How to Grow Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass is one of the greatest sources of vitamins. Often called an ultimate blood purifier, it contains high amounts of iron, vitamin A, E, B6, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, zinc,manganese, chlorophyll, and even protein. During winter months, it’s an excellent source of vitamins and minerals when you can’t access fresh vegetables or fruits from your garden. Wheatgrass can be grown on your kitchen counter throughout the winter months to provide a continuous supply of high energy, cleansing, and nutrition to your diet.

Supplies Needed To Grow Wheatgrass:

• Wheatgrass seeds (also known as hard winter wheat seed or wheat berries). Be sure to pick organic seeds or ones that haven’t been treated with pesticides.

• A planting tray

Directions:

1. Measure how many seeds you need to lightly cover the bottom of the tray you are going to use. 2 cups is good for a 16” x 16” tray. You can spread the raw berries on the bottom of the tray to measure what you need for your size tray.

2. Rinse the seeds well in cool water. Drain.

3. Soak seeds in about 3 times as much cold water as seeds. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to soak for about 10 hours or overnight. No sunlight is required at this point, so anywhere in your kitchen is fine.

4. Drain the seeds and add new cold water – again 3 times as much water as the seeds. Let soak for another 10 hours.

5. Drain seeds again, and add new cold water as before, allowing them to soak for yet another 10 hours. There should be a total of 3 long soaks. By the end of the last soak, the seeds should have sprouted small roots. Drain the seeds again and get ready for planting.

6. Line the tray with paper towel to prevent the wheatgrass roots from growing through the holes in the bottom of the tray. Spread a 2-inch thick layer of organic compost or potting soil or Vermiculite in the seed tray. If using Vermiculite, you need very little as it absorbs and holds liquid so readily – approx. 3 cups for 10x10 inch tray or 6 cups for 10x20 inch tray.

7. Lightly press the seeds into the soil but don’t completely bury them. Spread the seeds evenly across the tray. It’s OK if they are touching but don’t leave any clumps of seeds so each seed has a little room to grow.

8. Water the tray lightly and cover the tray with a few moistened sheets of newspaper.

9. Keep the seeds moist. This is important as you don’t want the seeds to dry out or they won’t grow properly. Water the tray lightly in the mornings, and use a spray bottle to mist the soil in the evenings so that the seedlings don’t dry out overnight. Spray the newspaper too so it stays wet. Be sure that the container does not get waterlogged.

10. Remove the newspaper cover after 4 days, but continue watering the sprouted grass once a day.

11. Now is the time to put your tray into the sunlight so that the sprouted grass can start developing chlorophyll. Keep the grass in partial sunlight.

12. Wait for the grass to split into 2 blades of grass. The shoots are mature and ready for harvesting when you see a second blade of grass growing out of the first shoot. The grass will be approximately 6 inches tall. It usually takes about 9-10 days of growth to reach the mature stage.

Harvesting:

Cut the wheatgrass above the root using scissors. Juice the grass immediately. You will get the best flavour and nutrition from grass that has been just freshly cut. Keep watering the wheatgrass to produce a second crop. Sometimes you can get a third crop from your shoots, but usually it isn’t as tender and sweet as the first one. Empty the seed tray, and prepare it for another batch of seedlings.

It takes a large quantity of wheatgrass to make just a few shots of juice. If you are planning on making wheatgrass a daily part of your diet, you’ll need more than one tray of seedlings growing at the same time. Time your growing and harvesting cycles so that you have a new batch of seeds soaking while the previous batch is taking root. If you have 2 or 3 trays at various stages in the rotation, you should be able to produce enough wheatgrass to have a shot of juice every day.

Wheatgrass is also very decorative and will add a nice natural touch of green to your kitchen or sunroom or wherever you choose to grow it.

Juicing:

Be sure to rinse the wheatgrass before you juice it to remove debris or dust. Wheatgrass needs to be juiced using a special wheatgrass juicer, such as a Teldon Greenstar juicer. Regular juicers will get clogged by the wheatgrass. If you don’t have a juicer, you can blend the wheatgrass completely and strain out the solids.