Welcome to the weekly oh nènè microgreens update, where we talk about the latest information on our microgreens journey. We started experimenting with microgreens in March 2021 and found the process fascinating. As we discover the wonderful world of microgreens, we feel inclined to share with you our progress.
We are getting busy with La Ruche Qui Dit Oui
Currently, we are selling microgreens in four different Ruches, as we explained in our last post, so we need to be very careful with organising and planning our trays to deliver to our customers as expected.
Luckily, we prepared a spreadsheet a long time ago that helps us keep track of what we need to sow and when. The more we grow, the better we get at it and refine our planning to our needs and the microgreens’ needs.
Sowing the same day = harvesting the same day
When we started getting busier with La Ruche, we realised that we were sowing seeds almost every day, and it was a bit too much for us. After reading a suggestion on a microgreens group, we took the advice from someone else who sows everything the same day to then harvest all those trays on the same day.
We then took a good look at our planning, and after understanding the behaviour of our crops, we found the lucky number that would work for us, nine days!
To help ourselves, we prepare all of the trays we need in advance with coconut coir, so the day of sowing is a walk in the park.
Sunflower and Peas
However, Sunflower and Peas require soaking, so we put those seeds to soak twelve hours before, and then we sow everything together on the trays.
More experiments with meshes
We keep doing experiments with different types of meshes. We got in touch with several providers of plastic meshes, and we are trying to understand which ones are the best for our needs. So far, we are not yet done with testing, so we need to wait until our crops are done. In the meantime, we are excited to see the results!
Different growth when using mesh
Unfortunately, we have noticed that the crops on the meshes do not grow evenly, which means that the seedlings open up at different moments and have very varied heights. We have been investigating, and it could be that the reason is the moisture during the germination stage.
Because we are using meshes, the water easily detaches itself from the mesh, and the seeds risk drying up. When using meshes, we are forced to spray our seeds during the germination stage, which we usually don’t do with coconut coir. The extra work of spraying our seeds with water could compensate for the usage of coconut coir in the long term. However, it does take a while to go through all the trays and spray them with water.
Advantages of using meshes
Not everything is so complicated with meshes. Indeed, there are some significant advantages to using them:
- We can reuse the meshes again and again.
- Our microgreens are cleaner when harvesting.
- It takes nothing to prepare a tray and start sowing.
We will keep experimenting with meshes until we find the right ones.
Thank you for your time, and until next week!
