063 Growing Microgreens Indoors.

Itching to get a bit more dirt under your fingernails during the cold, wet months ahead? Do it indoors, growing microgreens. Some call it vegetable confetti. Microgreens are a perfect topping for salads, soups, stews, tacos and a lot more. What’s in microgreens? They’re leaves…small, colorful vegetable, herb and flower leaves, that pack a wallop of good nutrition.  Plus, they grow quickly and easily!  Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour has all the tips you need to get your microgreens garden off to a good start in a sunny window;  or, on an out-of-the-way desktop aided by some small grow lights.
Growing Microgreens. It’s Episode 63 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you by Smart Pots. And we will do it all in under 30 minutes!

Links
Smartpots!
Johnny's Seeds Microgreens
Johnny's Seeds Microgreens Comparison Chart
Kitazawa Seeds
Saisai hairless radish leaf seeds
Renee's Garden Mix of  beets, chard for microgreens
Seed Propagation Kits
University of Maryland - Microgreen Nutrition
"Microgreens are Houseplants You Can Eat" from University of California
"Growing Microgreens" from Penn State University
"Growing Microgreens Indoors" from the University of Minnesota
"What are Microgreens?" from North Carolina Cooperative Extension
"Growing Microgreens in the Winter" from North Carolina Cooperative Extension
"Microgreens" (includes list of fast growing and slower growing varieties, from the University of Florida)
The book, "Microgreens - How to Grow Nature's Own Superfood" by Fionna Hill

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Transcript

Farmer Fred: 0:00

Garden Basics with Farmer Fred is brought to you by Smart Pots, the original lightweight, long lasting fabric plant container. it's made in the USA. Visit SmartPots.com slash Fred for more information and a special discount, that's SmartPots.com/Fred.

Farmer Fred 2: 0:20

Welcome to the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. If you're just a beginning gardener or you want good gardening information, well, you've come to the right spot.

Farmer Fred: 0:33

Are you itching to get a bit more dirt under your fingernails during the cold, wet months ahead? Do it indoors growing microgreens. Some call it garden confetti, but microgreens are a perfect topping for salads, soups, stews, tacos, and a lot more. So what's exactly in microgreens? They're leaves. Small young leaves, colorful leaves of vegetables, herbs and flowers that pack a wallop of good nutrition. Plus they grow quickly and easily. Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour has all the tips you need to get your microgreens garden off to a great start in a sunny window. Or even on an out-of-the-way desktop aided by some small grow lights. We're growing microgreens. It's Episode 63 of the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you by Smart Pots. And we'll do it all in under 30 minutes. Let's go.

Farmer Fred 2: 1:31

For the beginning gardener, microgreens are an easy way to start a hobby of growing vegetables indoors with the cooler weather. So, let's do a little indoor gardening. What are microgreens you ask? Well, that's why we're talking with Master Gardener Gail Pothour. She is very knowledgeable about microgreens. And Gail, what a great way to get the whole family involved in doing some indoor gardening. Because when you grow microgreens, they grow fast.

Gail Pothour: 2:01

Oh yeah, depending on what it is you're growing. And we can talk about the varieties in a few minutes. But they can be harvested in less than a couple of weeks after you plant them. So it's a great activity to have with kids because it's quick. They're different. They look different than plants growing out in the garden. And this is kind of fun, and it's a quick reward. You know, you grow it in a week or two, you've harvested them and then they're cute little things that you're eating.

Farmer Fred: 2:28

And this isn't a main course. I like how the University of Florida described it in their information on microgreens. They describe it as vegetable confetti.

Gail Pothour: 2:38

Right. I like to describe it as houseplants that you can eat.

Farmer Fred: 2:43

Yeah, basically it's a garnish, but you can put it in soups, salads, sandwiches.

Gail Pothour: 2:51

Yeah, a taco would be great. Or if you did like a spring roll or something, you know, instead of using sprouts, you could use microgreens. Great on appetizers. They're fun to use. They are tasty. And yeah, I like to use them in a salad. That's mostly how I use them.

Farmer Fred: 3:09

There are a lot of great charts and information about growing microgreens. We'll have a very thorough list in the notes for today's episode of Garden Basics. One of the best is from Johnny's Seeds, and they have a very nice chart of microgreen varieties, and how long they take to grow and their flavor and their color. Because you might as well make it pretty, mix up the colors.

