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Micro Greens
Micro Greens
Micro Greens
MICROGREENS:
How to Grow Tiny Leafy Vegetables at Home Cheaply, Cleanly, and Easily
Mark Mathew Braunstein
This detailed article will appear in its entirety in the next printing of the book SPROUT GARDEN by Mark M. Braunstein. Meanwhile an abridged version of these instructions appears in its 2011 current printing. http://www.markbraunstein.org/booksproutgarden.htm You can download this 14 page article, a 1 page mini-guide, a 7 page list of Seed Sources, and many photos at: http://www.markbraunstein.org/growmicrogreens.htm
As we grow older, our newest foods are growing younger. Microgreens, the early stages of greens such as lettuce and broccoli, are even younger than mesclun salad greens. And while mescluns first appeared in our cuisines in the 1980s, microgreens are even newer. As the first use of the word microgreens was documented in 1998, even the word itself is fresh. Despite nutritional claims about microgreens boasted by food writers and microgreen growers, scant documentation exists about their nutritional benefits that's how new they are. Instead, data on the nutritional value of microgreens are often interpreted from the scientific studies that already exist about their sprout forebears. While their vitamin content and mineral availability very likely decline when compared to the powerhouse in sprouts, microgreens do excel in regards to their phyto-nutrients and chlorophyll.
The CONTAINER First, an apology. I apologize to all citizens of advanced civilizations that measure with the metric system. I apologize for the archaic American use of the insufferably outdated English system of measurement, which even England has abandoned. I apologize for my obscure references to pesky unit of measurement called the pint. For the record: 1 pint equals approximately 500 mL. But in practice, the metric equivalent of a pint container is not called 500 mL, but instead is called 500 grams, or half a kilo. Hence, 1 pint = a half kilo.
The SOIL 1) Procure fertile soil. Both potting soil and seedling mix provide ample nourishment, while seedling mix enables the rootlets to gain footing faster and deeper than does potting soil. Boosts, too, such as liquid kelp or mineral dust or backyard compost hasten growing, but are optional. If you bring indoors compost that is not fully decomposed, or for that matter any soil from outdoors, you might introduce into your kitchen little crawling critters that can hatch from or already may dwell in the soil. Such risk is minimized with the use of commercial potting soil or seedling mix. The more fertile the soil, the shorter the growing time. Achieving the same results in six days rather than seven can be crucial for commercial growers, but need not be as great a concern for you. More importantly, well nourished greens may better nourish you too. If you intend to purchase soil by the bale, be advised that seedling mixes are sold in such quantity only during the spring growing season, so plan accordingly. 2) Moisten the soil. Remove any undesirable fibrous objects (UFOs) such as leaves or twigs or wood chips. Before placing the soil into the pint or half-pint containers, place it into a bucket and stir water into the soil, fully moistening it. 3) Choose between your doubled-up pint or doubled-up half-pint containers. Regardless what seeds you will plant, both containers will serve you well, but you might consider matching container depth to seedling. For root crops such as radish or beet, pint containers work better. For shallow-rooted seedlings such as lettuce and basil, half-pint containers suffice. Broccoli and all the other related Brassicas do well in either. Half-pint containers with half the depth of soil as pint containers provide you the advantage of less bulk and less weight, whereas pint containers with twice the depth of soil retain more moisture and so offer you the advantage of less frequent watering. 4) Fill the doubled-up containers with moistened soil, right up to the brim. You might consider filling the bottom half of the containers with potting soil, and the top half with seedling mix. In time, you should experiment growing with all potting soil, with all seedling mix, with different layers or proportions of both, and with different sources of either. But for a start, seedling mix is recommended.
