Episode Description
Do you want to know how to grow microgreens?
In this episode I give a high level overview on how to grow microgreens. I go through all the steps, from start to finish.
Starting from choosing trays, seeds and a growing medium and taking you all the way through planting, germination, maintenance and harvesting.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Leave me a voice note: https://www.speakpipe.com/Microgreensentrepreneur
Free seed density calculator: https://microgreensentrepreneur.com/seedcalculator
Online Seed Companies:
USA: https://www.trueleafmarket.com/
Ireland: https://www.fruithillfarm.com/
Episode Transcript
Microgreens Entrepreneur Episode 4: How to Grow Microgreens
* * * Intro Music * * *
[0:09] You’re listening to The Microgreens Entrepreneur Podcast, where
the aim is to help you start, grow, and improve any microgreens business.
I’m your host, Brian, owner of a microgreens business that I
operate out of my own home. Stay tuned and welcome along.
[0:27] Hello, there. Thank you very much for tuning in wherever you are. On
this week’s episode, I’ve got a tutorial on how to grow microgreens. I’m
going to go through all the steps from seeding to harvesting.
[0:39] I can appreciate that some of you listening already know how to grow
microgreens, but stick around anyway, and there might be something that
you can take away from it. Or else, you might spot something that I might
forget, and you can let me know at the end. Explaining how to grow
microgreens is usually done visually, so we’ll have to see, does it work out
doing it as a podcast?
[0:56] In this episode, I’m going to go over general guidelines for all
microgreens, but every microgreen is a little bit different in a certain way.
So, this method that I explain today is going to have to be changed maybe
in some small little way for each microgreen.
[1:11] And if you like this episode and people find it useful, I’ll make other
episodes that go specifically into different types of microgreens. Okay, so
let’s get started.
[1:19] The first thing we’ll go through is what you’re going to need to grow
microgreens. On a basic level, you’re going to need some trays, seeds, a
water source, some soil, and a form of sunlight. We’ll start off with the
trays.
[1:32] When growing any microgreens, I recommend using two trays. One
with holes and one without holes. The reason for this is that when the
microgreens have sprouted, and there are leaves there, you’re going to be
able to water them from the bottom, so you’re not keeping the foliage wet
by watering it from the top.
[1:48] The reason we want to water from the bottom and keep the foliage
dry is that by doing that, you’re going to help reduce the chances of your
microgreens getting mould or disease. You’re going to need a third tray for
covering the microgreens after you put the see in, but I’ll go through that
again in a minute.
[2:02] The next thing to think about then is your growing medium. I
recommend growing microgreens in soil. I use a compost that’s mainly
made up of coconut coir, and it’s very fine. I will make another episode in
the future that discloses all the different growing mediums and how they
work out for microgreens.
[2:20] The main thing about your soil is that you need one that’s very fine.
You don’t want any large particles or clumps in your soil because this is
going to be a problem for microgreens. The finer the soil, the better.
[2:31] Once you’ve sourced your soil, you’re going to take your two trays.
You’re going to put the tray with holes inside one without holes. You’re then
going to fill the tray with holes up with about 1½ inch of soil. When you’ve
done that, you want to break it up with your hands and just make sure it’s
as fine as it can be with no clumps. Then you’re going to smooth it out with
your hand and make it even.
[2:52] After that, you’re going to press the soil down. You can press it down
with your hand, or you can use a piece of wood or something flat to make
the soil flat.
[3:00] The next thing then is to water the soil. You want the water droplets
that are going onto the soil to be fine, so I recommend using something like
a watering can that has a sprinkler head on the end of the spout. That’s
probably the cheapest option.
[3:14] The main thing is that you’re not pouring big droplets of water on the
soil. You want to try and disturb the soil the least amount as you can, so it
remains flat. Like, for instance, you wouldn’t water the soil from the top like
with a cup or a glass or something like that where the water just pours out
onto the soil.
[3:30] Once you’ve got your watering can or whatever you’re going to water
with, you’re going to soak the soil before you go seeding it. The aim at this
stage is to try and get the soil as wet as possible without there being a
puddle there. So, you really do want a good bit of water in the soil at the
start to help that seed get germinating.
[3:45] Next, we’re on to the seeding. One thing I want to mention about
seeds before we get into it is a question that frequently comes up about
microgreens. That is, are microgreen seeds different to normal seeds?
[3:57] The answer to that question is no. Microgreen seeds are the exact
same as the seeds that you use to sow in the field or wherever. The only
difference with microgreens is that we sow the same seeds, but we sow
them much more dense.
