How to Grow Microgreens at Home (No Garden Needed)

Microgreens are the answer to the question "can I grow food if I have no growing space at all?" Yes. A tray the size of a baking sheet, a bag of potting mix, a spoonful of seeds and a bright window will give you a harvest of fresh, intensely flavoured greens in about ten days, any month of the year.

MicrogreensSeedlings grown thickly in a shallow tray of soil and cut just above the soil when their first leaves open, usually 7 to 14 days after sowing. are simply vegetable seedlings, harvested young. Radish microgreens taste like radish. Pea shoots taste like peas. Mustard microgreens are peppery, sunflower shoots are nutty, and basil microgreens taste like a whole basil plant packed into a leaf the size of your fingernail.

They are also one of the easiest things you will ever grow, because you harvest them before any of the usual problems (pests, heat, bolting, feeding) have a chance to happen. This lesson takes you from an empty tray to a plate.

The whole kit fits on a shelf.

• A shallow tray, 2 to 5 cm deep. A seed tray from a garden centre is ideal, but a takeaway container, a baking dish or a clean plastic mushroom punnet all work. If it has no drainage holes, you'll water more carefully, that's all.
• Potting mix. Fine, light and bagged. Not soil dug up from outside. You only need enough to fill the tray 2 to 3 cm deep.
• Seeds. More than you think. Microgreens are sown thickly, so a tray uses a good tablespoon or two of seed. That is why growers buy microgreen seed in bulk bags rather than small packets. (A small packet is better spent on growing full plants.)
• A spray bottle for misting, and a second tray or a plate to cover the first one for a few days.
• A bright spot. A sunny windowsill is enough. A simple grow light works if you don't have one.

Fill the tray with 2 to 3 cm of potting mix and press it flat with your hand or the bottom of another tray. A level surface matters more than it seems, because seeds in a dip stay wet and seeds on a bump dry out. Mist the surface until it is evenly damp, dark all over but not shiny with water.

Now sow. Scatter the seeds thickly and evenly across the whole surface, close enough that they nearly touch but not piled on top of each other. This will look like far too many seeds. It isn't. Microgreens are harvested as seedlings, so they never need room to grow big.

Press the seeds gently into the surface with your palm so they make good contact with the damp mix. Most microgreen seeds don't need covering with soil. Larger seeds like peas and sunflower do better with a light dusting of mix over them, or a soak overnight before sowing.

Here is the trick that makes microgreens even and reliable. For the first two to four days, cover the tray. Turn a second tray upside down on top of it, or lay a plate over it. This keeps the seeds dark and humid, which is what makes them all sprout at the same time and push up straight.

Lift the cover once a day, mist the surface if it looks dry, and put it back. By day two or three you will see white roots and pale stems. By day three or four the seedlings will be pushing the cover up. That is your signal to take it off.

Uncover the tray and move it to your bright spot. Within a day the pale seedlings green up and start opening their first leaves, the seed leavesThe very first pair of leaves a seedling opens, which were folded inside the seed. Microgreens are usually harvested at this stage..

Now the one rule that prevents almost every microgreen problem: water from the bottom, not the top. Set the tray in a dish of water for ten minutes and let it soak up what it needs, then take it out. Or, if the tray has no holes, pour a little water down one side and tilt it so it spreads under the soil. Wetting the leaves from above is what causes the two problems people have with microgreens: mould, and seedlings that flop over.

If you do see a bit of fuzzy white mould, it is almost always from sowing too thick, watering from above, or poor airflow. Thin the patch out, water from below, and crack a window or run a small fan nearby. Roots on some seeds (broccoli especially) grow fine white root hairs that look like mould but aren't. Mould smells musty; root hairs don't.

Somewhere between day 7 and day 14, the seed leaves are fully open and the first true leaf might be just starting. That's harvest time. Hold a bunch of stems gently, and cut with clean scissors about a centimetre above the soil.

Cut what you need and leave the rest in the tray for another day or two. Microgreens hold better on the plant than in the fridge. If you cut a whole tray, rinse the greens, spin or pat them dry, and store them in a container lined with paper towel. They keep for about a week.

Most microgreens don't regrow after cutting, because you have taken the seed leaves. Pea shoots are the exception: cut them above the lowest leaf and they usually give you a second, smaller harvest.

When a tray is done, tip the roots and mix into the compost, wash the tray, and sow again. Growers keep two or three trays going at staggered stages so there is always one ready.

Microgreens are the shortest distance between "I want to grow food" and "I am eating food I grew." No garden, no season, no experience needed. A tray, a window and ten days.

Here's what to take away from this lesson:

• A shallow tray with 2 to 3 cm of potting mix is all the growing space you need
• Sow thickly, press the seeds in, and cover the tray for the first two to four days
• Uncover into bright light, and always water from the bottom
• Harvest with scissors when the first leaves open, around day 7 to 14
• Start a new tray every week and you will never be without fresh greens

Microgreens need soil. Their even faster cousins, sprouts, don't need soil or light at all, just a jar. That is the next lesson.