The WATER 1) Ponder your water. Water is a crucial component of indoor gardening whose quality often is overlooked. The home gardener who conducts experiments to compare different soils or different temperatures or different seeds seldom considers comparing different sources of water. You might analyze its composition through laboratory analysis, or simply scrutinize its appearance with your eyes and nose, but still not gain insight in regards to your waters suitability for your crops. Whether city tap water or bottled spring water or gathered rain water or pumped up well water or piped in pond water or melted down winter snow, water quality is best judged by its results. So conduct animal experiments, the animal being you, and do a taste test. Prepare two containers filled with same soil planted with same seeds, and grow your microgreens under identical conditions of light and darkness and warmth, but not of water. Water one with your tap water, and another with spring or rain or well or pond or snow water. After one week, the two batches of microgreens likely will look the same, but do they taste the same? Such a taste test might provide evidence to convince you to avoid using tap water. It being the same water used to flush your toilet, it accurately can be described as toilet water. Chlorine is the predominate additive to tap water that you can detect through taste alone. If you lack other sources, then allow the chlorinated tap water to stand in an open container for a day, during which much of the chlorine will evaporate. Chlorines volatility accounts for the strong chlorine smell in enclosures around indoor swimming pools. That chlorine smell can be so strong as to hit you even in the locker room. Alternatively, activated carbon filters effectively trap chlorine, and certainly are more convenient than holding your water captive in a holding cell. After prolonged use, however, some filters can host some pathogens all their own, despite the chlorine isolated and concentrated inside them. In addition to chlorines toxicity, be wary also of its alkalinity. Chlorine is very alkaline, and its dilution in water in turn makes water slightly alkaline. On the pH scale of 0 to 14, (not 1 to 10!), 0 to 6 are acid, 7 is neutral, and 8 to 14 are alkaline. Water is neutral 7, while most of the greens of all sizes that we eat thrive at anywhere between 7 and slightly acidic 6.5. The additive chlorine might render water too alkaline, which might inhibit germination of seeds. If your seeds routinely show slow or poor germination, or your seedlings tend to rot, then alkaline water may be the culprit. You can purchase pH kits to test your soils and waters alkalinity or acidity. And what if your test results show alkalinity? Vinegar or lemon juice are foods that are acidic, so adding very dilute amounts of either are rumored to balance your waters alkalinity. Precisely how much is
The SUNLIGHT & WARMTH & AIR Sunlight both direct and unfiltered through glass is the ideal toward which to aspire. Fullspectrum grow lights are worthy substitutes, but second best, as no one really knows if light of wavelengths different from sunlight affects the nutritional components of microgreens. If your window sills allow only indirect sunlight, that will suffice. You simply will need more days to grow your greens, and your greens will grow longer stems in an effort to reach for the sun. Leaves tend to be tender and sweet, while stems generally are fibrous and bitter. Conduct this taste test. Go to your fridge, and take out one large lettuce leaf. For this test, romaine lettuce is best, butterhead and looseleaf lettuces are fine, but iceberg lettuce not. Wash the leaf, if you wish. Now trim away the flexible outer leaf, and leaving in your hand the stiff central rib go ahead and eat only that outer leaf. Nice, maybe even sweet! Okay, after youve eaten all of the outer leaf, now eat the remaining central rib. Bland, maybe even bitter! The outer areas of leaves generally are tender and succulent, while their stems and central ribs are fibrous and bitter. Thus our goal with microgreens is to grow large leaves, but not long stems. If to follow the sunlight in your home you must move your crop from window to window, even from room to room, then try your best to do so. While plants in their infancy do grow somewhat faster with uninterrupted light and no darkness, such growth is a measure of quantity, not of quality. We do not know if microgreens grown under continual light provide us with the same nutrients as those whose schedule more closely resembles that of nature. But we do know that nature knows best, and therefore can deduce that nature grows best. So provide your microgreens with the light of day, but also with the darkness of night. Warmth is critical. During the cold days and short daylight hours of winter, some greens such as broccoli that take five days to grow in summer can require two weeks to grow in winter. Some, for instance basil, will not grow at all. You can encourage basil to germinate by using a seedling heating mat or a heated cabinet, but once off the mat or out of the cabinet the basil will dig in its heels and refuse to budge an inch. Air is something we tend to take for granted, in part because we can neither see it nor sink our teeth into it. Fresh air, too, we tend to take for granted, even when living in a city and gasping for breath. Be assured that even if you cannot provide your greens with the fresh air that they need, they nevertheless will oxygenate and clean the air that you deserve.
