Growing Microgreens and Sprouts for EASY amazing winter nutrition, sustainably

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

West coast seeds just saw this video and has decided to offer our subscribers a 20% discount code for Terrafibre mats over the next week (valid until midnight Tues Dec 6th), using the discount code: GrowMicro. www.westcoastseeds.com/?rfsn=6768679.332dcbd

[@Terrafibre]

Great video! Thanks for giving our hemp mats a try. Always reach out to use if you have questions or comments.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Oh hello there! Thanks for commenting. I've really enjoyed the product, I can't believe how much water they hold. It let's me open the grow container to reduce mold chances, but still have the plants get access to all the water they need. Great product! (I would pin this comment, but I already have links pinned in another comment, but thanks for visiting!)

[@Terrafibre]

Thank you for sharing your experiences with the Terrafibre mats! Anything we can do to help, please let me know! @CanadianPermacultureLegacy

[@Pausereflectandbreathe]

I am back growing sprouts after years of not doing it. I have old sprouting seeds that I want to try if they still grow and yes they did. I use bean sprouts and alfalfa. They taste great! ❤️❤️❤️

[@barbarasimoes9463]

It is so welcome to see growing things in the "dead" of winter! I love the idea of the fiber mats made of hemp being they are compostable.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Exactly :)

[@juliehorney995]

So wonderful to share the benefits of microgreens! I prefer hemp mats as well as they hold moisture better than coco coir, jute, paper towels, and even soil.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Absolutely!

[@lrrerh8090]

Love microgreens. There is a microgreens subreddit that is pretty helpful if people have questions. The folks on there are usually pretty good at answering questions.

[@JoelKSullivan]

I've been wanting to try microgreens and sprouts for a while.

[@CIB8282]

I've only seen microgreens grown in peat or coco but I'll try the hemp mats. They're much more expensive but at least they're more sustainable.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It's the price we pay. I agree. To me, there's no better way to spend a little extra money than on sustainable things so our kids can have a future.

[@serialkiller504]

i didnt knew hemp fiber mats are a thing. thank you so much! what a great idea! The problems with using soil for growing microgreens or sprouts was the thing that stopped me.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Hemp is used for so many things! Probably the single most useful plant on the planet.

[@annburge291]

I don't find soil so problematic. The occasional other plant is so low dose that it's not a problem for me (and I come from a family with many people with severe food allergies and numerous intolerances... but most allergies are to protein and fat sources and some fruits rather than leafy greens). I use the wicking method for watering and I don't water from above so the plants aren't splashed with dirt. I like mixing chia seeds with other seeds because the chia acts like a hydrogel and the mixed taste is interesting.

[@chickadeecorner]

Book I recommend and how I learned and also scalable for smaller portions as it's just me: Year-Round Indoor Salad Gardening: How to Grow Nutrient-Dense, Soil-Sprouted Greens in Less Than 10 days by Peter Burke. I def like the idea of using hemp mats, I could just cut them down for the small container size so I may give that a go this winter and compare and see how I like it compared to the soil method i've been doing.

[@zenith2053]

Thank you for all your great information. Love your videos. Can you tell me which software you use to do your permaculture design layouts? I am in AZ and would like to learn that type of software. Thanks in advance. Have a great day!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It's called garden planner

[@zenith2053]

Thank you. God bless.@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy

[@offgridwanabe]

Yes super easy and full of goodness I am trying stainless steel screen and cheesecloth this year Cheers

[@littlehomesteadbythebeach]

Nice video. I fail miserably every year to do microgreens. I think I'll do sprout this winter.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Yeah that could be a good idea. Sprouts are a little more work (have to rinse them 3-4 times per day), but other than that they are super easy, and less likely to get stuff like mold on them, since you allow them to dry out between rinses.

[@lizgoebel5916]

I have an excess of dried beans. I’m going to experiment with then to see if I can get them to sprout to feed to my chickens!

[@cclarry]

Dried beans need to be cooked for chickens I believe. lentils are okay.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Just remember most beans will need to be cooked first. Beans are actually a slightly toxic food, until cooked.

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

Here's and idea. What about growing micro greens in shredded paper or soaked cardboard?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It should work well I would think.

[@blessildajoy]

Low light encourages tall greens, easier to harvest. I prefer sprouts now, microgreens were hit or miss with mold and setup/cleanup

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Indeed, and some people also even use black-out boxes, to get the plants to stretch even more (to find light - that doesn't exist). It can also make the cuttings a little sweeter.

