r/microgreens Mar 23 '23

Thorough advice and questions answered for growers.

133 Upvotes

Hello all.

I was inspired to make this post as I see a lot of people asking the same or similar questions. I have a post in the top 10 of all time on this sub (Thanks for that r/microgreens community btw) and I've been growing as a business for almost 5 years now, so I get people reaching out to me several times a year to ask questions or pick my brain about things. I love when you do, so please keep reaching out. I'd love to talk with you and help you grow better. That being said, between common issues I see in the posts, and the questions I get from being contacted, I thought I'd compile a list of the biggest things to consider and know when growing microgreens. So let's begin.

  1. Mold or root hairs?

- This is a REALLY common question. The answer lies (mostly) in WHERE you see the little "hairs" coming from. Root hairs are at the base of the stem and go into the soil from the bottom of the plant. Mold will tend to spread from the base of one plant to another, to another, to another. If it is spread out between plants and on the soil: likely mold. If it's coming FROM the plans and going to the soil without spreading, probably root hairs. This picture is a GREAT example. Use google to find more and you'll eventually learn the difference.

  1. What substrate to use?

- This is a REALLY personal decision and the truth is the only answer is: The substrate that works for you is the best substrate. We all have reasons for why we use or don't use what goes into our grow systems. Personally I use soil because my philosophy is simple. Give plants they conditions that they need and get outta the way. Plants grow naturally in soil, so I use soil. It also has a larger margin for error on watering compared to things like coco coir, plus I don't have to hydrate it or break up the blocks that it comes in sometimes. Coco coir however can be cheaper, it's renewable (as opposed to peat moss), is soil free so it's sterile/can be made sterile, and doesn't introduce mold or other pathogens, and MANY growers have fantastic luck with it. Experiment a bit, find what works for you and roll with it. If you run into challenges, change it up. Other common substrates are hemp mats, rock wool, or even hydroponics.

  1. How long should by plants be in blackout?

- Let's first DEFINE blackout. In MOST circumstances, blackout is the period of time after you place seed onto soil and then either stack them, or put another tray or some other kind of opaque surface over them to keep them in the dark. In the case of stacking this is done to create a good seed/soil contact, and helps to give the plants stronger stems, and also helps to remove seed hulls. In the case of putting a dark dome on top to cut out light, this is done to keep the plants in the dark so that they grow higher, it also keeps in moisture to keep plants moist. Some growers even put paper towels over their seeds and mist daily to assist in germination. That all depends on exactly what kind of system you have, but by and large isn't necessary.

- Now to the question at hand, I typically seed my plants every Wednesday afternoon and by Saturday morning if they aren't coming out of blackout I have a problem. This isn't universal though, and every plant is different. Don't adhere to a schedule but respond to how the plants LOOK. This schedule works well for the most popular Micros, but more artisan style micros (I'm lookin you Basil, cilantro, shiso, beets, etc.) may need longer blackout/stacking periods.

  1. How much X to use to help with mold?

- I haven't once used hydrogen peroxide, neem oil, or any other spray or assistant to help with mold and I grow in bagged soil which is one of the most mold prone substrates out there. That being said, every few weeks I will lose 1-5 trays to mold out of the 100+ trays that I grow. So let's say 5/500 trays are mold loss. That's 1% and not worth introducing a solution for in my world. Some loss is inevitable and will happen eventually if you do this long enough. Sometimes it was you, and sometimes you just have bad seed. That being said if you absolutely MUST do something to help with mold, either because it's a massive problem for you, or just for your peace of mind, use about 500 ml of water and about a teaspoon of 3% hydrogen peroxide. ALL THAT BEING SAID, make sure you wash the bigger more mold prone seeds very thoroughly, specifically sunflower, pea, cilantro. I'm sure there's others but those are the ones I grow.

  1. How often to water?

- This one really gets me going. I often see people who have watering "schedules" and if that's the case for you and you make it work awesome. But in my 5 years of growing microgreens, I haven't had a consistent water schedule yet. If you give them X amount of water every day at Y time and it works, then great. But in the winter when it gets dryer, or in the summer when it gets warmer, or the spring when everything is wetter, all of that is probably going to change. Plants don't live by human cycles. So the biggest suggestion I can give on micros is to water when the plants need water. If the soil is wet, but it's time to water on your "schedule" you're setting yourself up for mold and seed rot problems.

