Growing microgreens the KIZA way

We took a class at Grace's Garden Center located here in Temple Terrace, Florida to learn about growing microgreens.  Our teachers were Kirk and Zach who both work at Grace's Garden center and have expanded into the world of microgreens.  They have perfected a great simple process for growing these.  Along the way they created "KIZA". 

So, what is a Microgreen?

• young vegetable greens that are approximately 1-3 inches in height (per a Google search) - ours were a bit taller when we did our first harvest
• are considered baby plants that fall between a sprout and baby green
• are also a great source of beneficial plant compounds like antioxidants

Kirk and Zach are "KIZA" and provided us with some great information and simple instructions on how to grow our own microgreens.  We happily paid for the class which provided us with all the supplies to give it a try.  The supplies we got are:

• 3 different black trays
• a special prepackaged blend of soil
• seeds of our choice to plant (broccoli, radish, pea, or sunflower)
• printed instructions 
• a business card to reach them

Our first batch of microgreens was broccoli and radish.  Here's my break down of the steps we took to grow these microgreens (please note these are based on the KIZA steps, but broken down into more steps).

Step 1 - get the 'short' tray with holes in the bottom and fill it with the prepackaged soil.  Put the other short tray without holes, underneath the tray with the soil (you'll need it later in this process).

Step 2 - spread the soil out evenly in the tray

Step 3 - lightly press the soil down to ensure it is even with the top of the tray

Step 4 - spread you 'weighed' seeds across the tray.

Step 5 - gently press the soil and seeds down so that it is firm  
 

Step 6 - water (spray) the seeds to ensure they will be moist for sprouting

Step 7 - put the taller of the trays on top of all the seeds

Step 8 - move (if necessary) your tray to where you are planning to grow your microgreens

Step 9 - place 3 bricks in the top tray

Step 10 - leave the plants for about 3 days, we checked on ours every 24 hours (roughly) to ensure they were sprouting. Once you reach the 3 days, you will start a 'black out' period of 24 hours.  Remove the bricks and flip the tray over your plants to put them in darkness for 24 hours.  This forces the plants to stretch and grow taller (searching for light).

Step 11 - Uncover your plants!  The plants are a little 'yellow' as they haven't been exposed to light yet.  They have spent 4 days sprouting and then living in the dark.  Don't worry, they will green up fast (less than 24 hours for us).

Step 12 - give them light - whether that is window light, a grow light, some form of light (but keep them out of areas where rain can get to them).  You want them in a protected area.  In our case, since we already have a grow light setup, we placed them under a grow light (purchased from Grace's).

Step 13 - It's time to start watering.  This is why you have 2 short trays.  Lift up the tray your seedlings are planted in and pour water into the bottom tray.  The water will be absorbed from the lower tray into the top tray through the holes in the top tray.

Step 15 - Check the water levels for your plants daily.  Water each day if needed (we watered each day).  Ensure that the corners are getting water by touching the soil.  After 24 hours, you can see how much greener the broccoli plants on the right are.

Broccoli

Radish with a few broccoli mixed in (oops!).  The purple color plants are radish.

Harvest time!  They are getting a little leggy.  We planted these on a Wednesday mid-day.  Then 10 days later we have salad greens for the next week or so.

After the 10 days of watching our little seeds turn into little plants, we harvested a lot of microgreens.  (tired of that word yet???).  We are eating salad daily that is made with this and a few other ingredients.  The best part of this for us is:

1) We are getting some great nutrients by eating these

2) We know they are organic

3) We now have a way to grow some ingredients for salad during the summer months here in Florida!

4) It grows fast!

A quick Google search shows the following information related to nutrients in these two microgreens.

Broccoli microgreens provide:

• vitamins A, B, C, E and K
• large amounts of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus
• small amounts of iron, copper and zinc

Radish microgreens provide:

• high levels of vitamin A, B
• calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, iron and manganese minerals

As we continue to explore growing microgreens, a few additional points to keep in mind.

1) You will need a large quantity of seeds in order to grow a lot of microgreens.  They sell packages of seeds at Graces to grow some microgreens.  I have also found a few places online that I will be trying.

2) When you group different types of seeds on the same tray, be aware of the number of days needed for the seeds to germinate.  Our second round of microgreens is a combination of broccoli and peas - guess what? Broccoli sprouts much faster than peas - so we are doing a little 'improvising' on how we are growing this batch.

There is a lot of information on the internet about growing microgreens and the benefits of eating these small plants.  After learning about them from KIZA, I started doing a lot more reading online at various sites to see how this all works.  If you'd like more information, and prefer to talk to a real human being, I definitely suggest heading over to Grace's Garden center and asking for Kirk or Zach.   I believe the microgreen world is primarily there adventure although all the staff at Grace's are wonderful and have been helping us grow our vegetable gardens for the last 10 years. 

KIZA

Located in Dover, Florida - they are Microgreens Grower Consulting.

Phone: 813 355 9757

Email: [email protected]

Here's the contact information for Grace's:

Grace's Hydro Organic Garden Center

Located at 8739 Temple Terrace Highway, Temple Terrace, Florida 33637

Phone: 813 - 514 - 9376