I am in the beginning stages of planning for micro greens. This is all just a back of the napkin idea at this point, but I wanted to put it out there and see if anyone else has had success growing a substantial amount of micro greens.
Problem: I can’t grow a continuous supply of greens throughout the winter. I hopefully can overwinter some lettuce and other greens, but I have not been able to get a constant supply throughout Jan., Feb, and March. This leaves me buying store bought, “organic” greens. Last year, we would go through one three pack of romaine lettuce and one container of spinach per week. Usually these were of lesser quality, especially compared to what we normally eat. I also do not like the idea of being completely dependent on supermarket produce because I never know when there will be an outbreak of some terrible disease or drought in California, or any other problem in the food supply chain.
Solution: Grow micro greens in my basement. I want to have one three level wire shelf with lights on two levels. I will keep this next to a window for added light. I am unsure if I will go with florescent or LED lights. I will use plastic containers from the supermarket and grow trays that I already have.
Goal: To grow enough micro greens to be able to eat at least some daily. I would add them to smoothies and salads. It would be ideal to supplement the romaine and spinach with fresh micro greens, which I have read are more nutritious than the fully grown plants. I would like to grow pea shoots, sunflowers, amaranth, and broccoli.
I am writing this to help myself think it out and plan. If anyone has experience with what has worked (lights, timing, pitfalls) please feel free to jump in. I will write more as I go along.
Last year I grew greens in the basement all winter long. It stay in the high sixties down there and everything thrived. I use LED shop lights from Costco. I use compost and perlite mix for growing, although I’ve heard people say that micros don’t actually need that much, if any, nutrition if actually harvested as micros. Some people grow strictly on coconut coir mats.
I had luck with Winter Density lettuce, Forellenschlus lettuce, and baby bok choy for full size greens.
I grew radish, kale, cilantro, sunflower, corn shoots (in the dark), sorrel, and a few other things I’m sure, but can’t think of right now, as micros. I haven’t had time to start again this year, but plan to. I sold a few trays to the restaurant my husband works at but didn’t have time to keep that up. It really is pretty easy. Timing is really only a big deal if you’re selling. I got bulk seed at true leaf market, but prices fluxuate a lot and it pays to check around.
Can’t think of much for pitfalls besides that I had major trouble with fungus gnats. Sticky tape didn’t work at getting all of them, and eventually I threw all my trays out and started completely over.
Hey Jim - this is just my experience growing small scale production microgreens on a farm in SE Minnesota this year. We’ve been growing a spicy mix, mild mix, arugula, and pea shoots. All seeds except for the peas (which are just field peas) come from Johnny’s. We’re using 10 row germ/seed trays for everything but the peas… just a standard 10x20 for them. Rate is approximately 2-3 tsp per tray… 1.5 cups for the peas. Peas are soaked overnight before sowing. All trays go into a germ chamber for 48 hours which really helps a lot. I’m sure a heat mat would be very good as well. The only ones we stack with weight on top are the peas. Everything else is not stacked for germination. Just using a shaker with different sized lids for the seeding process. It’s really pretty simple. I would definitely recommend sterilizing your trays between uses… greenshield, bleach, or a peroxide. We harvest every 14 days using a mini battery powered hedge trimmer. You could definitely let them go longer than this and get some more weight out of them… into the true leaf phase. Scissors would be good for very small scale. Go for it. Make sure you’ve got moist media before sowing. And you’ll want some way to water them without pounding them too hard… either a mist head, bottom water, or just a very quick back and forth with a regular head. I’d go with bottom water for in house production. If you’re using a mix with perlite watch out for it during the washing.
Wow, that is super helpful. Hopefully this weekend I will start gathering supplies. It is good to know this is doable and hopefully goes pretty smoothly (which few things do when doing them for the first time.
Update on the micro greens. Doing well so far. Sunflowers seem to germinate at different times but the peas, broccoli, spicy salad mix and amaranth all went great for the first try. I will be starting second trays soon
I appreciate this thread as I’m planning to start growing microgreens myself soon. Lots of great info!
For those interested in nutrition, I came across this research study that looked at nutrient concentrations in a wide variety of microgreens. Many of them pack a wallop!
