Sowing & Growing

The easiest way to grow cress quickly is to find a shallow tray (a plastic food container from the supermarket serves well) and line it with paper tissues, cotton wool or kitchen roll. Wet the paper or wool well (though don’t have it swimming in water), sprinkle seeds over the surface and cover the tray with cling film. A container that’s around an inch or two deep is perfect, as this allows space for growth before the seedlings hit their heads on their “glass ceiling”.

Germination takes place within a couple of days (24 hours, if you’re lucky) and the cress is ready to harvest when it’s around 1½ to 2 inches high (which will be, depending on the type you’re growing, five to seven days later). Snip the stalks off at the base to use as a garnish, in a salad, or in sandwiches.It’s important to ensure that the kitchen roll, or whatever you’re using, doesn’t dry out, which is why cling film is so useful as it stops evaporation. You can grow the cress without covering with cling film, but you have to keep a strict eye on it as the paper/wool etc dries out very quickly.An alternative to the kitchen roll method is to sprinkle them onto the surface of a three-inch pot (or larger) full of damp compost. This is the way to go if you want to grow the little seedlings on further, as they’ll soon need the nutrients in the soil to progress and will starve on kitchen roll.