[4:10] That being said, I recommend buying your microgreen seeds in bulk.
The best place to do this is usually online. There are plenty of good seed
companies out there, and I’ll recommend a couple in the show notes.
[4:21] The reason you want to buy them in bulk is because you’re going to
use so many of them, and it’s much cheaper to buy them in bulk. If you go
down to your local garden center or hardware where they sell the small little
packets of seeds, you’re going to need a lot of those packets to sell
microgreens, and it’s going to cost you a lot of money to buy your seeds
there.
[4:39] Okay. So, you’ve bought your seeds, and you’re ready to go. There’s
just one thing you need to know before you sow them. Some people soak
some of their seeds before they plant them.
[4:48] Like, for instance, a lot of people soak pea seed before they plant
them and sunflower seed. Personally, I don’t soak any seed. I just find that
it takes a lot of extra time and effort to do it, and you really don’t gain much
from it.
[5:00] Let’s take pea shoots, for example. If I’m going to soak them, I’ve got
to go get a bucket. I’ve got to fill it with water. I’ve got to weigh out the
seed, put the seed in the bucket of water. I’ve got to time it, so I don’t leave
it soaking for too long, and the seed could possibly rot. Then, I’ve got to
come back and drain that seed.
[5:17] Really, in my experience, what you gain from soaking it first is
probably a day or two at the max. So, I just don’t think it’s worth it. I work it
into my schedule that I sow these seeds a day more in advance, and I sow
them dry.
[5:30] So, when you are going to plant your microgreens, the seed density
for each microgreen is going to be a small bit different. Now, I’ve actually
made a seed-density calculator, and you can get this and use this too.
[5:42] The way it works is, you input the size of your trays into the
calculator, and it will output the seed density that I use in the ten most
popular microgreens that I grow. You can get that over at my website,
microgreensentrepreneur.com, and I’ll leave a link for it in the show notes.
[5:57] Once you have your seed density, and you’ve weighed out your
seed, you’re going to start to seed your tray. Now, I recommend you seed
the edges of the tray first because usually, the edges are forgotten, and a
lot of the focus goes into the middle of the tray.
[6:10] One thing to note is that the middle of the tray gets the least amount
of airflow, so if you’re going to have anywhere in your tray that’s extra
dense with seed, you want to have that on the outsides.
[6:20] But the goal is really to scatter the seeds evenly over the whole tray.
Once you’ve done this, you’re going to press your seeds into the soil. You
can either do this with your hand or some kind of piece of wood or a press.
[6:31] After that, then you’re going to spray the seeds with a mister bottle.
That will get the seeds a little bit more wet and help them germinate.
[6:39] So, now, it’s time to cover them. There are only two microgreen
seeds that I’ll bury. They are pea shoots and coriander. I bury the pea seed
with soil, and I bury the coriander seeds with vermiculite. Maybe I’ll do
another episode on growing coriander, specifically using vermiculite if you
like this episode.
[6:58] For the majority of watering microgreen seeds, you’re not going to
bury them, but you’re going to trick them into thinking that they’re buried.
The way you do that is by putting another tray on top of your seeds.
[7:08] The reason you’re doing that is, you’re providing darkness to the
seed by covering it with the tray, and you’re also putting pressure on the
seed. That’s one thing to mention, actually.
[7:17] Once you put the tray on, you’re going to put a weight in the tray.
You could use the bag of seeds that you use to seed with as the weight
that you put on the tray. By doing this, you’re artificially providing the
pressure and the darkness that soil would naturally provide for the seeds.
[7:31] The reason you’re not going to bury the majority of microgreen seeds
is that you don’t want your microgreens coming up through the soil and
making them dirty. By the microgreen shooting up directly from the seed
and not having to go through the soil, it’s just much cleaner, and it gives
you a better product.
[7:45] So, now, you have your seeds sown, and you’ve got your extra tray
on top of them. If you’re sowing a few trays, you can place all of these trays
on top of each other, and that will help keep the seed weighed down.
[7:57] Now, it’s time to wait for a couple of days and let nature take its
course. I usually check the trays after a couple of days, and I’ll spray some
water on them just to keep the seed moist.
[8:07] Depending on whatever crop you’ve sown, some of them are going
to take longer than others to germinate. When they start to germinate,
you’re going to see root hairs coming out of the seeds, and they’re going to
start to sprout upwards.
[8:18] At this stage, you want to keep your eye out for any mould. It’s at this
stage that your microgreens are going to be at their most vulnerable with all
that dampness around the seeds and the soil and the new shoots. I’m
planning on doing another episode specifically on mould and all the
problems that microgreens face.
