WATER CRESS 2/23

Cress Micorgeens 2017

You will want to include Cress in your microgreens. They're super high in A, C, and K. Super easy to grow from seed and you can find bags of them with the root ball still in tact at many grocery stores now. Simply take a couple of the bags home and replant them in hydroponic setup up or moist potting soil..and you'll have a lot of never ending cress.

Cress (water cress, curled cress or pepper cress) all 3 varieties have a pepper flavor, much like mustard..cause they are from the mustard family. They are super proliferate, and therefore I would highly recommend that you container grow them. They are "cut and come back" crop. So you'll get a lot of continuous crop from them. They are best as a part of a leafy green mix.

They are however a cool weather crop, so at about 85F, they may start to wilt in our 115F outdoor temps. They may survive outdoors as long as you keep them in a puddle of water, but  You'll likely want them to become an indoor microgreen at those temps.

Wild cress..often found by ponds, streams..etc.. but I dont recommend consuming it. Wild cress can be contaminated with a parasite called fluke worm, and fluke worm will attack and likely destroy your liver.  Dont eat it, be safe, buy from a known source and grow them on your own where you can control the water source and conditions. 

Watercress, is extremely proliferate, and "cut and come back"..is an understatement. If taken care of, you can have a constant source of fresh cress greens for many, many months, but it will grow many more shoots..and rather quickly too. So if you grow cress of any variety.. I STRONGLY SUGGEST you container garden it. 

You should be able to take several clippings and start them in a simple glass of water to produce and propagate. I did not have great success with seed starting cress, but I'm still perusing that avenue. 

Here is a video showing from seed method:

This 3rd video shows how this person grows his watercress in a total hydroponic environment - no grow medium other than water.

Watercress will do very well in that set up as you will see.

My side by side experiments: After several variations, I would say if you can buy the watercress with the root ball in tact, this would be the way to go.  Simply take it home put in a container where you keep the water level about 1 1/2" deep most of the time. Change water out about every 10 days to keep it fresh.  The watercress will thrive..and you should have fresh water cress for a very long time. ..If you can only find long stems of Cress..and they're really fresh.. this will work well also. Water cress will start roots rather quickly, like about 3 days. Place your stems in about 2 to 3" of non chlorinated water, and you'll have cress growing before you know it.  Always try to keep your water fresh.