Garden cress

Garden cress

Garden cress is a small plant with small, cut leaves. The entire aboveground part of the plant is eaten at a very early stage of growth. The plant contains a small amount of protein, sugars and mineral salts. Its nutritional value mainly lies in 2-, 3-times higher than in tomatoes the content of vitamin C and a certain amount of vitamin A and B,. Essential oils, giving it a specific smell and taste, contain sulfur compounds and stimulate the appetite and digestion.

Cress has a very short growing season (from sowing to harvesting - when we use soil cultivation – 14-30 days, in the box, flower pot in the apartment – 10-20 days). The best temperature for seed germination is 20-22 ° C. Cress grows well at lower temperatures (10°C), but grown at a higher temperature, it is tastier and gives a greater yield. Its soil requirements are low, therefore no fertilization is used, only on very poor soils (before sowing approx 10 g of calcium ammonium nitrate on 1 m2). Seeds are sown in shedding, densely, for shallow wooden boxes, plastic containers or pots placed on the window in the apartment or into the ground in rows 10-15 cm (8-10 g/m2). We only pat the sown seeds or cover them with a thin layer of earth or sand, and then pat them as well. After sowing, water it. Cress requires frequent watering.

The harvest is one-time and consists in cutting out the plants, when they reach (bred in an apartment) height 6-8 cm, and cultivated under ground 10-15 cm. To make the cress last longer, it should be sown every two weeks.
Two varieties of cress are grown, not much different: a variety with two simple and curly leaves, which produces leaves broken into 3 and more parts. There are no varieties in Poland.