A sow-your-own cress contest gives an office Christmas party something to look forward to once the decorations come down. Everyone sows a cup of seeds on the same afternoon, and whoever’s grows fastest wins when the team reconvenes, since seed packets and growing guides commonly put cress from sowing to first cut at around seven to ten days.
Office Christmas parties are easy to plan and easy to forget. A cress contest is different: it costs next to nothing, needs no caterer, and gives colleagues a reason to check on each other’s desks for a week or two afterwards. This article covers what each person needs to take part, how to keep the contest fair, a rough timeline from sowing to the final weigh-in, and a few housekeeping points — spilled water, who waters over a day off, mess on shared desks — worth agreeing before the first seed goes in.
Products mentioned — in stock at IndoorGarden, shipped from Tallinn across the EU.
Why cress, and not a bake sale
A bake sale needs someone who can bake, an hour of cleanup, and a table. A cress contest needs a cup, a pinch of seeds and a windowsill or desk. It is one of the fastest edible crops there is, it needs no soil, and nobody is excluded for lacking a kitchen skill — sowing a cup of seeds takes under a minute and looks roughly the same whether a person has gardened for years or never grown anything at all. That makes it an easy activity to run across a whole floor or a whole company, not just the people who already enjoy plants.
What each person needs
Keep the list short on purpose, since the whole point is that nobody has an excuse not to join in: a small cup, jar or even a clean eggshell; a layer of cotton wool, a folded paper towel or a thin pad of kitchen roll to sit the seeds on instead of soil; and a pinch of garden cress seeds from one shared packet, so every entry starts from the same batch. One packet easily covers a whole department. For a team that wants a slightly tidier, no-drip version — useful for a shared kitchen counter rather than individual desks — a microgreens sprouter works as a communal entry that a few colleagues tend together, judged alongside the individual desk cups.
Sowing without soil also means no compost bags to store and no trays to scrub afterwards — a damp pad and a light misting once or twice a day is normally enough, and the paper towel method covers the mechanics in more detail if anyone wants to compare notes on technique.
Setting the rules so the contest is actually fair
Light and warmth do most of the work in how fast cress grows, so the fairest version of this contest controls for both rather than letting entries sit wherever a desk happens to be. Agree on one judging point — tallest average height, first cup to look “ready to cut”, or simply whoever the panel thinks tastes best in a sandwich at the finish — and pick it before anyone sows, since arguing about the rules after the fact never goes well at an office party. A windowsill entry will usually outpace one tucked into a dim corner of an open-plan floor, so either assign everyone a similar spot or treat location as part of the strategy, same as any other contest.
A rough timeline for a two-week contest
Sowing day is day zero: seeds go onto the damp pad, uncovered or loosely covered until the first green shows. Most entries show visible sprouts within two to three days, and by the end of the first week there is usually enough growth to tell who is ahead. Seed packets and growing guides commonly put cress at seven to ten days from sowing to a full, cuttable head, so scheduling the weigh-in and tasting for the second week after the party gives every entry a fair chance to finish, including the slower ones on darker desks.
Keeping desks tidy over the holidays
The two practical risks are spilled water near a keyboard and nobody remembering to water over a day off. A cup set inside a saucer or a small tray catches most spills, and a quick note in the team chat covering who is in on which day solves the watering gap — it also turns the contest into a bit of a team exercise, since someone else’s cress dying from neglect while they are away is part of the fun. Entries dry out faster than they get overwatered in a heated office, so a light daily misting is generally safer than a daily soak.
| Item | Approx. cost | Needed per person? |
|---|---|---|
| Garden cress seeds (one shared packet) | €1.39 for the whole office | A pinch each |
| Cup, jar or clean eggshell | Usually already on hand | Yes |
| Cotton wool or kitchen paper | A few cents | Yes |
| Microgreens Sprouter (optional, shared entry) | €11.99 | No — one per team is enough |
Frequently asked questions
How long does cress actually take to grow?
Most seed packets and growing guides put cress at around seven to ten days from sowing to a full, cuttable head, with the first visible sprouts usually appearing within two to three days.
Do we need soil?
No. Cress grows well on a damp pad of cotton wool or folded kitchen paper, which keeps desks and shared kitchens cleaner than a tray of compost.
Does everyone need the same amount of light?
Not strictly, but for a fair contest it helps. A cup on a bright windowsill will usually grow faster than one in a dim corner, so either match everyone’s light or accept that desk position is part of the game.
Who waters the entries over a day off?
Agree this before the contest starts — a quick rota in the team chat avoids any one cup drying out while its owner is away, and checking on a colleague’s cress is most of the social fun anyway.
Can people eat the cress afterwards?
Yes, cress is a common salad and sandwich garnish. Rinse it before eating, as with any fresh leaf, and follow your usual office food-hygiene habits if the winning cup goes into a shared lunch.
What if someone’s cress doesn’t grow?
It usually means the pad dried out completely at some point or the seeds were buried rather than left on the surface. A fresh pinch from the same packet and a few days’ head start before the official count usually fixes it.
Where to start
Most offices only need one shared packet of cress and microgreens seeds and a stack of paper cups from the kitchen cupboard to run this for an entire floor. If you would rather order enough for a larger team in one go, or want a quote for several departments, our contact page is the quickest way to ask.