Gail Pothour: 3:34

Oh, absolutely. And the colors are very intense. So if you're growing something like a red cabbage or beet or something like that, that have really colorful stems and leaves, the color seems to be a little more intense, when there is that tiny little first leaf state so it adds a lot of color to wherever whatever you're eating. They're very tasty as well.

Farmer Fred: 3:56

I think we should point out right off the bat here that when we're saying microgreens we're not just talking about leafy greens, we're talking about a wide range of herbs, flowers, vegetables, that you can grow on a sunny windowsill.

Gail Pothour: 4:09

Right. And not to be confused with sprouts which are grown in water. icrogreens are actually grown in a potting media like a potting soil or a germination mix. And after about a week or two after the cotyledon leaves comes up,(that's just the first little seed leaf) and then you get the first true leaves. That's when you would harvest them. you just give them a haircut right above the soil line. And so yeah, they're different than sprouts. They're also different than baby greens. baby greens are something you would grow to a larger stage like lettuce or spinach. You grow it until it looks more like the mature plant, only still small and then you harvest that. So microgreens are kind of in between the sprouts and the baby greens in size.

Farmer Fred: 4:55

And what surprised me a lot of these references mentioned that lettuce isn't a particularly good subject for microgreens is it?

Gail Pothour: 5:04

No, because they're really tender and wilt too easily. So they actually work better as baby greens, where you can harvest a few of the leaves that look more like the mature leaf only they're still tender. So they're delicious and tender, but they're almost too tender to use as micro greens.

Farmer Fred: 5:21

They're delicious. They're tender. And let's talk about the nutrition in microgreens. It's amazing.

Gail Pothour: 5:28

Oh, absolutely. There was a study done several years ago by the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture, that showed that microgreens can contain four to 40 times more nutrients than their mature counterparts. And I know that there's still ongoing research to determine you know, if that's accurate, or the different values in the different crops, but they are very nutritious, and they're tasty, and they're easy to grow. And I say, if I'm inside, they're absolutely fun to grow.

Farmer Fred: 6:04

In the Journal of Food and Agriculture, they measured the nutrient value of 25 micro greens. And their studies showed that the ones that had the highest concentration of a lot of good nutrition included red cabbage, cilantro, Garnet amaranth, and green, daikon radish, they had the most vitamin C, but I guess, Gail, before we go much further, let's talk about the setup for growing microgreens. And we're gonna be talking about a lot of different herbs and vegetables and flowers that you can grow on a sunny windowsill. So as long as you've got kind of a sunny spot, maybe a south or west facing window, you can set up your own little kitchen farm.

Gail Pothour: 6:46

Right. And because the microgreens grow so quickly, the same seven to 14 days, typically, before you harvest them, they don't really need a lot of lights. So they can actually be grown under conditions that are less than ideal, you know, not a lot of sun, just because they grow so quickly. And the ideal soil temperature is about 60 to 75 degrees. So I when I grow mine, I put on a heating mat, you don't have to, but it helps germination. And the ideal air temperature is about 60 to 70 degrees which is room temperature. So you don't really need to have real bright light, you don't need to have grow lights, although that can help. As they say because they grow so quickly, they don't really need as much light as a plant that you're going to be growing for a couple of months. So, they're ideal for growing indoors during the winter, especially if you live in a real cold climate. Where you know, during the winter, you have this long stretch of time where you can't really grow anything outside. Certainly grow things in the house. So, a window sill is great, gives just enough light for the plants to photosynthesize a little bit before you harvest them.

Farmer Fred: 8:01

I would strongly recommend people get a seed propagation kit, it solves a whole host of problems. It'll keep those young seedlings warm, and it allows a place for water to drain off that you can easily empty. There's a lot of seed propagation kits available online. The cost ranges from 25 to $75. The good ones usually have a high dome, a tray that has a slightly raised bottom that allows the water to go even lower. And many of them come with seed trays and that makes the job a heck of a lot easier as well. And they have a propagation heating mat as well that you were talking about. And by having one of those kits, it makes it easy. In fact, you're gonna get hooked on growing things in basically what is an indoor greenhouse,

Gail Pothour: 8:51

Right. And I do have those same kits I've assembled over the years. So I have the heating mats, I have the humidity domes, I have the long trays. But what's nice about growing microgreens is you can recycle containers. So I save deli containers because they have a little lid that pops off, I wash them really well. You want to have everything sanitized. I poke holes in the bottom of the deli container, put my potting mix in there, plant my seeds, and then I use the lid as the humidity dome so I keep that on top. So you don't have to go to the expense of getting this elaborate seed starting setup. I highly recommend you do that. However, because you can do a little so many other things. You can start your tomatoes and peppers and things like that indoors but you don't have to. And if you just put it in a warm spot for germination. That works just fine. Then as soon as the seeds germinate, take that lid off so that you don't have to keep trapping too much humidity. And yes, you do want to be sure to have some sort of a tray on the bottom to catch the water. Because you do need to have drainage holes in your container.

