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 didn’t publish anything in the last couple of weeks since we decided to take a break, but now we’re back!
The temperature problem
Winter is coming, and the temperatures are dropping. Our growing room is well isolated, but it is not heated, so we cannot keep the temperature in that room high enough to grow microgreens. We already had problems with the low temperature in the room, and we talked about this on our weekly update from week 44.
To help ourselves and not stop our operations, we moved the trays to another warmer room during germination. However, the logistics of going back and forth were complicated and annoying, so we had to look for a more sustainable solution.
We decided to buy an electrical room heater to warm up our growing room. The results were immediate, and the room became warm in a couple of hours, perfect for the microgreens. Now, we need to adjust the heater frequently until we find the sweet spot for the temperature.
These are the advantages of the heater:
- We can grow our microgreens in our grow room.
- The heater is simple to install and runs immediately.
- We can create a more or less consistent environment.
- Once it reaches a specific temperature, it stops automatically.
- Once it goes below a particular temperature, it starts automatically.
- It will help us throughout the cold months.
- It eliminates a lot of the humidity.
These are the disadvantages of the heater:
- The heater runs on electricity so we will have a considerable increase in our utility bill.
- It takes a bit of time before getting the right temperature, and we need to adjust it frequently.
As you can see, it is not the perfect solution, but it is what we need for what we have.
Growing on mesh
A few months ago, we tried growing a tray of microgreens with a stainless steel mesh as a medium to hold the seeds. The results were unimpressive, and the mesh was complicated to clean, so we were left with a bitter taste. The coconut coir is more effortless, albeit dirtier, than the stainless steel mesh, so why would we even try using a different medium?
The answer is more complex than expected, and we will write a more in-depth post about it. Still, in the meantime, the main reason we want to test with a stainless steel mesh as a medium is that it saves us from acquiring coconut coir that comes from the other side of the world that then we need to compost in our garden. The metal meshes are cleaner, and we can reuse them many times. Using a stainless steel mesh would save on some long-term costs by investing in the beginning. On top of that, if we ever want to become organic-certified, we need to ditch the coconut coir.
This week, we tried growing three different microgreens on stainless steel mesh, Red Cabbage, Radish China Rose, and Broccoli Calabrese, and so far, the results have been promising!
We are getting ready to launch!
From January, we will start officially selling our microgreens. We will announce in more detail how we are going to make this happen in the next few days, so stay tuned to learn more about it!
Microgreens update
Red Cabbage, Broccoli Calabrese, and Radish China Rose
We started three trays of microgreens using stainless steel meshes to see how it would be to grow with this new medium and avoid using coconut coir. So far, the results have been promising, and we are very excited to see the final results!
Rocket and Cress
Since we are preparing for launch, we want a new photo shooting with these two types to update our listings. We decided to grow them on coconut coir to ensure that we would get the results we wanted.
Thank you for your time, and until next week!
