Welcome to my weekly microgreens update, where I talk about the latest information about my microgreens journey. I started playing with microgreens in March 2021 and found the process fascinating. Now, I am trying to experiment more with microgreens and see where it takes me.
Low seed density problems
A couple of weeks ago, I started red clover and arugula microgreens, and I can see now that I should have used more seeds when starting the process.
When using a low density of seeds, once they start growing, they have trouble finding support and end up bending or falling. When it is time to harvest, it becomes very complicated, and it’s rather a waste. I need to find the right balance for each seed so they are not too dense or too thinly distributed across the tray.
Documenting the individual process
From now on, I will document day by day the growing process of each microgreen. I will use pictures and text explaining what I do and why I do it. This journal will help me stay on top of the process with minute detail and help you see day after day how it should look if you want to start your own microgreens.
Microgreens I started
Last week I started broccoli and mustard microgreens. The broccoli microgreens are doing wonderfully. However, the mustard microgreens are not doing so well. What happened?
Mustard
I have done mustard microgreens in the past and always found it straightforward. This time, however, things didn’t work out as I expected. The only difference with the other times was the weight I added on top of the tray.
For convenience, I put the broccoli tray on top of the mustard tray without realizing that it could have been too much weight on the mustard seeds.
After four days in the process, I noticed that the mustard seeds were lagging and not growing very well. As a result, they have no added weight on top, only the top tray, and I will see if they recover in the next few days.
Broccoli
The broccoli is growing very well and is already in the blackout stage. So next week, we will be enjoying these delicious microgreens once again.
Microgreens that were already there
Arugula
The arugula microgreens are almost finished because we have been eating lots of them this week. Harvesting them was complicated as the low density didn’t help. However, the taste was great, and I was thrilled with the results.
Red clover
As with the arugula, the low density didn’t help with the harvesting. Nevertheless, the red clover microgreens have been a great addition to our meals, and I am eager to start this one again soon. I noticed that some of the seedlings started growing even more, and the leaves opened and expanded more, so they look more beautiful than in the last few days.
Next microgreens
Because of all the density and weight problems I have had these past weeks, I want to start arugula and red clover microgreens once again and see if I can find the right amount of seeds per 10×20 tray.
Thank you for your time, and see you next week!
Dani