  1. How much light should I give them? What kind of lights?

- First, the kinds of lights don't matter that much. I use plain old LED, used to use fluorescent. You don't need fancy grow lights. As for how much light, that, like watering, is a hard question to answer. I've had "lights out time" and I've left lights on 24/7. In my 10-14 day grow cycle, I don't notice much of a difference that's worth worrying about in terms of yield. However, to save on money I do shut off my lights on a timer in the afternoon for about 6 hours a day. I shut them off late afternoon/into the evening as that's when our utility company charges the most. This won't be a make or break decision in your world though.

  1. What kinds of fans should I use?

- This is gonna be a bit controversial maybe but: I don't use fans. I used some for a bit, then turned them off, and didn't have any issues, so I stopped. It was one less thing to have to manage. THAT BEING SAID, if you're having mold issues, or if the room is too hot in the summer AND you're seeing those issues cause you problems, try adding in a fan. What you shouldn't do is, add fans, and add hydrogen peroxide, and soak seeds in peroxide, and...and...and... because likely only one of those things will solve the problem. Try a fan, if that doesn't work try spray, if that doesn't work try a fan AND spray, troubleshoot. But seriously don't over complicate this.

  1. What to do with my leftover trays?

- This is a tricky question. The simple answer is: compost. But that depends on what you're gonna do with that compost and how much you grow. If you don't get that compost above 165 F for about 3 days straight and kill those seeds that didn't germinate, be prepared for volunteer 'whatever you grew for microgreens' everywhere. Ask me how I know.... Recently I've been considering vermicomposting mine. However then comes the problem of scale. I have 100 trays worth of soil every week. That is a couple cubic feed by the time it's over, especially once you add root mass. So on some level you gotta be practical. Also chickens is a great idea if you or your neighbor has any.

  1. How do I clean my trays in between uses?

- I highly recommend sterilizing your trays in between each grow. The way I do this is I take a low PSI pressure washer, spray all the dirt and root material off of them, then dip them into a tank of water with some bleach in it. The ratio is about 1/3 cup per gallon of water.I let them stay in there for about 5 minutes and then they air dry. Sometimes some root matter is left there, or a little dirt. I used to be REALLY picky about that, and I wouldn't use a tray that had ANYTHING left in it, but I tried it once and didn't have any issues, so perfection not an issue.

  1. Business questions.

- There are so many questions that go into whether microgreens is a good business for you. There is almost no way to answer it without knowing SO much more about your life than most people are willing to share on the internet but I'll try and give a few basics.

Q. What licenses do I need to start my business?

A. So there's the right answer and then there's the function answer. The functional answer is that no one is gonna come after you for growing a few trays and selling them to your neighbors. Probably. That being said (and nothing in this post is to be taken as legal advice, I am not a lawyer) every state, city, county, and/or country is going to have different rules. In California I had to get certified by the local ag department, have a sign behind my booth that listed my address, phone number, and the slogan "We grow what we sell", and anything sold had to have that somewhere on the packaging as well. Now that I'm in Idaho, there are literally no rules on the ag side. That being said I have to collect sales tax here where I didn't in California (no tax on self grown ag items, kinda nice) so that adds a level of complexity. But be careful, because then I tried growing wheat grass and sell wheat grass shots as a natural side growth and because it was now considered processed I had to have a full 3 bay sink in my booth per health department. So just call someone and ask before you get yourself in trouble.

Q. Can you actually make money doing microgreens full time?

A. Probably not. I don't say that to discourage you but think about it. There are already years of momentum behind some growers. Customer bases are already established and have people they like to go to. This isn't to say don't try, it's to say that it's not as easy as grow a tray and build a website. It's work. It takes time. Once your systems are dialed in it gets easier, and once you're confident in your customer base you'll flow into it, but that can take years. I can do about $1,000-$1,500 a week in microgreens at my farmers market with about 150 other vendors and ZERO other micros growers. I'm lucky though, and you may not be given your area and saturation. So can you make money? Yes are you likely to make money? Not unless you're willing to grind it out and put in the WORK.

