Re: Microgreens Gardening

**Kelejan** 1/2/2016, 12:50 pm

It is always amazing how thing green up in just a few hours.

I had a few stray bulbs that I missed planting, so put them in a pot and covered it then completely forgot about it. Found it yesterday and there were these long skinny white shoots. Today, they are greening up nicely underneath a light so I will have a few early daffodils? in a bit. I know this is under "microgreens" but I do not think I will be eating my flowers.

**trolleydriver** 2/25/2016, 1:12 pm

Sunflower microgreens starting to show themselves.

microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 DSCN9849_zps3ndnzcds

yolos 12/16/2016, 11:18 am

This years start of my microgreen growing season. Planted peas, daikon radish, purple radish, buckwheat, broccoli, black oil sunflower, mustard, amaranth.
microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Microg10

microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Microg10

This will be a Christmas present for my daughter who has been bugging me for months to grow microgreens again.

**Scorpio Rising** 12/16/2016, 8:08 pm

yolos wrote:This years start of my microgreen growing season. Planted peas, daikon radish, purple radish, buckwheat, broccoli, black oil sunflower, mustard, amaranth.

This will be a Christmas present for my daughter who has been bugging me for months to grow microgreens again.

Nice! Do you buy special black oil sunflower seeds, or use birdfeed grade?

yolos 12/16/2016, 9:10 pm

Scorpio Rising wrote:
yolos wrote:This years start of my microgreen growing season. Planted peas, daikon radish, purple radish, buckwheat, broccoli, black oil sunflower, mustard, amaranth.

This will be a Christmas present for my daughter who has been bugging me for months to grow microgreens again.
Nice! Do you buy special black oil sunflower seeds, or use birdfeed grade?

I purchased special black oil sunflower seeds from a seed company. But I finally found a place to buy the black oil sunflower seeds for birds. I need to do some research to make sure they are ok to plant and eat as microgreens.

**Scorpio Rising** 12/16/2016, 9:44 pm

I feed my birds black oil sunflower seeds year round, but wonder if those are OK for us to eat? I get them from TSC or my ACE Hardware...by the 25# bag.

They are labeled for birdfood. Keep me posted! Have some capacity on my hands!

**Kelejan** 12/17/2016, 12:33 am

I use Black oil sunflowers seeds bought from my local Mother Nature's Panty, a local organics supplier. Ni problem with the micro-greens.

**sanderson** 12/18/2016, 3:12 am

Yolos, Cute gift idea!

**trolleydriver** 12/18/2016, 7:44 am

sanderson wrote:Yolos, Cute gift idea!

+1

yolos 12/19/2016, 5:02 pm

Microgreen update - day four
Everything is growing nicely except the broccoli and mustard. They are both lagging behind and just now starting to germinate.
microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Microg11

microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Microg11

**trolleydriver** 12/19/2016, 5:09 pm

yolos wrote:Microgreen update - day four
Everything is growing nicely except the broccoli and mustard. They are both lagging behind and just now starting to germinate.

Looking good yolos. I still have not started mine.

**sanderson** 12/20/2016, 1:39 am

trolleydriver wrote:Looking good yolos. I still have not started mine.

Looking good!

BeetlesPerSqFt 12/20/2016, 10:04 am

sanderson wrote:
trolleydriver wrote:Looking good yolos. I still have not started mine.
Looking good!

+1

Very inspiring photo. I want to try this on my windowsill after the holidays - the one I can only use during not-opening-the-windows season (and is thus not perennially occupied by houseplants.) But with a different suite of seed: mustard, komatsuna, arugula, parsley, dill, bok choy, cilantro and lamb's quarters... because those are the ones I've home-harvested and have a lot of.

yolos 12/21/2016, 9:43 pm

Microgreen Update - day 6

The two varieties of radish and the buckwheat are ready to harvest. Most other varieties will be ready on Christmas Eve, which is when I plan to serve them. The broccoli and mustard aren't doing so well. Instant gratification.
microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Microg12

microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Microg12

**sanderson** 12/22/2016, 2:24 pm

Oh. I thought it was a Christmas gift, or do you have a second one? Looks delicious,.

yolos 12/22/2016, 3:48 pm

sanderson wrote:Oh. I thought it was a Christmas gift, or do you have a second one? Looks delicious,.

Yes it is an edible Christmas gift to my daughter who lives with me. Even though some of the varieties are ready to harvest, they will be fine to wait a few days to serve on Christmas Eve. But yes, I also have a second one.

**sanderson** 12/23/2016, 3:56 am

Now i understand. Thanks.

yolos 12/23/2016, 4:35 pm

Okay, harvested some of the Microgreens planted on:
Sunflower - begin soak 12/14, planted 12/16, harvested 12/23
Buckwheat - begin soak 12/14, planted 12/16, harvested 12/23
Peas - begin soak 12/14, planted 12/16, harvested 12/23
Daikon Radish - planted 12/15, harvested 12/23
Sango Radish (purple) - planted 12/15, harvested 12/23

I planted 12 flats (5 inches x 5 inches) over the last week. The mustard greens and brocoli are not doing well. I planted two flats of mixed greens later in the week and they are doing well, just not ready to harvest. Amaranth germinated very well but is growing slowly.

Here is today's harvest:
microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Microg13

microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Microg13

They will be served as a salad with Christmas ever dinner.

**trolleydriver** 12/23/2016, 5:16 pm

Great yolos!

rock on

**sanderson** 12/25/2016, 2:47 am

Handy little chart there, Yolos. I guess I didn't realize how quickly they grow.

yolos 12/25/2016, 9:48 am

sanderson wrote:Handy little chart there, Yolos. I guess I didn't realize how quickly they grow.

Yes they grow very quickly, many in 7-10 days. They say, harvest just before the true set of leaves start to grow. Other things take longer but I am going to experiment to see what grows best. The amaranth is real difficult for me for some reason.

**trolleydriver** 12/30/2016, 5:15 pm

And here I go with my first sowing of microgreens for this winter. I'm experimenting (as usual) with growing them in egg cartons which are sitting in a plastic tray from the dollar store.

In the back egg carton I have Arugula and in the front carton I have Daikon Radish. I've put a plastic lid over them while they are germinating (not shown in the photo).

microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Img_3410

microgreens - Microgreens Gardening - Page 7 Img_3410

**AtlantaMarie** 12/30/2016, 11:07 pm

So...... I get that you cut them for harvesting....

But what do you do with the roots that they're putting out? And if you're using MM, what do you do with that? Sow again? Toss? Add into your compost pile?

yolos 12/30/2016, 11:56 pm

AtlantaMarie wrote:So...... I get that you cut them for harvesting....

But what do you do with the roots that they're putting out? And if you're using MM, what do you do with that? Sow again? Toss? Add into your compost pile?

I have done various things with my roots. Last year I grew microgreens during the winter so I just mixed the roots and soil in my garden beds to decompose. I also put some in my compost. This year I shook (sp?) out as much soil as possible to be reused in the next batch of microgreens and then put the the roots and remaining soil in my worm bin. I am hoping they will eat the roots and give me castings in return. Some of the unsprouted seeds are now sprouting in my worm bin so I just pluck the seedlings and leave them in the worm bin. I do realize that it is suggested that you do not reuse the soil but it was only in the container for about 10 days so I hope it will be okay. We shall see.

**AtlantaMarie** 12/31/2016, 8:19 am

AH! Thanks, Yolos! Then I think I'll wait till I get my worm bin set up...

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