Yes, the broccoli microgreens are excellent. I've bought them from Whole Foods in the past. I bought a seed mix from Botanical Interests that was very good, but was a little pricey. My tastes tend to run more toward the spicy greens such as radish.

You are right, they tend to do better in bright shade from a north window or up against a north facing wall. The photo above is of radish greens -- brought into the sun for the picture only. I also acidify my water with 2 T of vinegar per gallon of non-chlorinated water. The germination rates are excellent. What growing medium are you using?

I grow in 100% peat (quality peat that doesn't need washing/leeching out of salts/acids/etc). I have a rotation of 3 flat containers that rarely need medium replacement, but I replace them once a year or when they take on fungus gnats (only once).

Usually by the time I rotate the 3rd container back into rotation the peat is a bit dry so I dump the whole thing, wet the medium, and put it back in the container. You could probably get through without doing this and just do a bottom soak letting the water wick up, but sometimes it's so dry (especially during the winter with my gas heat indoors) that it doesn't fully expand to the edges.

Since I only grow to the 1st set of true leaves I don't even bother fertilizing the medium unless the micros show signs of unideal growth, and even then it's a 1/4th strength application when I re-wet the medium between plantings.

So you re-seed right after harvesting? I've been removing the roots and stems from the previous crop before re-seeding. I screen the coco-coir after harvest as I do with compost, to remove any big chunks and such. The roots and stems go into the compost bin. This screening seems to keep the coir from getting moldy and keeps it loose and friable.

I have a 3-tray rotation...harvest 1st tray, 2nd tray is laying around, 3rd is dried out and everything is dead from lack of watering....tray 3 becomes the new planting and moves to tray 1 status.

I remove my peat and re-wet it before planting. By the time tray 3 is ready for new planting the lack of watering has killed anything that harvesting at soil level hasn't already killed (it's about a month out from seeing any water at this point).

It is not necessary to remove or re-wet in this manner, btw...it's just what I do...and is probably a bit of over-kill.

This post was edited by nc-crn on Sun, Jun 9, 13 at 19:37

Btw, I could probably just use a 2-tray method the way I do it and it would be just fine. I use 3 because I wanted to give the 2nd tray try time to dry out fully...which, upon reflection, hasn't been an issue except in the worst months of humidity around here.

I still use 3 trays, though...they're rather small...about 1/3rd the size of the flat you're showing in your picture unless I'm eyeballing the scale of it incorrectly.

I'm using the standard 10" x 20" trays that all the local hydroponics shops carry. They cost around $2 and do not have drain holes.

I hadn't thought of letting the whole tray dry out completely before recycling the coir. This might make pulling out the roots and stems a little easier.

My rotation looks to be start a new tray every 3-5 days.

Yeah, my scale was way off...I use 10x20's too. I thought that table was much bigger.

I picked up some fenugreek and broccoli seed today. The fenugreek has me intrigued, the straight up curry smell of the seed forced me to plant a full flat right away.

Microgreens are solving a huge problem for me -- my need for fresh summer salad greens. What good are vine ripe tomatoes and cucumbers from the summer garden if you can't grow fresh crisp lettuce? Lettuce just wilts and bolts in our heat.

I'm looking for sources of amaranth and arugula seed.

The green that goes best with ripe tomatoes is purslane. Lots of it lying around, and no work in growing it. I only grow sprouts in deep winter.

I'm currently growing two types of purslane in my beds, the regular local weedy kind and the golden variety from Botanical Interests. The birds love both kinds so I have to keep the beds birdblocked. But I've got to say that the golden purslane is a very slow grower, but has an excellent nutty flavor. I will need to try your tomato/purslane pairing at some point. It couldn't be better than tomato/basil could it?

I recently started growing microgreens for my own use but I am addicted so much I am going to include the in my nutritional cage I'm opening in the summer.

It is easier than I thought but still ALOT to learn so I am new to the forum world.

If you have sites and forums to suggest please let me know. I have also requested they put a microgreen forum due to the rising popularity.

Microgreens are great! But, don't forget about the wild herbs in your lawn, or out competing your garden, they are nutrient dense as well.

Where do you guys purchase your sprouting seeds from, how much? I think im paying a little too much...

I get my seeds at a local health food store. They have fairly large sizes and are reasonably priced. Not aware of any microgreen specific forums, but there are a number of youtube videos.

I get organic seeds and I pay per pound:

$10.00 alfalfa
$6.00 mung bean
$5.00 wheat grass
$8.00 sunflower
$30.00 broccoli

How much do you guys pay?

Natures_Nature, sorry I just haven't been keeping track of my purchases to that level. For me a large packet is 8oz, normal is 4oz. I've got to assume you are getting some fairly decent savings buying by the pound.

I'm starting up my microgreen production again for this year. Now I'm using half flats from a couple of jiffy peat pellet tomato starter kits. I like the size of the half flats a lot better than the full flats from the hydroponics store. Still using the coco coir substrate.

Is it better to have trays that have a solid base to grow microgreens or ones with holes in the base?

All the directions that I've seen call for solid base. That is all I have used and it works well.