5 reasons to grow microgreens

1. Microgreens have more flavour than mature greens
2. Microgreens are packed with nutrients
3. Microgreens are easy to grow
4. Microgreens are ready to harvest in days
5. Microgreens are the latest must have addition to any kitchen

Microgreens or micro leaves are vegetable seedlings harvested between 6 and 21 days old for their intense taste. Think back to when you were a child and grew cress in dampened cotton wool inside an empty egg shell, or was that just me? Anyhow, growing micro greens is essentially the same – easy and quick. So that is exactly what I am going to do, grow some micro greens.

The excellent flavour of microgreens is not the only reason I want to grow them. Seedlings of many vegetables have wonderfully coloured stems, for example the Swiss chard has red, yellow, orange and purple stems. How good will they look garnishing a salad?

Microgreens can be grown all year round, all you need is a windowsill. Obviously during the winter months when there is not as much light as in the summer months, growing times may be a little longer, but not much longer. With some planning and a ready supply of seeds, there is no reason why you cannot have micro greens growing on your windowsill all year round.

I’ve decided to grow my microgreens in small containers, this way I won’t ever harvest more than I need for my family at one time, and will have the space on my kitchen windowsill to have trays of greens at different stages of growth, giving me a continual year round crop.

This time I am going to grow, Basil, Rocket, Radish and Broccoli.

I started by making a mix of 2 parts potting compost and 1 part Perlite, Perlite is great for retaining moisture, which will help prevent the compost from drying out.

The next thing I did was put a shallow layer of the compost/perlite mix into empty plastic fruit punnets, the type with holes in the base, which will be used for watering and drainage. I then stood the containers in a some water and let the compost and perlite take up the water until the surface was clearly damp.

Once the compost was thoroughly wet I liberally sprinkled some seeds over the top, and then placed the containers on the windowsill.

Now, I just need to wait for the seeds to germinate and begin to grow, and also make sure the compost doesn’t dry out, and if it does begin to, stand the container in water again.

I will be posting again about the progress of my micro greens, hopefully in a few days when the seeds should have started to grow. Once this happens I will start some more off, this will make sure I get a continuous supply. Update on growing microgreens.