Before discovering microgreens I’ve never thought that I would be able to grow most of my own food. Traditionally raising plants to maturity can be a long grueling process if you don’t know what you’re doing… And I don’t! So once I heard that there was a method of growing masses of food that takes less than a month, I was certainly intrigued. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but the low barrier to entry made it easier to try out. So I went to some local stores where I picked up some shoeboxes, some seeds, and some soil. It’s at this step where I feel like I’ve learned the most. First, the shoe boxes were not a great idea, the high walls of the box made harvesting difficult as I would have to reach around the sides of box to cut down all the plants. A shallow 1020 (10″ x 20″) purpose made tray would have been much better, the larger surface area means larger harvests and the shallow depth makes it easy to get at the stems for harvest. Putting a 1020 tray with holes into one without holes makes for an easy watering solution. By simply watering the bottom tray, you can trust that your microgreens soil will be evenly watered without getting your microgreens wet. Second, while the soil I got worked, it was coarse and had chunks of material in it which made it difficult to work with. In the future, I plan on using a seed starter mix, which should fit my needs better since the plants are harvested when they are young anyway. And finally, going forward it would probably be more economical to buy seed in bulk rather than in packets.
When I got home, I packed about an inch of soil in each of the shoe boxes and began to seed. The microgreens I chose to plant were basil, sunflowers, and an umami blend. The sunflowers and umami take about a couple of weeks from seeding to harvest them and the basil takes a week or two longer. I placed lids on all the shoeboxes to keep in any moisture so I wouldn’t have to water regularly as the seeds germinate. I let the boxes sit like this for about a week as I waited for the sprouts to emerge. After I noticed a significant amount of the sprouts emerged, I removed the lids and let the bins sit under a grow light for another week. During this prosses, I noticed that I didn’t seed as densely as I should have. Microgreens can get stalky and weak so it’s useful for each plant to have a ton of neighbors that will help keep it upright.
After that week passed it was time to harvest the sunflowers and the umami. This was done simply with a knife, and place the plants I harvested into a bowl, which I then stored in the fridge. As of posting this, I have a little less than a week to go before I harvest the basil.
Going Forward
It was clear to me that I should do a little more research before attempting my next batch of microgreens. Which I did, and now I need to take the steps to acquire the materials I need and plan out my next attempt. I figured out my tray issue thanks to this YouTube video by Donny Greens. Once I receive the new trays, I’m hoping to focus on a single batch of microgreens (probably sunflowers) to hone in on the process. I also want to be better at journaling/documenting the care I put into the plants so I have a better way of keeping track when to water other than seeing my microgreens wilt.
Even though this past harvest wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be, I’m excited for the next one. Happy gardening!