If you are thinking about growing your own wheatgrass juice – do it! Not only is one of the most highly nutritious super foods around, but it will cost almost nothing.
I am often asked how to grow wheatgrass indoors. Well, I would begin by recommending that you find some good organic compost from your local garden centre. Choose one that is suitable for growing vegetables.
If you are a bit short of space in your house or live in an apartment, growing wheatgrass from an automatic sprouter is a very good option.
How to grow wheatgrass from soil or compost
I use plastic seed trays to grow wheatgrass. You can buy these at your local garden centre.
You’ll find there are two types of seed tray.
- Trays that have holes for drainage
- Trays that are solid without holes
The solid trays go underneath the ones with holes so they can catch all the drips.
I personally like to keep things super simple and I prefer to grow the wheatgrass directly from the sold trays. The important thing here is to be careful when watering the wheatgrass during the early stages. You don’t want to get the compost too wet; moist to the touch is what you should aim for.
Use two sold green seed trays to grow one tray of wheatgrass.
Wheat Grass Seeds (aka Wheat Berries)
Buy a good quantity of wheatgrass seed from the internet, and keep it stored in a large airtight container. There are lots of wheatgrass growing kits available on the internet, which can be another option if you want to grow some wheatgrass at home. If you intend to grow wheatgrass regularly, buying your wheatgrass seeds online in bulk and your organic compost locally will be a far cheaper way to grow your wheatgrass.
Each of your two trays of wheatgrass will need one cup of dry wheatgrass/wheat berries. The dry seed will be soaked and sprouted; this will turn the dormant seeds into a living sprout.
Need to know how to sprout wheat? Learn more>>
As soon as your wheat has sprouted, put it in the middle of the compost filed seed tray.
Then, carefully spread the sprouted wheatgrass seeds over the top of the compost. Try and keep them evenly spread, touching each other but not piled up. Each will need to get its own roots down into the compost.
Get the compost nice and damp and cover it with the other tray. Keeping the light out will help the grass to put down roots.
If its summer you can put the trays outside but not in direct sunlight. At other times of the year place the wheatgrass trays somewhere in your house.
Around 5 days later you should have plenty of pale wheatgrass trying to push the top tray off. Now, remove the top tray so the wheatgrass can turn green.
Keep the tray watered especially if feels light when you pick them up. This is really important because once a tray dries out, it’s probably too late and you might as well start again. But not too much water or you may start to get mould. Never use wheatgrass that has mold.
As soon as your wheatgrass has started to fork, it’s time to harvest. This is when your wheatgrass is at its most nutritious.
How to Harvest Wheatgrass
I love this part! Get yourself a pair of sharp scissors and grab a bunch of wheatgrass in one hand. Cut the wheatgrass at the bass and do try and keep your grass facing the same way. This will help when you juice the wheatgrass.
It’s best to harvest the wheatgrass you need whenever you want to juice. This will ensure you have the freshest wheatgrass juice possible. That said, I normally harvest the whole tray and keep the wheatgrass in a Tupperware type container. I would say a week is about as long as you’d want to store the wheatgrass in the fridge.