Q. What's a good price point for X, Y, Z micro?

A. There is no way to answer that for you. You have to do the math, figure out the market in your area, not to mention determining what your costs are and how much your time is worth. You can do the market research by calling micros growers and asking for a price sheet, browse their websites, call chefs and flat out ask what they're paying for a given microgreen. Visit farmers markets and see what they're charging for them etc. Generally speaking though $5/8oz volume is a decent starting point. Go up or down by a bit based on your market and have bulk incentives (Mine is 1 for $5 3 for $12). For your input costs figure out how much seed you use per tray, then how much that much seed would cost, figure out how much substrate you use, and then what your time is worth. If you want to get REAL nitty gritty calculate electric and water too. I don't though.

Q. What microgreens should I grow to make money?

A. As per the question before this, it depends on what your chefs and customers want. I've had chefs that ONLY want Radish. I've had others that ONLY want Amaranth. Some want a salad mix, some want a little of everything. Some want something that I don't even grow so now I have to figure out if I can even grow it in my system. That being said: there are a few microgreens that I've found to be fairly standard. Those are: PEA | SUNFLOWER | SALAD MIX. What salad mix? Doesn't seem to matter. Make some kind of salad mix with somethin and it usually does well, just be prepared to sell it at volume for cheap. But it's my single best selling item

OTHER TIPS AND TRICKS

  • Grow pea away from direct light, it'll get stretchier, and be less chewy
  • I water based on the weight of my trays. The lighter they are, the more water they need, and I check them 2-3 times a day at minimum.
  • Chefs don't usually want tall leggy microgreens, so be prepared to cut only that top inch and a half of stem for the smaller plants (Don't count pea/sunflower in this)
  • Always test a new micro before offering it to a chef, if you say you CAN grow it and then turns out you can't, you've lost their trust for 2-3 months usually.
  • If you get into restaurants, make sure to deliver on the same day, around the same time, every week
  • This is probably my biggest piece of advice. DON'T SOLVE A PROBLEM YOU DON'T HAVE

I see SO SO SO SO many people with such complex systems, they measure out specific weights of seed, then they seed, then add a paper towel, and then mist every day, then they blackout, then they put it on a shelf with fans for each level, then they measure out specific amounts of water, then they...then they...then they....and that spells one thing to me: burn out. If that's you and you enjoy it: AWESOME I'm taking nothing away from your success, I'm glad it works. All I'm saying is 7/10 things that I used to do when I was starting out, excited, and watching 100 microgreen YouTube videos a day, I eventually realized had little to no effect. I lose a tray here and there due to a few issues. But in my world I'd rather have a little bit of tray loss than have to manage 7 other systems to prevent that little bit of loss. Time is an important factor in this from a business perspective, and an enjoyment one too.

Phew, that was longer than I thought it would be.

I sincerely hope you found this helpful and know that I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. Let me know if I missed anything and I'll add it in as I find time. See you in the comments.

Way to grow everyone.

-Josh

edit: added some info to business questions

edit 2: added some more substrates people use


r/microgreens Oct 22 '24

Note on repost bots

14 Upvotes

Hey everyone.

As I’m sure many of you have noticed this sub has been a massive target for repost bots. It’s been a major problem and it’s only gotten worse.

We as mods can’t constantly patrol, I know for myself I’m also running my microgreen business (which funnily enough has been the target of like 5 reposts this week, go figure) while also moderating here. I’m online at least 5-10 times a day just browsing and sometimes I catch them but I can’t thank all of you for reporting.

Please continue to report and help us to weed out these bots. We’ll continue as mods to remove them as quickly as possible, and will be looking into some automod tools to prevent reposts from appearing in the first place.

Apologies for not being able to stop them or control them more, and thank you again for your assistance with reports.

Happy growing y’all!


r/microgreens 1h ago

Root hair?

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Upvotes

First time growing Microgreens and I can’t tell if these are roots hairs or mold.


r/microgreens 1d ago

Kale spots

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4 Upvotes

I’m new to making microgreens: and I’ve had no trouble with broccoli, but now I’m trying kale, and it evolves these dark spots. They also have a quite kaley scent, and I get confused wether its just sulphur or they have gone bad.
I’ve tried 2 times and same thing happened.

Any advice?


r/microgreens 1d ago

Sorry to be this guy but... is this mold?

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7 Upvotes

I'm sure this question gets asked a lot so apologies!

