The most common failure in microgreens is over-watering, especially when planting.  You will be amazed how little water it takes to sprout a healthy tray!  Environmental factors also can be a challenge. 

• Microgreens generally like 60-75 degree temps.  We grow at 68 degrees.
• Microgreens do best with higher humidity than Colorado generally provides, 50-55% is ideal.  They also however need airflow so if you cover them with a dome, make sure they can breathe. 
• If the soil is dry, add water.  If the seeds haven't sprouted in 3-4 days and the soil is moist, email us at clarityfarmsco@gmail. com we will help you out.

Email us at clarityfarmsco@gmail.com.   Sometimes life happens and we want you to be successful.   

Mold happens.  An occasional dead pea, or sunflower hull both like to mold.  If you see mold on a tiny patch, remove it and the soil around it.  If t is throughout your tray, you don't want to eat them, toss the soil and keep the tray.  If you don't have a soil/seed refill, email us or order refills here. 

Pro Tips:

• Don't Over Water.  If we notice a tray is over watered, we toss it.
• Remove contaminated areas.  If we see a spot on a tray starting to 'sink', we remove that spot immediately or it will grow 9/10 times.  If we see a fuzzy pea that didn't sprout, we remove it and surrounding peas.  
• Sunflowers are special.  Even with perfect water, airflow, and vibes, a couple fuzzy husks are almost inevitable.  For most hobby growers, removing the couple trouble hulls and top watering will eliminate any mold.  We 'pre-emptively' spray our sunflowers with food grade H202 diluted to 3%.  You can get this at Vitamin Cottage already diluted.  The by-products of H202 oxidation are water and oxygen.  Please don't use anything else.

Note: We treat our Peas and Sunflower seeds with a H202 bath to kill off mold and bacteria before planting.  All of our pea and sunflower seeds we sell have been sanitized and dried.

Yep.  We do it all the time.  You can plant 1/4 Salad, 1/4 Pea, 1/4 sunflower and 1/4 Radish for example.  Or, create your own mix and mix em all throughout.  Basic Salad for example is Broccoli, Kale, Kohlrabi, Arugula and Cabbage, all mixed up.  

1. Water less quantity, but more frequently.
2. Place a 5 lb weight on your tray during germination.
3. Get some Food Grade 3% H202.  Spritz your seeds with it especially sunflowers during germination.
4. Spritz tops and seeds with water.  Mist them once or twice a day. Don't drench them, you are just trying to raise the humidity in their little hood.
5. Don't give up.  I over watered my first 10 trays and had to throw them all away.  Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes!

Yes!  In fact most of the commercial microgreens growers we know grow hydroponically.  You can place your seeds directly on the mesh tray, spritz with water several times a day and cover.  BUT.  We do not grow any microgreens hydroponically, even though it would save us money, and nobody would ever know.  Why? We care more about growing the most nutrient dense microgreens possible.  

 Check out this study from the Journal of Horticulture, it shows that microgreens grown in  compost(soil) contain astonishingly higher nutrient ratios when compared to hydroponically grown microgreens.  Cabbage microgreens (my favorite) contained roughly ten times the amount of FE (Iron) when grown in soil vs Hyrdoponically!

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312328447_Nutrient_content_of_cabbage_and_lettuce_microgreens_grown_on_compost_and_hydroponic_growing_pads

Harvest whenever you like!  Harvest with a sharp knife, being careful not to leave stragglers behind that will mold.  You only need to cut what you need as you need it, one of the many perks to growing your own microgreens is super fresh greens on demand!

Try tasting your microgreens at different stages of their growth.  Microgreens flavor profiles can change dramatically over their lifespan.  We target harvesting before the second set of leaves fully develops, but often mush sooner.  The first set of leaves that emerge out of the seed directly are called cotyledons and contain most of the nutrients.  

Note:  Harvest most greens as close to the dirt as you can without touching dirt.  Peas (only peas) will regrow, and if you cut them above the lowest leaf they regrow much faster.

Once you discover all the flavors, nutrients, and health benefits of microgreens you might want to up your game.  If you want a larger seed sample pack, professional 10" x 20" trays, or to know where you can source the best organic soil, email us and we will set you up for success!  

Eat them.  Seriously this is one of the three most asked questions, you are not alone.  Salads, sandwiches, garnish avocado toast, give your tacos a class/nutrient/flavor boost, hide them in your children's/husband's food, snack on those sunflower/pea greens, try Wasabi in your sushi!  We don't recommend cooking them, but you can toss them on your soups after cooking, try corn sprouts to sweeten smoothies, give your cat a nutrient boost with wheatgrass (aka Catgrass!), try juicing or adding them to smoothies for a nutrient boost, try cilantro microgreens on tacos/salsa, basil microgreens.... I'm getting hungry for pizza.  Feed your unwelcome guests Radish, Arugula or my least favorite, cress sandwiches!