That’s quite a crop you’ve got going! 😂

My biggest problem is remembering them daily and setting up a working rotation rather than a batch that grows, gets eaten, then a new batch started.

Part of my problem is the big blocks of coir I bought are a hassle to deal with, as SD warned. Wish I could find a large supply of pellets for a good price.

Wow, Big Boy DOES want to grow, doesn't he? Yes indeed, you have a heck of a crop. It's all a learning experience, though, soon you'll have flats of greens like Sleevendog!

Right now I'm trying to figure out how soon I can put my plants out into the garden. I have tomato plant that are 18 inches tall, they NEED to go outside instead of living in my front entryway.

And I have spinach and mizuna that are about 1/2 inch tall out in the hoophouses. Does that count as microgreens if I cut them right now? (grin)

Annie

Big Boy is now 8 inches tall tonight (5/16/2020). One of these days, he's going to be eaten! Are pea micro greens supposed to get this tall? Maybe he is Super Big Boy. LOL, FOAS & Annie! My crop of 2 greenies and some wannabes!

SD, thanks for the grin!

Back to MicrogreenElementary for you! 😂 (you are going to starve)

They are all different. And all are garden seeds. Here are a few I have going now.

That is Feisty on the right, very tendril curly. Lincoln in the middle. On the left not sure but one of the climbers. I have a dozen or so varieties I grow in rotation. For example, dwarfGreySugar is an old snow pea variety. In the garden it will grow bushier around 24inches or so. Same with Feisty and LittleMarvel and Lincoln. Feisty in the garden will have less leaf so an easy pea to harvest and will not necessarily need a trellis. The low bushy plants hold each other up. I have them growing on my kitchen deck.

All are ready to harvest in the pic. As well as all the radish and a few others not shown.

Some soaking and a stack ready to take their place under the light.

Do you have drainage holes in your trays?

Your tall pea is a climber type. In the garden it would require a trellis.

When grown as a micro/macro green, we cut at a certain height before the lower stem gets too woody. Similar to the bottom couple inches of asparagus.

That video is hilarious!

Hey Sooz! The Thomas Laxton I found, mine anyway, will take 1 day of soaking max, or it turns to stinky mush, as you've been experiencing. I've got a tray of TL sprouts that are trying to push up the weight now. No mush. I'll soak them maybe 12 hours max from now on. My feisty peas were soaked 3 days, and after placing them on coir, they dissolved to stinky mush (I nearly cried). Peas seem to take longer for me, as do sunflowers. Cabbage, radish, any of the smaller microgreen seeds that don't require a soak grow so mush faster and combined make a wonderful salad. Separately are lovely for toppings. Those tall peas... Sleeve is the expert, the bottom stems can be tough, so snip high if tall : ) I'd probably transplant big boy to my garden! He's quite ambitious, isn't he?!

Love that video!

Not for the garden. This is fresh eating at the true leaf stage. 7-10 days to the table. I grow all year and winter in my pantry. Have been growing this way for years.

I have a summer garden for the summer months.

tigereye, microgreen growing is a very different concept of vegetable eating and "gardening".

Sleeven, thank you for spending the time posting this wonderful concept. You might have even safe life.

In this crazy difficult pandemic time, each trip you don't have to go to the store to buy vegetable, you are that much safer.

dcarch

Honest mistake, Tigereye, but definitely not garden transplants! As Sleevendog says, they are cut and used as microgreens, another batch will grow in a week or two, then cut again. Winter salad for those who don't have a greenhouse...

Annie

I think an older generation cannot wrap their head around the concept. When we have 2-3 feet of snow on the ground I have fresh greens...kale, broccoli, radish, pea, sunflower, etc. packed with nutrients and not from a hot house or sitting in a grocery. Cut fresh.

A big bag, if I get ahead of myself, costs about a dollar. In a very small square foot space. (since it is 7-10 days to cutting.) One little LED light on a pantry shelf.

