Grow your own Microgreens

Microgreens are a wonderful addition to your diet — easy to grow and nutritious.

What are Microgreens?

Microgreens are greens or herbs which can be harvested within days before they attain full maturity. Certain seed varieties of some vegetables can be grown as micro-greens, since they germinate in a reasonably short time and offer taste and nutrition well before attaining complete growth.

Why Microgreens?

Before I share my experience of growing microgreens, I would like to mention why you should consider adding microgreens to your diet.

1. Microgreens are packed with nutrition
2. Growing does not require much space and can be grown on small trays on your window sill
3. Organic food — no addition of fertilizers or pesticide or synthetic chemicals
4. Easy to grow and does not require any expensive resources

I tried this experiment recently at my home and was able to do it repeatedly with success.

How to Grow

1. If the seeds are big (such as wheatgrass), soak in water overnight or for some hours. This helps the germination process greatly. For small seeds like mustard, this does not work. Whether to pre-soak or not was intuitive to me, but you can look up online whether the specific green needs this step or not.
2. Spread a thin layer of moistened cocopeat or garden soil in a container (a pot or tray). The growing medium should not be soggy.
3. Densely spread the seeds in the container.
4. Wet the growing medium lightly using a small mug or cup.
5. Cover the container to block all light. During this time, open the cover morning and evening daily to water as required and check the state of growth.
6. You should remove the covering/dome to expose the greens to light as soon as you see some growth. Once the covering is removed, water lightly once or twice a day based on how moist the medium is.
7. When they reach their full height, you can snip off up from the top and add to your food. Microgreens grow fully within 6 to 10 days, depending upon the exact crop and the prevailing environmental conditions.
8. Some microgreens may regrow after cutting (such as wheatgrass) but most of them won’t. Harvest the remainder of it and then reuse the growing medium to grow your next batch.

Precautions

1. Use an appropriate container which is food-grade. Poor quality plastics can leach into the soil.
2. Do not pre-soak the small microgreen seeds as they tend to be damaged by this and do not germinate.
3. Do not over water as this can make the growing medium soggy and lead to mold.
4. Do not under water either, as this can affect the germination or lead to yellowing and drying up of the greens.
5. Do not deny light to the microgreen for too long, as they would become leggy i.e too thin and tall, as they stretch for light.
6. Exposure to light should be gradual — first partial exposure to sunlight, then greater sunlight exposure.
7. Water evenly across the container, ensuring no part is over-watered or under-watered.
8. Ensure proper aeration in the place you are growing, so that mold does not set in easily.
9. Use good quality seeds to ensure high germination.
10. Prefer using a container with drainage holes, though I have trays without holes too. If your container doesn’t have holes, then be cautious of over-watering.
11. While watering, do not use a sprayer nor water with too much force, as this may displace the seeds or break the delicate seedlings.
12. If you are in a cold climate, particularly where frost and snow may occur, ensure that you grow the micro-greens in as warm an environment as possible, else germination may be too slow.
13. Neem is an anti-fungal and thus, what I did was to mix neem powder in my cocopeat and use this to sow microgreen seeds to prevent mold. However, this is optional and ensuring enough air flow in the immediate environment and the right amount of watering will prevent mold too.

“Cutting Hurts But Microgreens” by Jason Sandeman is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

How to consume

1. Add the harvested greens to your salad or as top dressing in your food. Do not cook microgreens as you will lose their nutritive value once heated.
2. Certain microgreens like wheatgrass are suitable to consume by juicing

“Buchweizenbrei mit Sonnenblumen microgreens” by wuestenigel is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Where to buy

Seeds can be easily bought from Amazon. Seeds bought from these vendors have worked well for me -

1. Kraft Seeds
2. All That Grows

So, start growing your own power-packed food right on your window sill. Feel free to post your experience of growing microgreens in the comments section, what worked for you and what did not. Also, mention what other information you would like to see here.

Proof-reading by Chhavi Choudhary

Disclaimer: There is no conflict of interest and no intention of promoting any product/brand/organization. Information presented is based on the author’s personal experience or from verified online information.

After 20 years in the software industry, Ashish is now exploring permaculture in a village in the Himalayan State of Uttarakhand.