Grow your own food

How to grow microgreens at home

Microgreens have gotten a lot of attention lately, and for good reasons – they are nutritious, tastes great and can make pretty much any dish look fancy and sophisticated. Picking them up in the grocery store or farmers market can be quite pricey, but the good news is that you can grow your own microgreens at home for a fraction of the cost. This also gives you much better control of the process.

Microgreens are similar to sprouts but do require soil and light to grow. When we eat microgreens, we simply harvest plants before they get a chance to grow big and mature.

grow micro

Seed selection

A wide range of plants are suitable for your microgreen project, including a lot of plants that you are probably already familiar with in their full-size versions, such as vegetables and herbs.

Here are a few suggestions:

  • Radish
  • Cabbage
  • Beet
  • Watercress
  • Spinach
  • Lettuce
  • Kale
  • Mustard
  • Chia
  • Sunflower
  • Buckwheat

What you need

  • A spot in your home that gets sunshine, preferably a south-facing window.

    (Or buy a plant growing-lamp)

  • A tray filled with soil
  • Suitable seeds
  • Water for watering
  • A spray bottle to keep the water in
  • A scissor for harvesting the microgreens when they are 1-2 inches tall

How to do it

PLANTING

  1. Place the tray, with roughly an inch of soil at the bottom, in the designated spot.
  2. Smooth out the soil to create an even surface.
  3. Scatter seeds over the surface. You can keep the seeds quite close to each other since the plants will never reach their full size.
  4. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil.
  5. Spray the surface with water.

Tip: Soaking the seeds in water for a few hours before planting them will make them sprout quicker, but can make it a bit more difficult to scatter them.

grow basil

Basil is easy to grow in a pot.

MAINTAINING

Mist with water a few times of day. The soil should be kept moist, but never be soggy.

HARVESTING

Microgreens are usually harvested when they are 1-2 inches tall, and reaching this size typically takes 2-4 weeks.

Use scissors / shears to cut the microgreens right above soil level. Ideally harvest your microgreens right before it´s time to eat them; that way you get them 100% fresh.

Rinse the microgreens before serving.