What is the 'OWMBI'. (one who must be ignored) 😂

Anywho sooz.

This short video might help. No need for a drill. Other crafty ways to poke some drainage. I just do one in each corner. 4 total.

And no, any old soil will not do.

Needs to be clean or at least heat treated in your oven. And I do not water the bottom tray. Wet feet will also cause rot....too much water is not good.

Tigereye, it's probably my fault you thought this for transplanting.. My joke to Sooz about transplanting her big sprout. I live in the Southeast, have a garden now, which DH and I are enjoying, but the microgreens were initially to get us into lettuce season, all thanks to Sleevendog. Now, we still grow them, as they pack a huge flavor and add a great crunch and texture. First radish microgreen I popped in my mouth was such a surprising delight! I realize they may not look like much, but I've got so many going we can easily make salads from them, and do. They are *wonderful* for those without garden area, adding delicious roughage to the diet. They may not be for everyone, but with such little effort and space, the are now a tasty constant for us. FWIW, they are not sold here, either. No, not for everyone, but many are discovering how tasty they really are : )

SD, yuppers, I have drainage holes in some of my trays, and am using coir. Thanks for double checking! I also planted some of the T.L. peas out in the garden, right next to a fence they can climb so they'll be happy happy and they won't be eaten in the Big Boy stage--I want peas from them!

2Many, I did consider planting my big sprout (and Little Guy and the others who really really look like they want to grow) but decided to EAT IT instead!

BIG fun with micro greens!

"tigereye

I've been seeing this and that a lot of people like it, but it just seems like a complete waste to me. It is not even a real vegetable. --"

Have you ever had bean sprouts?

dcarch

The nutrients in them alone would make this a worthwhile effort for me. I've come across them often at farmer's markets, and I know a small farmer who grows them (out of state from me, unfortunately). I'd love to try this myself, too.

Nice work, Sooz!

tigereye, move along. You are a distraction for us old folks who would like to learn something new. We get that you don't like it, but don't yuk someone else's yum!!

B

Don't know how I left all that space and since I'm old, I don't know how to fix it.

Whistle_b "don't yuk someone else's yum!!" Cute saying!!

I live in the "North" as in Northern Michigan and it often gets 20 below zero in the winter. I have two little hoop houses and hope to grow greens into November, and then start again in March. That still leaves 3 months with no fresh salad from the garden, and although I can make a trip to the store, I'd rather not. Especially now, of course, but before it was still a 15 mile round trip for something that was picked a week ago and shipped thousands of miles. I'd rather grow my own.

Not everyone is "into" it, but that doesn't mean it's wrong, it's foolish or it's a waste. It's simply a choice, and everyone gets to make that for themselves.

I raise beef and every time I see veal in the store I think "if they'd have kept that for a few more months they could have had a REAL steak and twice as much of it". Many would disagree with me on that but taste is subjective and not objective and so people eat veal anyway.

Of course, wine is also a waste of money to me because I dislike it, but a LOT of people disagree with that. (grin)

Annie

Has anyone used the microgreen grow setup from HUMAMA? My daughter has been using one and loves it. The seeds come pre-seeded on a cour mat that you put into it's tray and watch it grow. When eaten or removed all the greens, you remove the old mat and put in a new one. I guess there is quite a selection of seed mats.

Years and years ago, I was into sprouts. Took a 2 qt canning jar and had a lid with a piece of screen in it.....and I put seeds in the jar, added an inch or 2 of water....left it over night and dumped out the water. The small seeds adhered to the sides of the jar and i laid it on it's side and every day I rinsed with fresh water and dumped out the excess and in a few days had lovely sprouts. I grew radish, broccoli and alfalfa sprouts like that.
Still have the jar......need to find where I can get some seeds.

"...The seeds come pre-seeded on a cour mat that you put into it's tray and watch it grow..."