Farmer Fred: 10:03

Exactly. You need to not allow that soil that is growing those micro greens to get too soggy. It needs drainage and that's why the propagation kits with the ribbed bottom to allow the water to drain even lower is ideal.

Farmer Fred 2: 10:28

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Farmer Fred: 11:38

Let's get back to our conversation with Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour about growing microgreens indoors during the winter. We talked about the fact that there are fast growing and slow, slower growing varieties of microgreens you can grow. let's talk about fast growing. When we're talking fast growing, 10 to 15 days until they're harvested. And that's the other thing we didn't mention is how to harvest the microgreens. So you're planting seeds, you wait 10 or 15 days. And then you clip them with the scissors.

Gail Pothour: 12:08

Yeah, to kind of like give them a haircut. So have a clean pair of sharp scissors and hold on to the the upper portion of the microgreens kind of a handful and then just clip them just above the soil line. You don't want to get a lot of potting mix in with your microgreens if you can help it but you can always kind of rinse those off afterwards. But yeah, it's really easy. Just give them a haircut. And I would suggest that whatever you grow be sure that it's something that's edible. And so the best choices are cool season crops, like leafy greens or herbs or edible flowers. As you mentioned, Fred. But I would forget about growing something like tomato microgreens because they're not edible. You know they contain solanine, which is toxic. I would say just be sure that anything that you grow for microgreens needs to be edible. They need to be an edible flower or an herb that would be edible as its mature counterpart. Anything in the Brassica or cabbage family would be perfect. So arugala, broccoli, cabbage, Kale, Kohlrabi, even radishes. And speaking of radish, I just ran across a variety that is not hairy. Radishes have a hairy leaf. And I'm kind of a textural person, it kind of disturbs me a bit to have this hairiness on my tongue when I eat radish leaves. But there's a new variety out that is hairless. It's carried by Kitazawa Seed, I think they're in the Bay Area. And it's called, I don't know how to even how to say, Saisai. So if you want to grow radishes and you're bothered by the hairiness of the leaves of radishes, that's a variety that you can grow. Anyway, you can also grow things like chard, beets, peas, nasturtiums, any annual herbs like basil or cilantro or parsley would work well as well.

Unknown: 14:04

We'll have a link to Kitazawa Seed. they're based in Berkeley or Oakland will have a link to Kitazawa Seed in the show notes. They have a lot of great Asian vegetables that would be ideal for this situation that we're talking about.

Gail Pothour: 14:16

Oh yeah, the bok choy and pak choi and all those Asian greens are perfect for growing as microgreens.

Farmer Fred: 14:23

And to go back to Johnny's Seeds list of microgreen varieties that are fast growing, they include borage, celosia, salad Burnett, Sorrell, arugala, broccoli, cabbage, the Chinese cabbages, collard, cress, if you want to grow that. Kale, I'm going in alphabetical order, you can probably tell, Kohlrabi, mizuna mustards, pak choi, like we mentioned, they may mention several radish varieties. And something that I'm not familiar with called tatsoi.

Gail Pothour: 14:58

Yeah, those would all be perfect. All are cool season crops. And they're ideal for growing microgreens. I do want to mention that when you are growing the microgreens, I think I mentioned earlier, if you're recycling a container, be sure it's clean, you don't want any contamination. And you don't need to have a deep container either. Something that just has an inch or two of soil, because the roots are not going to be growing long enough to need a deeper container in order to develop the roots, because you're going to harvest them in a week or two. And then after you plant your seeds, put them on the soil surface kind of tamp them in a little bit, maybe sprinkle on a little more potting mixture, and give them a spritz. So put on your plastic wrap or whatever you're using for a dome. Hold in the humidity. As soon as the seeds germinate, take that lid off, take it off the heat and put it under light, whatever lights your windowsill or grow lights that you're using. And then when you continue to water, start watering from the bottom. So whatever tray you have your container in, fill that with water set the container down, let it soak up from the bottom and remove it, let it drain, pour the water out of the bottom tray. Because if you start watering from the top, once those plants get to grow, they're really fragile and you can knock them over and you know kind of smashed them a little bit so it's easier to water them from the bottom once they have germinated.

