Microgreens offer a lovely range of colour, flavour and texture to add to recipes. They are also a good source of vitamins and minerals, although of course these vary between varieties. They grow pretty fast, and are usually ready to harvest in around 7-10 days, although some may be as quick as 5. They grow better indoors than out, although you could also grow them in a greenhouse if you have one. This makes them perfect for growing while we are all restricted indoors!

Use them in sandwiches, salads and soups.

You will need

• Seeds
• Compost
• Container/s – wide and shallow are best, drainage holes essential
• Windowsill or similar indoor growing space with good light

I use recycled plastic punnets from supermarkets, the sort we buy tomatoes, strawberries and other fruit in. you could also use seed trays, or anything that is wide rather than deep.

Put a layer of compost about 2 cm deep in the container, making sure it’s smooth and flat. If there are any lumps just crumble them between your fingers. Press down lightly to get rid of air pockets, but not too much so it doesn’t get compacted.

Sow the seeds (see list below for options).  Cover with a thin layer of compost, just enough to cover the seeds and press down gently once again. Water gently so as not to disturb the seeds. You can use a sprayer, or sit the whole container in a tray of water so that it soaks up water from underneath. Place the containers somewhere light and inside a tray so they don’t leak.

Microgreens are sown quite thickly – imagine the punnets of ‘mustard and cress’ that you can buy.  A rough guide would be:

• Small seeds – 10-12 per square inch
• Large seeds– 8-10 per square inch

Lots of seeds are suitable, but the ones I have had most success with are

• Rocket
• Radish
• Cabbage
• Kale
• Cress
• Chard
• Beetroot
• Dill
• Coriander

Here’s a list of some more suggestions. It would be good to hear what you try and how they perform. It’s from an American website, so some of the names may be a bit different ( what we call rocket they know as arugula; coriander becomes cilantro )

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/vegetables/microgreens-fast-growing-comparison-chart-pdf.html

Aftercare

Water as much as is needed to keep the compost moist, but not waterlogged. That probably means about once every day or two days, depending on how much heat and sunlight they get.

Once the seeds germinate you will notice that they may start leaning towards the light. Just turn the containers round once a day and they will straighten up.

If you want more information there is lots available on the internet! Here is an example of a rather serious young man who does a good job of explaining all about it.

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/videos/video-v125.html

Anna Corbett, April 2020