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.
The problem of reusing growing medium
Last week, we started two trays of Broccoli Raab (see our research about the different Broccoli names), and one of the trays had coconut coir recycled from a previous tray. Unfortunately, the tray got mold extremely quickly, and we had to discard the whole batch. We haven’t figured out how we can reuse coconut coir to grow more microgreens so far, and it is a shame because we know it is our main “waste.”
To avoid future problems, we will refrain from reusing a medium, and instead, we will compost it as we’ve been doing so far. Nevertheless, we will keep trying to see if there’s a way of reusing the coconut coir for other things.
Deep research and expansion
Our plans of expanding the microgreens farm are progressing very well. We are doing a lot of research about the nutritional values of microgreens based on scientific research because we believe the health aspects of microgreens to be of high importance for our customers. We also started researching about organic seeds, using hemp as a growing medium, which racks we should get to finish our setup, and how we should schedule our microgreen trays.
Switching to organic seeds
Our research about organic seeds led us to switch completely to using organic seeds in our urban microgreens farm. We contacted some providers in Europe and found the perfect one for our needs after several exchanged emails. If you want to know more about why we care about these things, please check our impact page, where we talk about all the aspects of our business and our impact on the environment.
Microgreens we started
Last week, we started two trays of Broccoli Raab. The idea was to perfect the technique to grow these beautiful microgreens. However, we ran into some problems as one of the trays failed due to mold problems. The other tray is doing well, and we will enjoy these microgreens in no time! Soon, we will switch to Broccoli Calabrese instead of Broccoli Raab. To know more about why we have decided to switch types, read our blog post about the difference between Broccoli seeds.
Microgreens that were already there
Our farm had radish and basil microgreens growing from the previous weeks.
Basil
Basil has turned out to be very slow compared to other seeds. It makes you wonder if you are doing things well or not. After two weeks of sowing the basil seeds, we cannot harvest them as they don’t look ready. We will patiently wait so we can try them! If we want to grow basil for our customers, we will have to understand if the timing it takes is worth the wait or if it’s better to grow basil for our family on the side.f
Radish
The radish microgreens we started two weeks ago are still growing like crazy! We have eaten lots of them so far, and we are still ripping the benefits from these delicious and crunchy microgreens.
Next microgreens
This week we will start two trays of Broccoli Raab again while we wait for our new organic Broccoli Calabrese seeds to arrive.
Thank you for your time, and see you next week!
Dani
