Microgreens are one of the quickest, easiest and most nutritious crop that can be grown.
They can be grown indoors in 1-2 weeks and are unbeatable in flavor. Being harvested during the early stage of plant growth, they contain the dense nutrition that was stored in the seed and are so quickly grown that they require very little care.
They are a must grow for anyone interest in healthy food.
Grow Your Own Greens
Growing your own food doesn't mean you have to own land or even have access to outdoor growing areas. You can easily produce your own microgreens quickly, easily and with very little investment.
The materials are easy to find and the results are impeccable. Growing your own greens is one of the most empowering steps you can take to seize control of your health care. Green leaves are the closest you can get to eating sunshine!
Ready to Harvest Sunflower Greens (aka Sunnies)
“These tender baby-greens are biogenic food at its best; biogenic meaning ‘life generating’, food by the capacity of their life-force, to generate ‘life-force’ for us.”
– Isabell Shipard, How Can I Grow & Use Sprouts as a Living Food?
Nutrient Dense Food
Thinking in terms of quality over quantity makes sense with food.
We of course need calories to keep us going, but the real gems are vitamins, enzymes, minerals and phytochemicals (plant chemicals) that support and nourish our body on the deepest levels.
Microgreens are busting with enzymes (the worker bees that "make things happen") because of the fresh and active growth. As the seed transforms into a plant the nutrition stored in the seed is activated and increases while the minerals are made more accessible due the chelation.
Microgreens arepacked with vitamins too. Chlorophyll, carotene and other compounds act as potent antioxidants to help protect the cells against damage.
Pea Shoots Have:
Seven times more vitamin C than blueberries.
Eight times more folic acid than bean sprouts.
Four times more Vitamin A than tomatoes.
If that wasn't awesome enough, pea shoots are made up to 69% of high quality bioavailable protein. Check out the table below for your geeking pleasure.
(source at bottom)
Seeds
The most important thing to get started is fresh high quality seeds.
There are many varieties of microgreens you can grow, but I have found pea shoots to be my favorite. Organic seeds are best, but the most important part is high germination (the fresher the better). There are many options for microgreens including most vegetable seeds. The main difference between garden planting and microgreens is time until harvest and density of planting.
Microgreens are planted densely and harvesting quite young at 1 -3 weeks.
Dry and Soaked Field Peas
For a standard 10"x20" tray (most common gardening tray) you will need 2 Cups of peas or sunflower or around 3 Tbsp for small seeds like radish or broccoli. For peas and sunflowers it is best to soak for 24 hours to give germination a jump start. Field peas or green peas can be used and may be sold as cover crops. We seed austrian winter peas as a cover crop and eat the shoots when they emerge.
All garden variety pea greens (pisum genus) are delicious, just don't eat the ornamental sweet peas as they are toxic. Think of the tender snow peas and you'll get an idea of how tasty these greens are. Smaller seeds like kale or broccoli are spread dry on top of the moist medium.
Now we'll walk you through how to plant our favorite microgreen PEAS.
Steps to Planting Peas as Microgreens.
- Soak seeds 24 hours
- Drain seeds
- Prepare tray with moist medium
- Seed the tray evenly so seeds are touching but not overlapping
- Cover and keep moist for 2-3 days. Best results with weighted tray adding pressure to sprouts.
- Keep watered and expose to sunlight or full spectrum light
- Harvest
Dry Green Peas Before Soaking
Green Peas After Soaking
Planting
Planting is most often done in the standard 10x20 tray, but you can grow them in an outdoor garden or any tray such as plastic clamshells from berries or fruit cases. 1-2” is all you will need for micro greens. We prefer the 2 part 10x20 trays as they have a reservoire that holds water so watering needs are reduced.
Microgreens can be planted in a variety of mediums including native soil, compost, vermicompost and coir (a coconut byproduct). I find coir to be the most convenient and easy to use, although it is a nutrient void medium. Others prefer to use compost to boost fertility, but I honestly use straight coir with satisfactory result and simply feed the spent tray to our worms to create high quality vermicompost.
2 part 10x20 trays we use
10x20 Tray with Coir
The medium with help retain moisture and give the roots a home.
Because of the short lifecycle it is unknown weather the seeds have time to take up and use much of the nutrition in the medium. Many folks swear by using the best high quality compost and microbes. I tend to use coir with a little kelp for micronutrient feeding of the crops. The seed are sprouted and eaten within 2 weeks and for us I'm not sure how much difference it makes.
Peas for the Planting
For peas and sunflowers, drain the water before planting. The goal is to have seeds touching but not overlapping. This helps maximize space usage without overcrowding the tray. Airflow is crucial and too many seeds inhibit this.
Tray Seeded with Field Peas
Just a wee denser than ideal (I got too excited when soaking).
Cover Seeds
The best method to cover seeds is putting another tray on top. This excludes light, retains moisture and, if the tray is full, it can help make thicker and juicier peas (by struggling they get stronger). 1-2 days of coverage is sufficient.
Keep Watered
The amount of water needed depend on heat, airflow and medium. In the 2 part system, I simply lift the top tray to feel the weight. If it’s feeling light, I pour water on the solid tray below, the slotted tray will wick water as needed. Otherwise a mister or gentle watering can will work. As there isn’t much medium for the roots, check water content regularly.
Lighting
Microgreens need light to “green up”, the chlorophyll they produce is so great for us to consume, although some prefers blanched (grown in dark) peas or popcorn shoots as they are sweeter than when grown with light.
Light from a window is sufficient, outdoors is great (but dries out faster) or full spectrum bulbs will also work. Don’t fret too much over this, just remember that they are a quick crop eating WAY before others would be ready to transplant. Leggy microgreens are fine.
Sunnies Ready for Harvest
Harvest
For peas and sunnies you can harvest when they are as short as 3” but much taller that 6” and they get tough. This is easily done by grabbing a handful and cutting with a serrated knife or scissors 1/2” up from the medium. For sunnies they should be eaten before the true leaves (second set) emerge as they get overly bitter. For sunflowers you may have to remove shells (another reason I prefer peas). Peas have weak regrowth that can also be eaten.
You can harvest as needed or all at once. Most microgreens will keep for at least 3 days in a sealed container in the fridge.
Compost and Repeat
This cycle is rewarding as you can just keep the greens coming.
If you plan it well you can have fresh greens all year! Once you’ve harvested the tray, take the root mass and feed it to worms, chickens, compost it or use it as a layer for sheet mulching or raised beds.
Hope you enjoyed this intro to Microgreens. We always love to hear feedback and things YOU would love to see a post on!
Let me know if you’d like to buy a copy of my Book Sprouts Live Well With Living Food!
Sources:
http://markitonutrition.com/pea-shoots/
