How To Grow Microgreens (For Beginners)

hey there welcome back to geeky Greenhouse today I'm going to show you how to grow micro greens from start to finish now I have here the final product of the micro greens that I'm going to show you how to grow from seed I have some various salad greens as well as radish and I'm going to show you the entire process from the growing medium that I use as well as how to plant the seeds how much light they need and how to put the weights on how to harvest them everything you need to know about growing micr greens at home a lot of people mix up sprouts and micro greens but Micro GRE are actually the stage of growth after sprouts and before baby greens micro greens are very nutrient-dense but they are very expensive to purchase at the grocery store luckily the process of growing them at home is very simple and it's a great way to keep the gardening hobby alive over the winter so you can Harvest fresh greens year round with minimal supplies and very little effort now these here were planted 11 days ago and I'm going to check in every few days to show you the whole process the radish greens I have here are ready to harvest today day and the salad greens I'm actually going to give an extra couple days so what exactly do you need to get started growing micro greens at home the first thing you need of course is seeds and I like getting seeds from True Leaf Market they've always been very reliable and they have a huge variety of different greens that you can grow from broccoli to salad greens col rabi so you can really sort through their catalog and take your pick if you're new to Growing micro greens I definitely suggest radish basic salad kits are great kale or kabi are awesome options as well so for my growing medium I definitely prefer using potting soil and I'm using a promix blended with fertilizer which is not completely necessary you do not need to fertilize your micro greens but I did some side by-side testing and I really like the results of the fertilized ones better however micro green seeds do have enough nutrition to take them through the stages of growth where you would be harvesting anyways so I'm just using a basic promix soil along with a 444 fertilizer ER but you can use Black Gold potting mix or another potting mix of your choice and it's also worth noting that if you're using a potting mix that already has nutrients in it you don't really need to add additional fertilizer anyways you can also use a non-soil medium to grow your microgreens so there are a few options you can use bamboo or hemp mates and they are pretty good because you don't have to deal with soil however I find that they dry out very quickly and it's actually a little bit more challenging to grow micr greens this way as opposed to using soil so if you're just getting started I would recommend trying soil but you can do some side by-side tests and experiment with what you like best next you're going to need your micro green trays so I really like the ones from bootstrap Farmer they are 5x5 trays and they come with whole versions and non-hole versions these are great because not everybody wants to grow a huge tray of micro greens if you're just growing for your family this is a perfect size and you can grow different varieties and different trays I'll leave a link to them below and the other trays that I really like are just from Amazon these are actually Sprout trays but they work really well for microgreens as well and the reason that you use a tray with holes and one without holes is because as the micro greens progress you're going to be watering them from the bottom so that way you can just lift water them from the bottom and all is good the other thing that you will need is a spray bottle it does not have to be a fine Mist sprayer though I do prefer that you'll also need some sort of light source so a grow light is great in the winter if you have a nice south facing window you can grow your micro greens that way as well we are growing our micro greens inside underneath the grow light we're using the same grow light that we use for our seedlings I will leave a link to everything below so if you're interested in having a setup like this I'll also leave a link to a video on where you can build your own seed starting setup which is great for growing micro greens as well and you will also need weights SO waiting the micro greens helps to simulate them being underground and you don't need to purchase any any fancy weights I'm using rocks from the beach and a brick to weight my micro greens down and finally you're going to need a sharp knife or scissors to harvest your microgreens so let's go back 11 days to when we planted these microgreens and kind of go through the whole process together all right so I have here my 3 gallons of premoistened potting soil and I'm mixing in about a half a cup of my 444 fertilizer and again you can use any potting mix that you would like or even make your own growing medium with Peete Moss or cocoa core then you can begin adding the soil to your trays that have holes in the bottom being careful not to compress the soil too firmly next you're going to want to plant your seeds into the potting soil and the amount of seeds that you use will depend on the type of microgreen that you're growing it's best to follow the instructions on the seed packet I really like to eyeball it be sure that you're not sewing the seeds too thick and be sure that you're not sewing them too sparse you want those micro greens to have enough support when they're growing that they can kind of lean on each other but you do want there to be enough ventilation between the greens to help prevent mold as well next you can give your seeds a good spraying with water and you don't want them to be completely soaked but you do need them moist enough for germination after spraying you can stack your trays of micro greens and put the weight on top you can stack the trays all together or put them separately with your own individual weights the micro greens do not need to be exposed to light during this time I have them on the Shelf here underneath the light but the light is not on so you do not need to expose them to light yet this is just the germination process and they are fine in the dark now checking on them at the 24-hour Mark is optional but I do like to take a peek sometimes especially when it's really dry just in case they need an extra misting so this is at the 48h hour mark and as you can see there is some germination starting to happen as well as some root hairs popping up but I'm going to keep these stacked in the dark after giving them another misting of water okay so now we are uncovering day three and micro greens never really look great at this point they're always pretty straggly and yellow but I am ready to expose these to light the grow light will be on for 12 hours on and 12 hours off and the micro Greens in the green tray I'm actually going to give them an extra day before exposing them to any light and this is the point where some people like like to do a blackout period and what that is is flipping one of the trays over to encourage the greens to stretch towards the light I don't typically do this but I am going to do it with one of the trays just so you can kind of see what it does so this is day four and as you can see the micro greens are turning green except for the ones that were under that blackout dome which I'm now removing and you can kind of see that they have stretched a little bit taller and our micro Greens in the green tray are looking a little bit sad but that is expected right now and now I'm going to expose these to the light now we are at day five and things look pretty good they're growing as expected maybe a little bit slow just because it's blow freezing outside and very dry in our grow SP but I'm going to be bottom watering every day checking the weight of the micro GRE greens if they feel light and need water just giving them water for the next few days to let them grow all right so we are 11 days after planting now and the radish micro greens are ready to harvest all right so it's 11 days later as you can see and the radish greens are ready to harvest but the salad greens do need a couple more days and full disclosure it is below freezing here in Connecticut and our fancy grow space which is our basement even though it's heated it is very dry so these greens are not growing as quickly as they would be if it were the middle of summer or very humid I also recommend that you have some sort of fan or ventilation for your micro greens and this is very important because not only does it help with the strength of the greens but it also helps to prevent mold it is very common to mix up root hairs and mold root hairs are completely normal those are those little white spiky hairs that pop up in the beginning stage so how do you know when to harvest your micro greens well the easiest way to tell is to check for your true leaves growing as soon as you see true leaves growing between those calans that's when you know they're ready to harvest the other thing you want to make sure that they are tall enough about 2 to 3 in tall and also just take a taste test taste your greens throughout the process and get to know when they're ready to harvest that way all right so like I said the salad green need a few more days to perk up and show those true leaves but the radish are ready to go so I'm going to show you how to harvest them so you always want to harvest with Clean Hands and a clean pair of scissors or a sharp knife all right so that's it perfectly harvested radish micro greens these are so good they taste great on salads but you can really put them on anything mix them into smoothies put them on tacos or pizza it's a great way to get veggies in with a small small amount of greens and the best way that I have found to store micro greens is to keep them dry so don't wash them until right before you're going to eat them but keep them dry and put them in an airtight container just on top of a paper towel and I personally like to consume them within 3 to 5 days because I like them fresh and I harvest as I go so if you have any experience growing micro greens let me know in the comments below what kind of greens you like to grow and if you learned anything new today or if you have anything to share thanks so much for watching I'll see you next time

Channel: Geeky Greenhouse

Views: 3,290

Keywords: gardening, plants

Id: m4I-0nBEX_o

Length: 10min 30sec (630 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 27 2024