WS Bentley's Growers Ltd - Experienced salad cress growers
Growers, Processors and Distributors of Salad Cress
Growing Process Preparation Technical Education Zone Definitions & Links

Education Zone - How to Grow Cress

We've put together the definitive guide for growing cress at home.

Follow the simple instructions below and you'll soon be enjoying your own salad cress.

  1. Sow the seed on moist peat about 1.5cm deep in a punnet or pot. (Peat is messy and needs lime and fertiliser. Instead you could always try composts with fertiliser included from the garden centre. See what happens when you use different composts with different mixes of fertiliser. Or when you sprinkle the seed on some wet paper or cotton wool)

  2. Water the seed so that it sticks to the compost.

  3. Cover and put in a warm area (approx 25°C), which allows a small amount of light to reach the punnet.

  4. Leave for 2 days at about 25°C

  5. Uncover and water as necessary.

  6. Leave in good but not bright light, watering again as necessary.

  7. Once uncovered, the cress should be ready in about 2 to 3 days.

Notes

  1. The salad cress seed we use is actually 95% rape seed and 5% cress seed as most people find 100% cress seed too strong in taste. When produced commercially, salad cress must look, as well as taste good. All seedlings must be the same length, have an open leaf and be dark green in colour.

  2. Salad cress must also have a reasonable “shelf life”, i.e. you need to be able to keep it. We achieve this by using a special mix of fertilisers and lime. Fertilisers are all nitrates, but there are different varieties: sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate (and others). Each has a different effect on the various growing stages. Why not experiment with your own salad cress - sodium nitrate gives a darker colour, while potassium nitrate helps growth and is good for growing full plants but may not be the best fertiliser if you only grow seed to the first stage like we do.

  3. To create the best climate for salad cress we grow it in trays, on benches in greenhouses.

  4. Three main elements affect the growing cycle - light, water and temperature. In summer our growing cycle is 5 days, in winter 7 days.

  5. When it’s warm, more water evaporates so we need to water the seed more often. In winter, when light levels are low we give the seed extra light to make sure the leaves open and grow properly. We also grow it at a lower temperature to stop the seedlings from stretching and becoming straggly and weak. At the germination stage a lot more moisture and warmth are required to get the growing process going.

  6. Salad cress is a food product and needs high levels of hygiene. As we don’t use pesticides, we take other safety measures. We only use hygienically clean materials and equipment in our production process and test all seed and peat for coli-forms and other diseases before buying them. We also have stringent hygiene systems in place to ensure that we do not contaminate the seedlings ourselves. Experience has shown that the cleaner (in micro-biology terms as well as visual) the seed the better the seedlings grow and develop.

If you want to find out more about how to grow salad cress, simply call 01274 851214 or complete our online contact form.

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