cut. I use Planta fertilizer as a top dressing, although a weak urea solution will do.

6. As for cutting, it is better to cut off onion shoots not near the ground, but stepping back a little: at a level of 2-3 cm from the ground.

7. And one more problem concerning mainly chives: its extreme leaves are prone to lodging, which causes serious inconvenience for other plants placed nearby. Therefore, you have to resort to some tricks. You can, for example, put a plastic bag with a cut off bottom on a bunch of this bow, and arrange it like an accordion. The feathers will be more stable, and the bow itself will be warmer. To strengthen the created structure, you can stick four thin pegs in the corners inside our mini-shelter.

8. Water very sparingly. When over-watered, cut feathers wither quickly.

9. In general, forcing lasts from one to one and a half months, after which the onion feathers are cut, the sod is fed and the next harvest is awaited.

Watercress and Mustard Leaf

Watercress and mustard leaves are ideal plants for quickly producing greens in fairly unfavorable indoor conditions.

In this case, containers with a depth of about 7 cm will be required. They are filled with a layer of fertile soil, half mixed with sawdust for looseness. Seeds are sown thickly randomly and sprinkled with a thin layer of earth. Seedlings appear very quickly. And after 20-25 days, the plants can be used as food as the leaves grow to a height of 5-10 cm.

If you want to constantly have greens on your table, such crops should be carried out every 1-2 weeks.

Continue reading. "Forcing vegetable plants in winter" →