Farmer Fred: 16:29

Unless you have a really fine mister for a watering system indoors, to do that.

Gail Pothour: 16:34

And I have done that. But I have noticed that the plants get a little bit taller, you know, I like them an inch or two tall before I harvest them. When even with my fine Mister, it does tend to weight them down and knock

Farmer Fred: 16:47

among the slower growing microgreens that you can grow indoors and these take about 16 to 25 days to get up to an inch or two tall, basil, who thought of that basil, cilantro, dill, fennel, marigolds even, and among the slow growing vegetables and agait slow is only 16 to 25 days. That's not bad. Amaranth, Bulls Blood beets, the yellow beets, carrots, chard that you mentioned earlier, even dandelions, purslane, scallions, there's a lot out there that you can be growing indoors as microgreens. So it might be ideal to have two trays. if not more than two trays, one with the fast growing varieties and one with the slower growing varieties.

Gail Pothour: 17:35

What I did is I when I first started out I combined several different varieties in one small little tray and then when I was ready to harvest the quick growing ones, it was kind of hard to do without damaging the ones that were still growing. So I would recommend growing them in separate trays. Or if you can identify the ones that germinate at the same rate, you could mix them that way. But if you want to have a mix of microgreens it might be better just to grow some small containers of individuals and then mix them after you harvest them. That's kind of the easier way to go.

Farmer Fred 2: 18:12

I guess one idea might be to save your old egg cartons, punch a small hole in the bottom of each of the cells, and grow it inside egg cartons.

Gail Pothour: 18:22

Oh, that's a thought I had never occurred to me to do that. But you certainly could. Ordinarily something that small and shallow is not recommended for growing plants because it takes longer for the plant to grow to seedling size if you're growing for seedlings, and there's not enough root space. But for microgreens because they don't grow that long, only a week or two, that shallow egg carton should be ideal. Also, you don't have to be very exact.

Farmer Fred: 18:52

When you plant the seeds for micro greens, you can actually sow them rather thickly and definitely don't use the spacing indicated on seed packets. If you look at that Johnny's selected seeds suggestions for planting micro greens, they say that sowing six to eight large seeds per square inch is about right. And if they're small seeds, about 10 to 12 per square inch. And you know, you just just kind of eyeball it when you put those seeds in. And I would imagine, t o, that since microgreens re harvested well before they re ch maturity, they don't need to be thinned. And since they re growing for such a short ti e, they probably don't need to be fertilized either, do th y?

Gail Pothour: 19:32

Right.

Farmer Fred: 19:32

Growing microgreens is easy, but I think one very important tip is use as you alluded to earlier, use a seed starting mix for your soilless mix. You don't want to use soil from the garden. Why wouldn't you want to use soil from the garden?

Gail Pothour: 19:50

Ror a number of reasons. Soil out of your garden will undoubtedly contain micro organisms that could cause disease. Fungal spores. Things like that you don't want to have those micro organisms in your starting mix. Because it can affect the germination of the seeds, it could cause damping off, some other diseases. Plus garden soil is pretty dense. It's not fluffy and doesn't let a lot of oxygen in, it's fine for growing out in the garden. But in containers, any type of container garden soil is not recommended because it is too dense and water can't percolate through it very well. And it just doesn't allow enough oxygen exchange for the plants' roots. So get a good germination mix or seed starting mix or even potting soil, which are generally peat based or coir, which is from coconut husks, and perlite, vermiculite, things like that, things that allow for drainage. They can hold water, but it does allow a lot of oxygen and air to get in there. So something that is fluffy. And it's usually a commercial mix that you buy. So that's what I recommend highly.

Farmer Fred: 21:01

Exactly. And you don't want to buy a bag labeled garden soil mix, either.

Gail Pothour: 21:05

right, right, and actually anything that has compost in it unless it's commercially composted, I would steer away from that. I would hesitate to add the compost that I make in my compost pile, because there still could be some diseased spores in there and things like that. So I would stick with something that has peat or Sphagnum moss or coir with perlite, vermiculite.

