Microgreens Experiment -- Seed Sprouting/Microgreens Growing Tray Part 1

You may have seen me use a pastry tray to use to germinate seeds back in fall, but this time I'm going to try microgreens with them. For those who are unfamiliar with microgreens, they are essentially mini-plants grown for their sprouts. Many different varieties of seed can be used to grow microgreens. There are the popular sprouts like wheat grass and bean sprouts, and more vegetable cropped based ones like radish, cabbage, spinach, and others. They are ideal to grow indoors or in small space areas because they don't require a lot of light and are ready to eat in 4-7 days. Since they are small, microgreens also contain a lot more flavor than their full sized vegetable forms since it is concentrated all in the little stem of the plant. The disadvantage of growing sprouts is that it requires a fair amount of seed and unless you are growing plants for seed elsewhere, you'll have to keep buying more and more seed.

Germination tray from fall

I tried back in the beginning of June last year but my experiment ended in failure due to many reasons. First off, I used seed starting mix as my medium to sprout the seeds. I know other people do use it, but I was unable to get even moisture on the seeds using soil. I'd either have the soil drenched or too dry. Plus moving the container when it was too wet resulted in the seeds moving around, redistributing in locations they should not have been. 

Secondly, it was too hot for my sprouts. I put them outside one day and they all died off. I did get activity from the seeds, but the germination rate was unsuccessful. That led me to stop my experiment for the time being. I will be trying again to create a better tray to sprout my seeds in the new year.

The containers are nice because the come with a cover to keep moisture in

Seed starting mix medium

Spinach seeds germinating

More growth

Part 2