I'm trying to figure out how to grow my chia using a dehydrator sheet instead of a paper towel so I can jeat the seeds and roots as well. If this is mold, should I just be watering it less? I also use a profylactic spray (1tbs hydrogen peroxide in 200ml water.)


r/microgreens 2d ago

What Are You Putting in You Mixes?

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15 Upvotes

What’s up party people? Feedback from my first market was that the people wanted mixes. I threw together 4 trays worth of samplers (broccoli, pea shoots, radish, and popcorn) and completely sold out of them, almost immediately. Popcorn was the star of the show for sure - if I could get someone to try a popcorn sample they would buy something 100% of the time.

I want to throw some salad mixes together as a staple product and wondering what people commonly use. Right now I’m thinking a basic salad mix, a spicy salad mix, and a general sampler.

Pea shoots are super popular but I feel like they lose their crunch a day or two after harvesting, so I’m thinking of taking them out of the mixes and maybe just selling live cuttings of those.

Broccoli, kale, radish, cabbage, and radish have all been extremely easy to grow. I’ve had issues with popcorn and sunflower (still trying to dial in my processes for sunflower). Are things like mustard and arugula more finicky? Basil? I know amaranth seems to have its challenges. What works for you?


r/microgreens 4d ago

A speciality farm growing micros, E.flowers and herbs for premium F&B needs a dedicated space to chill out and build from the ground up.. our office! Bread and butter!

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11 Upvotes

We spent years sleeping and working here, fine tuning the craft.. welcomed clients, chefs, restaurant owners etc.. fab time.. we now moved on to a bigger space since 2024.. :-)


r/microgreens 4d ago

Harvested 62 Iznik cucumbers (8 lbs total) from a 4-pod Garden Cube countertop system. Full breakdown of metrics, costs, and lessons learned.

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone, wanted to share a complete log of my recent indoor cucumber run. I chose the Iznik variety (parthenocarpic/gynoecious) because it doesn't require manual pollination, making it ideal for a compact LED setup.


r/microgreens 4d ago

5 things I keep seeing microgreens businesses get wrong (I manage ecommerce brands for a living)

29 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I work in ecommerce for a living and I've been lurking here a while. This sub is unusual because so many of you actually sell, so figured I'd share the stuff I keep noticing when I look at small local operations. Most of it is fixable in a weekend:

  1. Taking orders through Instagram DMs and text messages is not the way to scale, and I get why it starts that way, but every order living in your DMs means no customer list, no order history, nothing to build on. Even a dead simple order page (wix, woocommerce, shopify, whatever) changes everything, because now every buyer is an email address you can actually reach next week. Your customer list is the business, the greens are just how you build it.
  2. Selling one-off when the product is weekly by nature. Greens get eaten in days and you harvest every week, this is the most subscription shaped product that exists... Push the standing order hard, discount it a little if you have to. One subscriber is worth more than five random one-time buyers because you can actually plan trays around them.
  3. If you run pre-orders with a cutoff (order by sunday, harvest thursday) you waste way less and the deadline itself drives orders. "Cutoff is tomorrow night" is the single best performing email a microgreens business can send and most never send it.
  4. Silence between orders is another huuuuge miss. Someone buys once at the market, loves it, then forgets you exist because dinner happens and life happens. A weekly harvest list email, what's ready this week, what's coming next week, one recipe or way to use the weird one, keeps you in their head every single week. Same for chefs btw, a short monday availability email to every restaurant contact beats hoping they text you. This is like an hour a week and it's the whole retention game.
  5. Weekly customers pause and just never come back, not because anything went wrong, they just fell out of the habit. A simple "haven't seen you in a few weeks, here's what's growing" note after 3-4 missed cycles recovers a surprising number of them. Nobody does this. It's free money sitting in your order history.

Anyway. If you're selling and want a second pair of eyes on your setup, order page, emails, whatever you've got, comment or DM and I'll tell you honestly what I'd fix, and I'll give some tips! Otherwise hope anything of what I jotted down here is useful to someone! 🌱


r/microgreens 4d ago

Unit economics, revenue, sales and pricing

3 Upvotes

Interested to hear from people on how you arrive at the number and project this for any micro or speciality farm size.

