How to Grow Fresh Herbs on a Window Sill
Almost everyone likes fresh herbs, especially since you can grow them right on the window sill in the kitchen. We hope our advice will help you manage this task, and you can please yourself and your loved ones with “vitamins in pots”.
Light and humidity
When daylight hours are short, plants will need additional light to develop fully. To do this, they will need to install daylight bulbs at a distance of 10-50 cm above the boxes and pots. Usual table lamps are not suitable: they emit a lot of heat and little light. It is best to use photo lamps, which can be purchased in offline and online stores. With a good layout, the duration of the daylight for the “windowsill garden” should be 13-15 hours. To illuminate the lamp above the plants are located at a height of 20-40 cm.
The humidity should be high enough and constant enough. Plants should be constantly sprayed, and if there is a hitting nearby, they can be covered with wet towels. It is not a bad idea to get a moisturizer. Watering greenery often is not necessary, it is enough once every two or three days (better with a sprayer), but it is necessary to maintain high humidity. For consistent growth, it is important to rotate the containers with plants once a day by 180 °.
Correct soil
To grow fresh herbs on the window sill should take care of the ground in advance: it must be light, well-drained. A mixture of bio humus and coconut fibers is ideal. The proportion of the mixture should be 1:2. It is possible to mix garden soil with soil for indoor plants. Not a bad option – to mix in a ratio of 1:1:1 garden soil, humus and peat. It is important to remember that the soil from the garden beds before use must be decontaminated. As a drainage layer, you can use expanded clay, broken brick or pebbles. The thickness of such a “cushion” in the container should be at least 2 cm. The tank should have drainage holes.
Some ” home gardeners ” grow fresh herbs on sawdust, cotton, or hydrogel. Thus, the hydrogel is poured with water and let swell up. After that, it is thrown on a colander and let the water flow down. Top spread the seeds without soaking them, cover with a film or glass and give germination for seven days, after which the seedlings are collected and planted in the ground. Sawdust is soaked for a day, then squeezed and placed in a pot or bag. Sprinkle the seeds, make a greenhouse effect and give germination.
It is possible and necessary to fertilize the window sill planting with organic and synthetic means once in two or three weeks. Organic in the house is not very convenient to use because of the unpleasant smell, so it is mainly soluble fertilizers.
What can I plant on the window sill?
Not all garden dwellers like to move from a bed to a window sill. Although in winter you can grow even such rare plants as Schnitt onions, oregano, mustard, cress and other garden plants. Of course, everyone will need individual care. But we suggest taking a look at the most popular types of herbs.
Thyme
Thyme should be given a deep and spacious container. Fill the bottom with a drainage layer, on top – fertile soil. Thyme seeds are sewn into the soil to a depth of 1-2 cm. Pour water and then cover with polyethylene and remove the container in a dark and warm place until germination. When the first seedlings appear, the container should be moved to the window sill. Strongly dense shoots will need to gradually sprout. Thyme loves light, so it will take longer to turn on the light.
Coriander
This plant is valued for its bright, saturated aroma. Before sowing the seeds in the ground they need to germinate in a shred of fabric or small sawdust at a temperature of +20 ° C. As soon as the coriander seeds “pass”, they should be planted in damp soil, sprinkled with a small layer of soil. Do not plant too thick: the distance between the seeds should be 4-5 cm. Cilantro loves moisture, so you need to water it daily, preventing the soil from drying out, it perfectly tolerate the temperature of +10, +12 ° C. The abundance of green coriander will please you in a month from the day of planting.
Spinach
Spinach for “life” on the window sill will need a flower pot or other container more than 15 cm deep. Before sowing, spinach seeds are soaked in warm water for two days. Sowed in the soil at a depth of 1-2 cm and a distance of at least 4 cm from each other. On a short light day, the temperature of cultivation can be +10, +15 ° C. The plant needs regular irrigation and spraying. It will be possible to cut the spinach leaves in three weeks after the seeds are sown into the ground.
Parsley
Before sowing, soak the seeds for a day in the water in a cloth or gauze flap/sack, put in a warm place (+25 ° C). After that, the seeds are planted in a container with soil at a depth of 5 mm. Before the seedlings appear, place it in a darkened place, and when the first seedlings appear, the container with the herbs move to the window sill. Parsley from the seeds grows long enough: from the day of sowing to the first tasting of herbs – a month and a half. By this time the plant will be 8-10 cm high.
Much faster parsley grows from the root, if you carefully dig it out in the autumn, keeping the top bud. Roots planted in a deep container, sprinkling the top with a layer of soil for 2-3 cm, pouring water, the pot is put away in a cool place, and with the appearance of sprouts, it is moved to the window sill. By the way, the same scheme can grow celery from seeds or roots.
Green onion
Even a child can grow green onions on the window sill. And it can be done even without soil, in water. The onion is lowered into a small container with water so that the water is 1/3 of the bottom of the bulb. In a few days, green arrows will appear, they can be plucked or cut regularly until the bulb itself runs dry. Onions can be grown in the ground or in a nutrient substrate: the bulbs are buried in it for a third, remembering to water regularly. If you plant the bulbs at an interval of two weeks, you can provide yourself with green onions all year round.
Melissa
Melissa is a simple plant. On the window sill, this herb can be grown from cuttings, branches and seeds. The fastest and most convenient way to grow this plant in winter is to dig it out in autumn by transplanting it from a bed to a pot. Growing melissa from seeds is a more laborious task. Pre-plant them in a container with soil to a depth of 1 cm, cover with film or glass, put in a warm place. Young shoots from a shared box dive into separate pots. Melissa should be regularly watered and sprinkled. By the way, the more this plant will be in the sun, the more fragrant its aroma will be.
Lettuce
Lettuce is a sun lover, so a window, “looking” to the south, will suit him in the apartment. The lettuce tank should be deep and spacious enough, and the ground is nutritious and loose. The seeds are sown in grooves 1 cm deep, the distance between them is 10-15 cm. Before the seedlings appear, the container is covered with a plastic film for the greenhouse effect, then it is removed. As the lettuce grows twice thinned out: a week after the appearance of shoots leave a distance of 1-2 cm between the seedlings, and in the phase of two or three real leaves – 4-5 cm. If the shoots are not thinning, the plants will stretch and weaken, and there will be no good harvest. Salad should be regularly watered because it reacts painfully to drought: the leaves become coarser and bitter.