[8:33] So, after germination, the newly-sprouted microgreens are going to
start to push the tray that’s covering them up into the air. Now, it actually
surprises me, every time, how much power that there is in microgreens
when they’re just sprouting up looking for the sunlight. It always surprises
me to see them pushing up four heavy trays that are stacked on top of
them. They are powerful little things.
[8:53] Just one thing to note is that by the microgreens having to push
these trays up and struggle a little bit by pushing them up, it’s making them
that bit stronger.
[9:01] At this stage, when you’re seeing the microgreens pushing up the
tray that’s on top of them, the microgreens are going to be yellow, and
that’s completely normal. The reason that they’re yellow is because they
haven’t gotten any light yet, and they haven’t had the chance to
photosynthesize and turn green.
[9:15] Once they’ve grown like this where they’re about an inch to an inch
and a half tall, that’s when I take the tray with the weights off them, and I’ll
put them under the light.
[9:23] Now, there are various different sources of light that you can use.
The most obvious one being sunlight. So, a greenhouse or a window will do
for that, but most professional growers will use some kind of electric lights.
Fluorescents and LEDs are the most popular. I’m actually planning to do a
separate episode solely looking at the different types of lights that are
available for growing microgreens.
[9:44] Once you’ve got your microgreens under the lights, this is where
your second tray is going to come into play. From this point on, you’re
going to water by lifting up the first tray with the holes in it and pouring
water into the bottom tray.
[9:57] You’re just going to pour in enough water that it fills the bottom of the
tray where you can’t see the plastic of the bottom of the tray anymore.
You’re going to need to do this maybe once every day or two. It depends
on the climatic conditions of your grow room.
[10:09] The ways that you can tell if your microgreens need water are by
checking the soil for the moisture of the soil. If it feels damp, they should be
fine, and if it feels dry, you need to water them.
[10:19] Another way is that you’ll also get used to the weight of the trays.
So, if a tray is on the shelf, and you lift it up, and it feels light, it probably
needs water. You’ll get to know the feel of when your trays need water by
knowing what kind of weight they should be.
[10:32] You’re going to continue to water them and keep an eye on them
every day until they’re ready to harvest. This could be within a week from
planting them, or some of them can even take up to three or four weeks. It
just depends on what microgreen you’re growing.
[10:45] For the majority of microgreens, the way that you’re going to know
that they’re ready to harvest is that they’re going to have both of their
cotyledon leaves, which are the first two leaves that the microgreens
produce, but they’re not going to have their true leaves yet.
[10:58] The true leaves are the next set of leaves that come out after the
cotyledon leaves on the microgreens. When the true leaves start to come
out on the microgreens, there can be a bitter taste from them.
[11:07] So, there’s a sweet spot there where you let the microgreens grow
for as long as you can in the cotyledon stage before the true leaves come
out, so they grow enough that you get the most of them, but you don’t grow
them for too long that the true leaves come on them.
[11:21] When your microgreens are ready to harvest, you’re going to need
either a really sharp knife or scissors, and you’re going to cut the
microgreens as close as you can to the soil without actually touching the
soil. You don’t want to get any soil in the bottoms of the microgreens.
[11:34] Once you have them harvested, you want to store them in your
fridge as soon as possible. Then, they really should be eaten as soon as
possible after that. Some microgreens have a longer shelf life than others.
Like, peas shoots seem to last forever, but generally, most microgreens will
only last a week or two after harvesting.
[11:51] So, that’s the tutorial. I don’t know how that worked out as a vocal
explanation. It would be interesting to hear if you found that it worked or it
didn’t. If you felt that it did work, I’ll make more how-to episodes like this.
[12:03] There’s a link in the show notes where you can leave me a voice
message directly on SpeakPipe, and that will come straight to me, or you
can leave a review on iTunes. I’d really appreciate any type of feedback,
good or bad.
[12:14] If you did like the tutorial, I’ve actually got some videos on YouTube
that go into growing specific crops of microgreens, and you’ll be able to find
them on my website, microgreensentrepreneur.com. There are only a few
there at the moment, but hopefully, if you’re listening to this, in the future,
there will be a lot more there.
[12:29] So, that really brings us along to the end of the episode. I hope you
liked it, and I hope maybe you found something interesting or you learned
something in it. If you feel like I left anything out or I missed anything, you
can get in touch with me and let me know that too.
[12:41] So, look, that’s it. Thanks again for listening. I hope you have a
great week and all the best.
* * * Outro Music * * *
[End of episode 13:27]