How to Grow Wheatgrass at Home

Wheatgrass is an incredibly healthy superfood that is capable of supplying the body with an abundance of nutrients. Often sold in juice bars and smoothie bars, wheatgrass is simple to grow at home so that it can be readily available daily for you and your family.

Wheatgrass Benefits

Regardless of how often we are told, not many people make sure to eat the proper amount of vegetables and fruits every day. While this may not seem like an important thing to some people, the truth is that a lack of fruits and vegetables in the diet means a lack of proper nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. While nothing can replace the nutrition of fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking or consuming wheatgrass daily can help to supply the body with many of the nutrients that you may be missing out on.

Wheatgrass has some pretty impressive nutritional statistics. It is a fantastic source of chlorophyll, vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E while containing 98 of the 102 elements found in soil such as phosphorus, calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium. Wheatgrass also contains essential enzymes as well as 19 amino acids.

Some of the benefits of wheatgrass include:

• helps oxygenate the body
• boost metabolism
• detoxifies the body
• helps regulate blood sugar
• purifies the liver
• fights skin conditions
• prevents tooth decay
• reduces inflammation in the body
• boost the immune system

Why You Should Grow Wheatgrass At Home

Though a small investment will need to be made initially, growing your own wheatgrass at home is an economical way to include more wheatgrass into your diet. While you might not be able to afford a daily shot from your local juice bar, growing your own wheatgrass at home allows you to have the superfood on hand whenever you want it. Growing your own at home also ensures that the end product will be the freshest and highest quality.

How To Grow Wheatgrass At Home

While wheatgrass is readily available fresh at health food stores and juice bars, why not try your hand at juicing your own at home? Below are the simple steps to sprouting and growing your own wheatgrass.

What You Need:

• organic wheatgrass seeds
• organic potting soil and fertilizer
• plastic gardening tray with holes on the bottom
• spray bottle

Directions:

Step 1 – Sprouting

Sprouting your wheatgrass seeds is important to ensure that you grow a healthy crop.

1. To sprout the seeds, lay out enough seeds to cover the bottom of your plastic gardening tray. Seeds can be next to each other but make sure they are not on top of one another.

2. Rinse the seeds in water and drain them. Soak the seeds in a container filled with about 2-3 times the amount of cool water. Soak for 8 hours

3. After 8 hours, drain the water and repeat step #2 two more times.

4. After the third set of soaking check the seeds. They should have a sprout root of at least 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch.

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Step 2 – Prepare To Plant

1. Lay paper towels on the bottom of the gardening tray to make sure that the roots do not go through the bottom.

2. Fill the tray with soil, compost or potting mix to about 1 1/2 inches.

Step 3 – Planting

1. Sprinkle the seeds over the potting soil. Press them gently into the soil.

2. Place tray by a window indoors or somewhere else out of direct sunlight. The seeds will not do well in direct sunlight.

Step 4 – Watering

1. Using the spray bottle, water the seeds twice a day to ensure they remain moist.

2. Once grass has grown over one inch, reduce the watering to once per day.

Step 5 – Harvesting

1. Once wheatgrass has grown above 6 inches, trim the grass using scissors. only trim the grass if you are going to immediately juice it.

2. One 21×11 tray of wheatgrass should yield about 18 ounces of wheatgrass juice.

3. Once wheatgrass has been harvested, clean the tray and start the process over.

Juicing Wheatgrass

Wheatgrass requires a specialized wheatgrass juicer in order to be processed, though some higher end juicers can also handle the delicate nature of wheatgrass as well. This article breaks down a variety of wheatgrass juicers and their benefits.

There are two types of wheatgrass juicers – electric and manual. Both types of juicers will successfully juice your wheatgrass, however the type that you choose will depend on how much work you want to do and how much money you are willing to spend. A manual juicer is just that – manual.

This means that you need to hand crank the wheatgrass is order to juice it. The electric juicers use motors to juice the wheatgrass and can often times be used to juice other fruits and vegetables.

Final Words

Wheatgrass is an amazing superfood to include in your diet. Though it can be purchased from health food stores and juice bars, growing your own wheatgrass at home is simple and quick to do. Growing your own wheatgrass at home is also another way to ensure that you are getting the freshest and highest quality wheatgrass.

If you find this article interesting, you should also check out – How to Grow Plant & Grow Sweet Potatoes.