Growing Lettuce in a Cup

As is the case with me, and I’m sure many people my age, the idea of gardening and caring for and raising a plant that will produce ample sustenance is a beautiful dream. One that, unfortunately, many do not have the ability to see come true.

More and more people are having to live in apartments with little natural light and no outdoor space. Which means no land to sow a garden in, and little space to keep a potted plant, much less one that will actually give you anything to eat.

But lament no longer! for I have a solution.

You can grow lettuce easily, cheaply, and quickly from the comfort of your basement level studio with this trick. Not to mention you’ll be getting free salad ingredients out of the deal.

Now, before I begin. Obviously, this trick or some variant of it will work with other plants as well, including some that produce food, like small herbs or microgreens. My purpose in choosing lettuce is that it’s the plant that will yield the most in such a small environment, and that lettuce will actually grow better inside than out.

Lettuce is an otherwise hardy plant, but in extreme heat it will either wilt or shoot up to produce a tall plant that is useful for getting new heads of lettuce, but won’t give you the kind of leaves you want to eat.

Indoor lettuce can be kept at the perfect temperature (Under 85 degrees Fahrenheit) all year long, and so the right sized cup can give you a full serving of salad leaves every 10 days. And with just a few cups you can have enough to have greens every day if it pleases you.

Some things you’re going to need:

Paper/Plastic cups (Now this trick says plastic cups,I.e. Solo cups or something similar, but you can do this with any kind of cup that you can fit inside of another and punch holes in.)

Basic potting soil

Plastic bag

Optional:

Shears (You can use kitchen scissors just as well)

Spray bottle (An old perfume/cleaning spray bottle that you’ve thoroughly can work, but you do have make sure there’s nothing of its original contents left)

Soluble Fertilizer

Step 1: You’ll need some drainage holes in the bottom, two or three a bit smaller than a pencil in width will work.

Step 2: Fill the cup with about a ½ inch of standard potting soil.

Step 3: Water the inserted soil until it is completely, and evenly moist. Make sure to do this where it can drain without making too much of a mess.

Step 4: Cover the seeds in another ¼ inch of soil. Mist with water to ensure that this is moist as well, but not too much, the soil can’t be compact or the sprouts won’t make it through.

Step 5: Fill a second cup with about a ¼ cup of water. (Should be re-watered whenever your soil is looking too dry.)

Step 6: Place first cup into the new, watered cup.

Step 7: Cover with a plastic bag, like a grocery bag, and place in a windowsill or somewhere else regularly well-lit by natural light for it to germinate.

Step 8: Once the first sprouts have emerged from the soil, remove the bag.

Step 9: Harvest the lettuce when it has reached 6-8 inches tall, cut it back to about an inch from the soil’s surface. It may look like you’ve destroyed the plant, but as I've said, lettuce is hardy! And it will come back quickly.

If you want to really get some quick-growing lettuce, buy a soluble fertilizer and make a mixture of 1/4 teaspoon to a gallon.

You can very easily make several of these to line along all of the windows in your house.

Maybe you can’t yet afford the garden of your dreams, but you can start saving up a bit of money for it by growing your own salad greens.