Farmer Fred: 21:30

Right, yeah, peat, perlite, vermiculite is the usual combination in those seed starting mixes. And one tip though, for peat moss, and for that matter, coir. They are very difficult to keep moist. And one easy trick is to when you buy a bag of the seed starting mix, cut off the top, set the bag outside upright, fill it with water, and let it sit for a few hours in all that water. And that will then pre-moisten it and then you don't have to worry about the chance of it drying out as you're growing your microgreens.

Gail Pothour: 22:06

Right. So whatever potting mixture you're using, be sure it is pre-moistened. So in the container that I have my potting soil, I make sure that it's moist, I then put that in my container, my deli container, whatever I'm using, tap it lightly, and then put in the seeds and water again. If you're putting the seeds directly in a dry potting media, it might be very difficult to get the whole area moistened. If you're watering from the top, be sure it's pre moistened before you plant the seed.

Farmer Fred: 22:40

So after these microgreens are about an inch or two tall and you cut them off at the soil line with scissors, what do you do with them, then Gail?

Gail Pothour: 22:49

Well, they are pretty fragile. So it's recommended that you harvest them just before you need them. So you've prepared your meal and you want to sprinkle them on a salad, go cut them and sprinkle them on your salad. However, they are able to be stored in the refrigerator. So once they're cut, put them in a plastic bag with the paper towel, and they could store for several days. But what I learned the last time I did microgreens I had a small deli container with mustard microgreens, I think it was, and I didn't use it all. I stuck the whole container in the refrigerator. And it lasted for several weeks. So then I was able to bring the container out, harvest what I wanted and put it back in. I didn't even put a plastic bag or anything over it, it was just a container itself in the refrigerator. So if you are using a small enough container, you can do that, it works great. I wouldn't recommend putting a big flat into refrigerator. But anyway I was able to keep the microgreens fresh, they didn't continue to grow because the cold kind of stopped their growth. But it kept them fresh for at least two weeks.

Farmer Fred: 23:58

Two weeks. Wow.

Gail Pothour: 24:00

I was amazed.

Farmer Fred: 24:01

So that if you find out that your family has a favorite one or two microgreen varieties that they really like that would be a good idea is to grow them in smaller containers that when you're ready to harvest them, you can just stick it in the refrigerator.

Gail Pothour: 24:16

Right, I wouldn't recommend it for something like basil. Basil is pretty tender and when you store basil the herbs you know if you buy a bunch of basil or harvest a big bunch of basil, if you put it in refrigerated the leaves tend to turn black. So it isn't a great thing to do with basil because it doesn't respond to cold temperatures very well. But most others, the brassicas or anything in the cabbage family, the cool season crops would be just fine in the refrigerator.

Farmer Fred: 24:47

And ladies and gentlemen, that's how you get dirt under your fingernails in the wintertime.

Gail Pothour: 24:52

Absolutely.

Farmer Fred: 24:52

Yes, that's what we're going for here. And again, in today's show notes, you're going to find a complete list of resources where you can find out more information about microgreens as well as the seed propagation kits, and a lot more. We've been talking with Sacramento County Master Gardener Gail Pothour. Gail, thanks for turning us on to microgreens. Something to do, something the whole family can do, indoors during the winter.

Gail Pothour: 25:18

Thank you, Fred.

Farmer Fred: 25:22

The Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast has a lot of information posted at each episode. Transcripts, links to any products or books mentioned during the show, and other helpful links for even more information. Plus, you can listen to just the portions of the show that interest you. It's been divided into easily accessible chapters and you'll find more information about how to get in touch with us. We have links to all our social media outlets, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Also a link to the farmerfred.com website. That's where you can find out more information about the radio shows. You remember radio, right? Now, if the place where you access the podcast doesn't have all that information, you can find it all at our home podcaster, Buzzsprout. Buzzsprout.com. Just look for the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast. You'll find a link to it in the show notes.

Farmer Fred 2: 26:15

The garden basics podcast is going to a winter schedule. Maybe just like your favorite local nursery in Novemb r through January, Garden Bas cs will come out once a week on Fridays. Then, as the wea her warms back up in February, w'll return to our twice a eek schedule. Thank you for listening, subscribing, and leaving comments. We apprec ate that you've included us in our garden l