Trying to find out if there’s a better and easier way out there to do it. We have our account softwares and so on, but just shoots out real time data and that’s it..

At the moment I work with a financial model on excel with a master workbook and then several formula based worksheet tabs interconnected to project to exact values, I made this a few years ago, so my tabs include assumptions, Capex, OPEX, pricing/unit economics, revenue, P&L, cash flow, ROI, 3 scenarios (downside, base case and upside) and the master dashboard.. for example my electricity or labour goes up, it automatically tells me what to do next..

This gives me numbers to the penny without guessing, what’s in and what out and enables me to adjust pricing of products, change of input costs, adding new crops, project etc.. without this workbook, I don’t know where I am headed tbh..

How do you all do it? (Medium/large commercial scale growers)


r/microgreens 5d ago

Proud Of Our Micro Celery

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28 Upvotes

r/microgreens 5d ago

Trouble shoot with me please.

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5 Upvotes

Anyone having these white speckles on leaves?

I've been getting them on all my shiso and parsley.

Seed hull damage?

Any other ideas?

Solutions?

50-60 rn 70-80 temp


r/microgreens 5d ago

Trying to grow chia seeds microgreens. Hair roots or mold?

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5 Upvotes

First time trying to grow microgreens ever. Doing the paper towel method. I’m on day 2, and white fuzz started growing. It doesn’t smell funky or anything.

Can someone please help me identify if this is hair roots or mold. I’m not sure what this is.


r/microgreens 6d ago

Holidays! A few months ahead.. happy to answer any questions or get into discussions..

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13 Upvotes

r/microgreens 6d ago

germination on petri dish yo

2 Upvotes

uhhhmmm guys i have no clue how germination on petri dish works, like do you water it once every 5 days cause the waters basically evaporates and recondenses itself?? And also if the root were to grow upwards won’t the lid of the petri dish limit its height


r/microgreens 6d ago

Cultivo in vitro de plantas

0 Upvotes

¡Hola! ¿Es posible hacer micropropagación en casa? ¿Hay historias de éxito? Las leo.


r/microgreens 6d ago

Advice!

3 Upvotes

Hi everybody! I am a plant and soil science (I like to just say agronomy) student and this fall I will have a garage as a part of my house. I’ve been trying to think of ways to put my knowledge and skills to good use, and do make a little extra money here and there. Micro greens is something that I know realistically nothing about other than you grow and eat them, I don’t know the process and such.

Do you suggest I mess with this? Not to sound disrespectful or rude if I do, but am I out if my league with this? Any advice is welcome!! Thanks!


r/microgreens 7d ago

Ikea IVAR Rack with automatic watering

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50 Upvotes

How do you like my piece? This was my first automatic Rack approach. I impregnated the wood with beewax.


r/microgreens 7d ago

Soilless growing medium

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25 Upvotes

Hello! New here and just started growing last December. My operation has picked up and I am wanting to switch to a soilless growing medium to cut down on cost. What have you found works best and cuts down on cost? Also, do you add nutrients. Thank you in advance!


r/microgreens 6d ago

Wheatgrass juicer

4 Upvotes

I love and always use my ss hand crank. But this morning i tried it my cold press slow masticating juicer and it DOES NOT work like all the info out there saying it will. Granted my juicer isn’t built for wheatgrass, it’s pretty heavy duty but I read a ton of info saying any cold press slow masticating will do the job. Well it definitely doesn’t! Said all that to ask what electric juicer is everyone using for their wheatgrass without breaking the bank? TIA🙏


r/microgreens 7d ago

Is this damping off in my sunflower microgreen?

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7 Upvotes

r/microgreens 8d ago

C3PO Buddha weighing my trays down.

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24 Upvotes

r/microgreens 8d ago

Homemade started grown ten

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0 Upvotes

r/microgreens 9d ago

Thanks Everyone for all the Help!

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31 Upvotes

I kinda just jumped into this full force and pretty much immediately ran into roadblocks and questions and everyone here has been insanely helpful and supportive.

I’m more or less up and running now after having encountered the necessary pitfalls and just wanted to give thanks to ya all collectively.


r/microgreens 10d ago

Will these be too big to harvest in 5 days?

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18 Upvotes

Was trying to time for a Saturday market but think I seeded 2 or 3 days early. Do you think 5 days from now is too late to harvest?