Microgreens Gardening

Well, my two experiments into growing micro greens was successful and rewarding.  I figure in the middle of winter and the middle of the hot summer I can grow micro greens when I am unable to easily grow lettuce.  So, I finally broke down and bought some supplies that will help with the growing.  I purchased these small trays.  you can fit 8 trays in a standard 10 x 20 tray.  I found that I like lots of different greens growing at the same time.  So these trays make that possible.  I have a small 2 ft T5 light that can fit one 10 x 20 tray under the light.  So that means I can grow 8 different varieties of micro greens at the same time if I use these 5 x 5 mini trays.

Something screwy is going on with that website.  I revisited it this morning and everything has changed.  The look of the website is different, the products I ordered are not displayed.  I hope I have not been scammed in some way.  I will call them when they open to find out what is going on. I tried to log into my account and it does not recognize me.  I am totally confused.  Never had this happen before.  

Okay - I called mvseeds.com and they did update their website last night after I placed my order.  So they are checking out the website and will get back to me.  

Sanderson - you might delete the links and my last 2 post so people will not be confused.  When they get the website staightened out I can then provide a link.

My order from Mountain Valley Seeds arrived today.  I am really excited to try growing 8 varieties of micro-greens at the same time.  Here are the trays that I purchased.  A total of eight 5"x 5" trays with drain holes sitting in a 10 x 20 drip tray with no holes.  We shall see how this works.  I may have a problem because different seeds sprout and are harvest-able at different times.

How fun!

Well here is an update on this experiment.  The 8 tray growing trays are not working perfectly as I feared.  The sunflowers have to have a heavy tray on top of them to make the roots go into the soil so that small tray has to be removed until the sprouts are about 1 inch tall.  Some things such as radish and broccoli germinated real fast and need to come out from the covered tray, etc, etc.  But I can handle it and still think it is a good concept.  There are 8 small trays but I divided two of the trays so I have 10 varieties growing.

Here are the various varieties I am growing this time.  This is day 3.

1a - Red Garnet Amaranth
1b - Tall Top Early Beet
2   - Daikon Radish
3   - Common Buckwheat
4   - Broccoli
5   - Salad
6a - Red Winter Kale
6b - Upland Cress
7   - Peas
8   - Black Oil Sunflower

Wow! That's really inspiring, Yolos!

CC

Very nice yolos. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to put a heavy tray on top of the sunflowers. I think if you sprout them outside the tray then transfer them into the tray and cover with a thin layer of soil they will find their way. Now that you know how fast the various microgreens sprout, perhaps you can sow them over a few days rather than all at once (i.e., the radish would be planted on the last day since it sprouts very fast). Just some thoughts. I'll be getting back into microgreens in the new year. Enjoy your harvest.

trolleydriver wrote:Very nice yolos. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to put a heavy tray on top of the sunflowers. I think if you sprout them outside the tray then transfer them into the tray and cover with a thin layer of soil they will find their way. Now that you know how fast the various microgreens sprout, perhaps you can sow them over a few days rather than all at once (i.e., the radish would be planted on the last day since it sprouts very fast). Just some thoughts. I'll be getting back into microgreens in the new year. Enjoy your harvest.

TD - yea I made a plan on what to plant on each date so they would all be ready to harvest at the same time.  But I kept getting conflicting information about how long it would take to germinate and to harvest.  It got too complicated so I said what the heck and just planted them all at the same time.  I am now keeping records to determine what sprouts and harvests in so many days.  After I figure it all out, then I can be more discerning about when and what to plant.

CapeCoddess wrote:Wow!  That's really inspiring, Yolos!  

CC

+1

sanderson wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:Wow!  That's really inspiring, Yolos!  

CC

+1

+2!! It is like a little microgreen quilt!

Looks so pretty, Yolos.

Looks great, Yolos!  Looking forward to reading your notes on all of them...

Micro-green experiment end of day 4.

WHAT a difference in just a day....!  Especially that diakon....

Amazing..........

I would cut out four of those seeds and concentrate on the others, unless you have plenty of space to grow the slow ones by way of of a change of taste.

Kelejan wrote:I would cut out four of those seeds and concentrate on the others, unless you have plenty of space to grow the slow ones by way of of a change of taste.

Thanks for your suggestion Kelejan.  When I bought this set of trays they were so cheap ($4.25 for the the 8 small trays and 1 larger tray) I bought a second set of trays exactly like the ones in the picture.  So once I figure out the height and growth rates of the individual varieties I can then plant them in the two sets of trays depending on their specific growth habit.  I have a 2 foot T-5 grow light so I can change the trays out every 12 hours.

Boy it is so nice to be retired and have all this free time to play around.  I could never have done all this and work full time.     Of course my paperwork and house cleaning are not getting done, but what the heck.

What do you all think about dehydrating my leftover microgreens and then making them into a powder?  Maybe sprinkling the powder onto salads when I temporarily run out of fresh microgreens.  Or mixing the dried powder into my salad seasoning.  Or if I ever get around to learning how to make soup, adding them to soup.  I know I can do them in a smoothie but haven't learned or taken the time to do that.  I know you can pulverize them and freeze them in ice cubes.

yolos wrote:What do you all think about dehydrating my leftover microgreens and then making them into a powder?  Maybe sprinkling the powder onto salads when I temporarily run out of fresh microgreens.  Or mixing the dried powder into my salad seasoning.  Or if I ever get around to learning how to make soup, adding them to soup.  I know I can do them in a smoothie but haven't learned or taken the time to do that.  I know you can pulverize them and freeze them in ice cubes.

I think that is a great idea, yolos! You could even make a nice spicy mayo for sandwich spread with them, or add to other dressings and dips. Really endless!

You betcha, Yolos.  I do that with my carrot peelings, tomato skins/seeds once I put them thru the food mill, etc.

Excellent idea, Scorpio. I dehydrate surplus chard, spinach, kale, then save them for future use to add to soups knowing that most of the nutrition remains. Sometimes I do powder them for long-term storage. I will be doing more of that next year; I use every bit of what I grow; 1) eat,  2) make soup, can, dehydrate, freeze,   3)feed to worms  4) feed compost.  Re. No 2), I also share with appreciative friends, who recognize the good stuff especially when they can no longer grow it themselves.

I made the mistake the other day when a friend of mine who says she makes smoothies and who I know does not eat properly, returned a small jar of powdered chard that I had given her to add to her smoothies. That is when I discovered that her smoothies consisted mostly of Dole tinned fruit.  Can't educate some people, I'm afraid.  That small jar contained about $8 worth of chard if I had purchased it and not grown it myself.

At least she returned it unopened and did not throw it away.  It may have cost me only pennies but it took some work to get that result.  Same with some sourkraut that I made,  cheap to make but costly to buy.  She does not like that either. No wonder she seems to be in my age-group although I am old enough to be her mother.

Anyway, Scorpio, can beat FRESH stuff.

End of Day 6.  I harvested some daikon radish because they were flopping all over the adjacent squares.  Buckwheat could be harvested now.  It is slow to get started then it takes off real fast and is now just as tall as the radish.  Amaranth is very short.  Beets did not germinate well.  Everything else looks good but is taking longer than radish and buckwheat.

It's all wonderful yolos. You are doing a great job with the microgreens. I'm looking forward to getting back into microgreens once the holidays are over.

First attempt at Arugula microgreens under the new DIY grow light. 

Just moved to the grow light after sprouting with no light. They got a bit leggy overnight before I uncovered them.




After just a couple of hours under the grow light they greened up.