I can’t believe it’s a week since we got home and I’m just now getting these greens planted. We did buy some at the farmers’ Market Saturday so we haven’t been without.
For anyone who wants nutritious, fast growing greens, this is the way to go. It’s so easy to grow them inside, especially with a grow light or two, no bugs, in a totally controlled environment. Carter from Grow & Preserve has an excellent video from start to finish and she does hers pretty much the way I grow mine. She has some pictures from when she grew them in her kitchen at a previous home, and now she grows them in a “grow room” in her basement.
I grow mine in a room in the basement with grow lights and fans. Our basement stays a bit cool – about 65 degrees or cooler. During the summer, we close most of the a/c vents. I keep one open in the sewing room, one in the family room, one in the bedroom, one in the bathroom (there’s only one) and both vents open in the garage/storage room. That’s a bit less than half of the vents open. In the winter, we do the reverse – open all the vents in the basement and close half the vents on the main level. It would be so much easier if we just had a zoned system but . . we don’t.
Anyway . . back to microgreens – they need a cooler environment. I’ve read that 60 to about 72 degrees is best.
I can’t get great pictures because I don’t have a lot of room to walk back from the rack. Next time I take a picture, I’ll turn the rack sideways and I can walk back from it for a few days.
All of the trays (except the lettuce) are covered, for probably 48 hours. Once the seeds all germinate, I will remove the covers and turn on the grow lights on both rows. The jars of green beans and grains and the cans are there for weight. You will see all this if you watch Carter’s video.
Here’s what I planted last night:
- Mesclun Salad Mix x 2
- Basic Salad Mix
- China Rose Radish
- Red Acre Cabbage
- Genovese Basil
- Ruby Red Swiss Chard x 2
Some of the faster growing greens will be ready in about 7 days. Others will take longer.
I buy all my Microgreens seeds from True Leaf Market. Just to give you an example of the cost, one pound of arugula seeds is currently $13.26. One pound is about 453 grams. I use about 5 grams of seeds per 10 x 10 trays so I can seed about 90 – 10 x 10 trays from one pound of seeds.
I will try and take pictures over the next couple of weeks. We will start eating a few of the greens when they’re ready but we will also let some of the things grow a bit more. Especially the lettuce will grow into nice salad size pieces.
It’s so fun to grow them and so easy. I’ve had a few things I grew and won’t grow again but for the most part, we’ve loved everything I’ve grown.