A dozen ways to grow. I have tested different methods over the years. I tested some different mats but some seeds do best in soil. And then the cost. Some home environments are just too damp. Some soils hold moisture so you get rot/mold easily. Coir soil is light and dries out fast. Seed in one and 5 pound quantity is super cheap.

"Years and years ago, I was into sprouts..."

I still have my set of three lids for sprouts. The timing gets tricky with so much moisture involved. Also subject to molding. I found if I missed one rinsing I had issues. Not nearly the flavor of macros or the crunch, but does pack the same nutrients.

Hey, LindaC, you reminded me that somewhere I have one of those plastic "towers" for growing sprouts. They might make some good containers, I gotta find that!

Annie

Sooz, here are my Thomas Langston peas, 6th day (1 day soaking, 5 days in the coir), not ready yet, but they are climbers! The ones in the middle aren't as fully developed because I wasn't able to keep them fully out of the light and the peas on the edges pushed up my weight faster. I've got sad tomatoes I'm trying to save for the garden under many of my lights, and my non-lit shelf had to be turned into a lit shelf, and apparently I'm too stupid to put my 'dark growers' in another area ; - )

LindaC, I had forgotten all about my seed sprouting jar. Once upon a time, when I made all our bread, I would sprout wheat to make Sprouted Wheat Bread. It was the best! Now I'm getting all inspired to sprout some wheat berries and make some bread.

I make a sprouted grain brown bread we love. I seem to have so much time but no time to do anything these days, lol.

Thomas looks good!. I have some Lincoln in your packet to send. It is a new one to me.

Sooz, forgot to mention,... if you want to save some peas like the pics you posted, I would bury them a bit under the soil. The root ends need better contact with the soil and the tops will grow up through it. Root ends will go down. But best to just figure out a more controlled method and start over.

Someone must have 'flagged' the visitor. Makes the thread a bit confusing. I had no problem with it. Maybe they will learn something eventually.

One comment was about the growing method. (Now deleted). I can plant all or any of these seedlings in my garden. Even densely planted. My winter grown herbs are now in deck pots. Cilantro, leeks, basils. The peas and radish I just planted the dry seed.

This is a short video and ten yrs old so bad quality taken with one of those mini video cameras. Some people went nuts and attacking about Craig's method.

(he actually named CherokeePurple)

Lots of different ways to garden. On my gardening forum, someone out of the blue went ballistic how wrong he was...

The ballistic person had no idea Craig wrote this book....

That is my method as well. Dense tomato planting. But I start mine about 5-6 per cell. 10-15 per cell for the 'hunt' F2-4.

SD, I thought the video quality was pretty good! Thanks for including the video! I did wonder about maybe adding more coir to cover the roots, so I did that just now--it's an experiment and I'll see how it turns out. If this is a baby-epic fail, I'll start over with more knowledge ! Thanks again!!

Craig is a bit embarrassed by the quality but left it up anyway. Last year he was featured on the gardening show, 'Growing A Greener World'. That has the same information filmed by a camera crew.

I do believe so much value in growing any plant, especially from seed, is to experience the successes and failures. Really is the best way to learn. Rather than following a set formula. All our indoor and out door climates are so different. If I put out my baby bok choy in full sun tomorrow it will go to seed way too fast before I can consume. Too cold last week. Too hot now. So it is under shade cloth.

Just had a chance to watch the video, and it's great! I actually did plant my basil in coir, to get it started (the seeds planted in the herb garden never came up). I transplanted the basil babies and they are doing well, and yes, I just tugged them apart. Did that with my winter sows last year, tugged and planted. Those all grew! My basil looks good.

Off topic, but wish I'd had pots earlier to transplant my tomatoes. They grew too leggy, and I stuck them in deep, but they were sad when I did, and keep getting sadder. May have to forgo the heirlooms this year. Darn it. It's trial and error for newbies like me, but that's part of the learning experience, as you say, sleevendog.