The HARVEST Congratulations! You and your tiny tender leaves have reached fruition. 1) You can taste test and harvest your crop any day along the way, but best to do so before the second set of leaves emerges at the top. Cress grows as a cluster of leaves, but on most varieties the second set is a pair of leaves, just like the first pair. The first set is called the cotyledons, the second set the true leaves. The cotyledon seedling leaves are known to contain higher levels of phyto-nutrients, and generally taste less bitter, than the second set of true leaves. If you delay your harvest until after the second set has grown, your crop will be larger and taller, but might also taste bitter and turn fibrous. To create great works of art, the artist must know not only how to begin, but also when to stop. Likewise the great gardener. 2) Husk the hulls. Hulls may cling to the leaves of some species, for instance fenugreek, beet, radish, sunflower, and some varieties of lettuce. (Hulls cling so tenaciously to spinach as to eliminate spinach from the ranks of microgreens.) If you have not already done this, then certainly just before the harvest, pick up the container, hold it tightly, turn it sideways over a tray or trash can, and give your microgreens a massage. Brush the tops of their leaves gently with your fingers, the way you might pet a thick-haired dog (or if you share your household only with vegans, your long-haired Peruvian guinea pig). Despite your intention to aim for that tray or trash can, the hulls still will go flying elsewhere, so prepare accordingly. 3) Give your crop a haircut. Delegate a pair of sharp scissors to use solely for harvesting. Garden stores sell gardening shears, and kitchen supply stores sell herb snippers. Both have blades that are marketed as razor-sharp, but they really are not as sharp as razors. If they were, they would easily cut your fingers, and you would bleed all over your greens. Not very appetizing, and definitely not very vegetarian. Such scissors are sharp, but also short. Barber scissors, also called barber shears, are longer and better. You can slip their slender blades between seedlings, and harvest some with least disturbance to the remaining growing greens. Cut patches or rows into which the remaining greens can lean into as they grow. If you will share your little leafies with your family or friends, you owe them the courtesy of first washing your hands. For patches or rows, gather a bunch between your fingers, like a pinch, and snip at the base of the stems. When harvesting the entire works, you are limited only by the size of your hand. Once snipped and while still in your grasp, inspect the undersides of the stems for any rootlets to which soil might be clinging, and brush off that soil. Banishing soil from your harvest is a crucial final step. When finished with the scissors, wipe the blades clean before closing them shut. Wash and dry them as needed. Treat them as you would your eating utensils such as forks and spoons.
ABOUT the PHOTOS on the website www.markbraunstein.org/growmicrogreens.htm : The microgreens depicted were grown under ideal conditions: SOIL fertile potting soil on bottom half, soft seedling soil on top half SEEDS highly viable organic seeds from a crop harvested the previous year WATER moistened only with good tasting well water (Planet Earth milk!) SUNLIGHT a half day of direct sunlight through window screen rather than glass WARMTH long daylight hours & the warmth of mid-summer AIR fresh air oxygenated by the forest and meadow of a nature preserve BROCCOLI depicted reached peak in 5 days, and BASIL in 7 days. But your own mileage will vary, and during cold short days of winter can more than double.
You can download this 14 page article, a 1 page mini-guide, a 7 page list of Seed Sources, and many photos at: www.markbraunstein.org/growmicrogreens.htm This detailed article will appear in its entirety in the next printing of the book SPROUT GARDEN by Mark M. Braunstein. Meanwhile an abridged version of these instructions appears in its 2011 current printing. www.markbraunstein.org/booksproutgarden.htm Mark Mathew Braunstein herman[dot]melville[at]yahoo[dot]com Mamacoke Island, CT Ides of March, 2011