Mrs. F.G. is looking forward to starting some plants from seeds this winter, and has the new grow lights arranged to be ready for it. It's far too early to plant seeds here as tender plants can't really be put out until late May here, when the risk of frost has passed. But she has had grow lights before, and has started plants from seeds for years, so she knows what she's doing.
Never-the-less, she was watching YouTube videos on seed starting, and by accident she came across a video on growing microgreens. 'Microgreens' are simply tiny select vegetable seedings harvested when they're only 1 or 2 inches high. So she has started three trays of them, shown above. They grow like dynamite!
The first of these are radishes, and even at this stage you can get the radish flavour. You harvest them by simply cutting them off at the base with scissors, and adding them to a salad. If they're really tiny you can simply scatter them across the top of a salad, giving them the name 'vegetable confetti'.
These ones are mustard, and you can easily taste the mustard flavour. And they all grow fast! You can go from planting to harvest in 2-3 weeks.
These ones are Mung Beans, a crop I'm definitely not familiar with, but we'll see how it tastes. You can grow quite a few plants as microgreens, from grasses, cereals and beans to broccoli and beets. It's not just tiny lettuce varieties. By the way we've been having a lot of Arugula recently rather than the good old iceberg lettuce. It's got a nice peppery taste. I don't think we'll ever go back to regular lettuce.
I'll keep you posted on the success of the microgreens.
Looks like they've been productive.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I think I'd like to try growing them too.
ReplyDeleteI stopped eating regular old iceberg lettuce once we tried some of the greener varieties. I'm going to start some alfalfa sprouts this evening.
ReplyDeleteShe sure has a great start already. I should do the same.
ReplyDeleteSome years ago we had micro greens and they were all a huge success. we did ours in jars with a screen lid, soaked, rinsed, then drained the water off. But those trays will be the way I go later this year.Mrs F G, as well as a super dab hand with the camera there must be a green thumb and lots of similar coloured fingers up there.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I've never heard of micro greens but it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw these microgreen pictures I thought they looked very much like supper time at our house. Not for me, but Kelly eats a lot of greeny things that look similar to that. I think growing those microgreens would be a very rewarding past time for many folks. I wonder if I'd be able to grow microdonuts. I'll have to look into it:))
ReplyDeleteWhat cute little gardens and plants. This is something I've never heard of before good luck and don't be surprised if you get the urge to multiply!!! Teehee!!
ReplyDeleteForget the iceberg lettuce say H (me too) it's tasteless. For the last year it's been hard to get good lettuce here -- thanks COVID.
ReplyDeleteThey look great! I'm all for fresh greens, and you know where these have been their whole lives. :-)
ReplyDeleteit looks like mrs. fg has a green thumb!!
ReplyDeleteWow. You’re off to a great start!
ReplyDeleteYou two are going to have a lot of fun watching the seeds grow in your new lighting system. I ordered some zinnia seeds today of which were of unusual colors. I will still plant my regular colored flowers but these were novel looking ones.
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