[@mcstrakka]

Sick

[@bugsy8507]

How did you get that magazine/instructions? Can't find it on their website?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It was mailed to me in this package. I will reach out and see if I can contact one of them.

[@djmoulton1558]

re. hemp fibre mats - Can you smoke it?

[@Terrafibre]

Nasty headache will follow lol

[@johnransom1146]

Ummm, great video but peat is not peet lol

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Oops, did I misspell it at some point?

[@johnransom1146]

In caption@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy

[@vesc1389]

I think you're mixing up sprouting with microgreens, at least in the way we've done them. Sprouting requires a few (3-4) soaks and rinses to get started, but only 2-3 rinses per day thereafter (not 4, that's unnecessary). Sprouting requires no media and all of the growth comes from nutrients in the seeds. Sprouts are harvested a few days (3-7) later. Mircorgreens are grown for 7-12 days and are harvested just before the first true leaves or sometimes just after the first sets of true leaves emerge. There are a few exceptions where microgreens are grown in the dark on purpose (no lights, dark covers- either painted or just a towel over the transparent ones), but generally they do require lights after the first few days (beyond sprouting stage). Because they are grown past the stage where the seed provides all the required nutrients they also require fertilization. I also purchased the terra fibre matts, and it's worth mentioning they are Canadian. However, I found out later how to grow microgreens without media. Check out: www.youtube.com/@C3Voyage and his Microgreens playlists. He also wrote a small booklet, think I got mine on kindle (years ago). Other than being a customer I'm not affiliated in any way, but I can tell you his method works and works well. Note that while lighting is required for microgreens (in general, not just this guy's method), you only need the "shop light" style lights, nothing fancy like grow tent stuff. Don't bother with the terra fibre matts if you're just growing for a few days, might as well just grow sprouts in a jar. Regardless of who's method you use... do not water microgreens from above, or spritz them, this will cause mold growth because the seeds are spread very densely and there is little to no airflow as the sprouts develop. I don't agree with West Coast's approach to mixing politics with biz... and most seed companies in Canada (and many much closer to you in Ontario!) have a microgreens or sprouting section in their catalog. Mumm's Sprouting Seeds is great (sprouting.com - no affiliation). You want to preferentially support West Coast Seeds that's ok, just saying there's lots of choice when it comes to sprouts and microgreen seeds... and yes, these seeds are not the same as buying "regular" seed of the same plant, and the volumes you buy are totally different because of the "planting" density. Check out the channel above for a great overview of how to do microgreens well, even without a planting media. A Canadian worth checking out if you want to take this to the next level (selling microgreens), check out Curtis Stone's courses. I haven't taken them, but the have seen the catalog and few intro videos. If I was contemplating scaling my few trays up to several more I'd definitely consider taking the courses. One last bit, Brent's videos (reference above) also include how to use a similar approach for leafy greens, it works *really* well, we've enjoyed the results of that!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Great comment, and I agree with all of it. I did think I differentiated sprouts and microgreens in the exact way you mentioned. I'm not sure where you saw the difference. Sprouts: in a jar, no media, rince/drain cycles. Microgreens, in a media (although you mentioned it's maybe not required), longer grow, cut/harvest once they get their first true leaves. Sure they do need a little light, since they grow a little longer, but I've also seen people use dark-boxes for stuff like corn microgreens, which keeps them sweeter (much in the same way people grow white asparagus by preventing sunlight to them). This causes the plant to reach up and stretch more, and you also often get more growth, faster as well (at the cost of stressing the plant a little - which isn't a big deal because the plants aren't going to maturity anyways). For the politics thing, I must have missed that, where are West Coast Seeds expressing any political beliefs? I didn't see anything political?

[@vesc1389]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Might have to watch again... impression I got was "microgreens are awesome, you don't even need lights." The only way that would be possible is to shorten the grow, and the pics (showing the fuzzy root hairs) didn't show fully grown out microgreens so hard to tell what you meant. Just want to clarify, but best to watch the videos I recommended to get a good sense of what's possible and how to get there. As for West Coast... they directly supported Bonnie Henry by name and they generally have promoted stuff I don't agree with. They have generally ok seed (a few I purchased from them before the political schtuff had poor germination rates) and do carry a wide range of product. Regardless, all I'm trying to show for people new to this... microgreen seeds are different than regular seed, practically all seed companies carry them, Mumm's is focused on sprouts/microgreens. Some seed companies carry limited microgreen selection, but offer high volume sizes for the stuff they do carry... shop around for what fits your grow.