Materials:
Wheat seeds
Water
Clear container or bowl
Tablespoon measuring spoon
Growing tray with drainage holes
Soil, and/or compost, and/or vermiculite
an indoor garden greenhouse or mini greenhouse
Grow light
Pencil or small stick
Plastic covering
scissors or knife
Step 1: soak
Wheat seeds can be found in grocery stores, online and in health food stores. Only buy a small amount at a time to see how you like wheatgrass juice but we are sure that you will absolutely love juicing this way and will want to buy more to continue year round wheatgrass juicing.
Put wheat seeds into your bowl or container; cover the seeds with room temperature or slightly warmer water. Make sure to cover the seeds completely. Allow your seeds to soak for 8 to 12 hours or overnight.
If you start off with about 2 tbsp of seeds, you will have enough to fill an 8×4 inch growing tray. You can adjust the amount you want to grow and tray size accordingly, based on those approximates.
Drain the water off of seeds and rinse thoroughly with room temperature or a little bit warmer water and drain yet again. Set your seeds out at room temperature, out of direct sunlight each time after rinsing. Rinse and drain again. Set soaked seeds out again and let sit for 8-12 hours, rinse again. Do this up to three more times, allowing each time to set at room temperature between each rinsing. You are aiming to have your sprouts have tiny roots before you start to plant them. When most or all of your seeds have roots, it is time to plant. This may take a day or two, but the transformation will amaze you on how fast it does happen.
Step 2: prepare growing tray and greenhouseMake sure that the planting tray you plan on using has drainage holes; this is a must. Using a clean tray, add between 1½ to 2in. of soil, vermiculite or other soilless medium. The more soil that you have and the better the water retention and release, the less you have to water, and the better your new seedlings will grow.
To be growing hydroponically you now set up your mini greenhouse to the specs that it has on its directions. It is not necessary to use a greenhouse if you don’t have one. You can use a plastic cover to ‘incubate your seedlings and plants while they are in their first growing stages. During this time, set up your grow lamp or light to set up above your new seedlings at least 12-18 inches above your new plants and turn it on to start warming it up. You don’t need a big greenhouse, a small one like you would find in Wal-mart or K-mart will do and if you cannot get a regular ‘grow light’, you can substitute the grow bulbs that are often sold in those same stores. It is better to invest in a grow light so that you can use your new toy to try it out on some other vegetables and fruits while growing your grass or at a later date. Step 3: getting to the nitty gritty of planting
Water your grow tray so your growing medium is very moist. Drain the water from your soaking seeds and then spread the seeds evenly over the surface of your growing medium. Take your pencil or small stick to spread out your seeds so they are not all clumped up in one place. Push them down gently to make sure they all have contact with your growing medium and then place some of your growing medium, gently and lightly on top of your seeds. Just a very light layer will do (an 1/8th of an inch or so will do fine).
Place your newly planted grow tray in your greenhouse under your grow light or just under your grow light. Make sure if you cover your plants with a plastic cover or some other form of plastic, that you have holes in your plastic to assure plentiful airflow. Water your new seedlings once or twice a day lightly. You can even invest in a mister or a spray bottle to spray your seedlings from the top, rather than pouring water on them and possibly damaging your newly growing plants.
If you use one of the ‘mini greenhouses’ to grow your grass hydroponically, that you get from a local department store, check to make sure that the bottom tray where water is held is not holding too much water so as not to ‘drown’ the roots of your newly growing plants. You may also need to raise the lid on your mini greenhouse or the plastic you placed on your seeds to a higher level in a few days. Within 7 to 10 days your will have a new little patch of green wheatgrass nicely growing. If your plastic has to be moved up too high, raise your grow light up another 6 to 12 inches so as not to create too high humidity for your plants or burn them with the light being too close. You also run the risk of catching the plastic on fire if it is too close and on for too many hours of the day. If you plan on leaving your light on all the time, then it may be best to keep your light raised at least the 18 inches to 2 feet from your plants to ensure plenty of light but the heat can be diffused some, instead of ongoing constantly and taking the chance of burning your new harvest up.
Step 4: Harvest time
After a week to ten days, no more than 2 weeks, your wheat grass should be a height of nearly 7 inches. If it isn’t, don’t fret too much. Just keep giving it love & care, watering it and making sure the roots are not drowning in their water and your wheatgrass will attain the height that you are looking for.
At 7 inches your wheatgrass is of cutting length. You can now use your knife or scissors to cut your grass. Grab your plants gently and cut them close to the roots. The best flavor for juicing is from freshly cut grass. You can store your cut grass in sealed plastic bags for use in the near future. It is best if you are planning on storing it to not water your plants directly so the grass itself won’t be wet to the touch when you cut it. This helps to prevent mold and other rotting issues.
You can continue to let your grass grow, know that the next few cuttings may not be as sweet, tender or as large as the first but they will grow back nevertheless. You can try the second and third cuttings and see for yourself if you like the juice from those cuttings or if you just prefer the first, freshest cuts.
Now its time to start growing all over again; with a new set of seeds and a clean tray. You can also be growing your first set and in a few days, start a second tray and on and on, so that you will have a fresh, continuous batch of wheatgrass as often as you want it. Once your growing area is already set up, now it will be just a matter of soaking and planting and putting back into your hydroponic setup.
Growth tips:
-liquid fertilizer or compost tea could be added to boost growth
-you could use less soil because you just need enough for short term growth since only the first growth is used, once the grass is cut for use it will grow back but has less nutritional value.
-you can also grow on just paper towels with no soil at all, just make sure it stays moist and doesn’t dry out.
-if you don’t water enough the grass starts to yellow and the blades thin -not very good for juicing
-if there is too much moisture mold can form on the soil. If this happens, when your harvesting make sure you cut higher on the grass blade or if you want to play it safe don’t use it at all since mold can trigger allergic reactions in some people. Also sterilize the growth tray with bleach if you will be reusing it.
-to prevent mold from forming, water less, don’t cover the growth tray with the plastic container, and/or place growth tray where there is more air flow, like an open window, also try adding more drainage holes
-once you know how long it takes for it to grow and how long it takes for you to consume you can stagger several trays so you have a continuous supply of wheatgrass.
-wheatgrass also looks very pretty, so if you find a nice ceramic or clay pot to grow it in, you could use it decoratively.
