Days 1 and 2

In yesterdays blog I mentioned that I was going to try a Microgreen growing experiment.  Well, the seeds are sitting in water waiting to germinate so here is what I have done on the first two days.

I am going to combine days 1 and 2 of this experiment into just this one post. 

Day One!
​The main reason for not having Day 1 as a separate post is that I simply went to Dollarama and bought three 6 litre containers and then Home Hardware to see what few seeds they had left and to get a roll of window screen.
After doing some research on the net I found that the three most profitable crops were; sunflower, peas and radish.  These were followed by broccoli and cress.  With a little more searching more crops appear. 
Unfortunately I was limited to what was available at this time so I had a few radish seeds left over from this year and sunflowers from the bag of bird seed.  I am trying Spinach and Swiss Chard.  Well both of those are used as salad greens.  I then cut out the centres of the containers leaving just the rim which will help keep the window screen in place.
I put all four seed varieties into water for soaking.
That is it for day One…


Day Two!
A little more work done on day 2.

• Cut the window screen to more or less size.  Left overhang around all edges
• Used 3 containers from $ama and one tinfoil tray that had been used for something else.
• Fitted the screen to the containers and put on rim.  Found that the rim did not keep a tight seal.  May have to get better containers (more $).  Simply used scotch tape on all four sides to keep the rim tight and the screen more or less taut.
• Placed the four containers beside the existing hydroponic set-up and filled with water and the hydroponics fertilizer.  In the videos that I saw I didn’t see any mention of using a solution but only water.  If I had more seeds I would have used one set with just water and one with the solution.
• Spread the seeds on top of the screen and found that the water may have been to deep.  In the video it seemed as if the water just barely covered the seeds.  I removed some of the excess water and put it in the hydroponics tote.  In the videos, no matter what growing medium was used, the entire surface was covered with seeds.  Unfortunately, there were only enough sunflower seeds to do an entire cover so I just spread the other seeds.
• Covered to keep in the dark for three days.

All in all it was a very simple operation.  The hardest part was cutting out the tops of the containers but once that is done they will be done forever.  No doubt the window screen will not be reusable so it is a good thing I got a roll for the same price as it would have been to get just enough to cover the containers.
If this works out I will have to check Richie’s Feed and Seed to see if they have any seeds and in what quantity.  The little seed packages are not enough.  I will also do some checking from seed houses on line.  Mainly the ones I have used in the past.  It is not that I am going into business but the greens can be used in salads and on sandwiches and smoothies.
Time will tell: A - how this worked out and; B - will the greens be used!

In the photos the 'odd' colour with the hydroponic set-up is due to the LED grow lights.

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