A Guide on Growing Microgreens Indoors

Microgreens are currently extremely popular. This is mainly due to their vast health benefits. Microgreens are some of the most vitamin and nutrient dense things that you could possibly eat.

That said, purchasing these microgreens in your local grocery stores can be extremely expensive. They certainly aren’t cheap.

Therefore, today we are going to provide you with a guide on growing microgreens indoors at home. The aim is to allow you to grow healthy microgreens without the use of any kind of pesticides or chemicals.

We also want to help you save some money. It is certainly much more cost effective to grow them at home. Let’s get to it and talk about everything you need to know about growing microgreens indoors.

What are Microgreens?

Before we get to talking about growing microgreens, we do want to explain what they are. There does seem to be a bit of confusion on this front. So, a microgreen is the new shoot of a vegetable plant.

First, a seed will sprout, and then if you let it go a little further, it turns into a microgreen. It’s somewhere in between a sprout and a mature plant. These microgreens or very young vegetable plants are harvested before they are fully mature.

You never let them get to the point where they actually start growing the vegetable itself. Here, you are growing the plants with the aim of consuming the leaves themselves. As mentioned above, these are some of the most nutrient dense things that you could possibly eat.

Growing Microgreens Indoors: Step by Step

As you are about to see, growing microgreens indoors is very easily done. Because you aren’t letting these plants fully mature, the growth process is very fast. From A-Z, this should only take around 14 days at the most. Let’s start with gathering all of your materials.

1. Gather Your Materials

You are first going to need to get your microgreen seeds. Yes, you can always just use normal vegetable seeds. However, the point here is to have a wide variety of microgreen types. Therefore, we recommend going for a few packages of microgreen seeds.

For this process, you are just going to use some regular potting soil. Some people may recommend a seed starting medium, but this is really not required. Some decent potting soil is more than enough. Regular potting soil already has more than enough nutrients for microgreens.

You really don’t need any additional fertilizer of any kind for this process. In fact, you actually want to keep microgreens relatively free of any additional substances. Some people will even choose to go for organic potting mix.

You are then also going to need a tray, preferably a real plant tray with good drainage. We recommend going for something that is around 2 feet by 1 foot in size. That said, generally anything can be used. Some people even use things like egg cartons. You will then also need a light source, which could be the sunlight or a grow light.

2. Prepare the Container

What is convenient about growing microgreens is that they will mature in about 12 days. This, therefore, means that they don’t really develop a big root system. This in turn means that you don’t need to use all that much soil.

When preparing your container, you need to put down only about 2 inches of soil. Once again, we do recommend having an actual planting container that has some kind of drainage at the bottom.

Although microgreens are fairly resilient, you still don’t want to drown the roots. Also, remember that at this stage, you really don’t need to mix any kind of fertilizer in with the soil. Normal potting soil is going to have more than enough nutrients to grow some microgreens for a few days.

3. Plant the Microgreen Seeds

Another good thing about microgreens is that you don’t have to worry about them crowding each other. They never develop a huge root system before harvesting, so crowding is not an issue. Therefore, just take your microgreen seeds and spread them all over the soil.

You really don’t need to worry about spacing at all. You now want to take a little bit more soil and cover those seeds. About half an inch will do, and precision is not all that important.

Now you want to use your hand and very lightly press down on the soil. You just want to pack it down a teeny bit, but not too much. You don’t need the soil to be very tight here.

Once the microgreen seeds have been planted, give them a good bit of water. Most people will recommend using a spray or mister bottle. This will allow you to water your microgreens without overwatering them. The soil doesn’t need to be soaking wet. A little moist will do just fine.

On a side note, keep in mind that for germination, microgreen seeds need around 70 degrees Fahrenheit at the least.

Therefore, if the area in which you are keeping them is a bit cooler, consider using a heating mat. However, after germination, microgreens can grow in pretty low temperatures, as low as 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Related read: Best Indoor Plants to Grow From Seeds

4. Caring for Your Microgreens

All you need to do now for the next couple of weeks is to provide your microgreens with plenty of liquid and sunlight. Use that spray bottle to give your microgreens a gentle spritzing two to three times per day.

You want to keep them constantly moist, but not overwatered. These are small plants and they can drown fairly easily, so a constant level of moisture is called for. Try to be pretty consistent with watering.

In terms of light, getting between 8 in 10 hours per day is recommended. Depending on the windows you have and where you live, this can be difficult. If this is the case for you, we recommend getting yourself a grow light.

This should be a full spectrum grow light, although it doesn’t need to be very powerful. Microgreens are very small and they just don’t need all that much light or water. Yes, they need enough light to grow, and the right kind of light, but it just doesn’t need to be very intense.

5. Harvesting Your Microgreens

After 10 to 12 days, you can harvest your microgreens. You can choose to just lift them up and shake the soil off. If you don’t want to make a mess, you can always just use sharp scissors and cut them off above the soil. This is a one-time deal. Once you’ve harvested the microgreens, you can then compost the soil and start over.

Read also: 10 Indoor Herb Garden Ideas to Satisfy Your Green Thumb

Growing Microgreens Indoors at Home – The Bottom Line

Do to their really fast growth, microgreens are some of the easiest things to grow at home. This is pretty lucky, because these are also some of the healthiest things that you could possibly eat. There’s also the fact that growing them at home is much more cost effective. They can actually be very expensive to purchase.