What a tray actually asks of you

Sowing takes ten minutes: fill a tray an inch deep, scatter seed, mist, cover. For the next three days you lift the cover once a day and mist if the surface looks dry. After that the tray sits under a light and you pour a cup or so of water into the bottom tray whenever it feels light, usually once a day. Harvest is one pass with scissors. The spent root mat goes in the compost, the tray gets washed, and you start again.

A dense tray of green microgreens in a bamboo holder on a white wire shelf beside a window — One tray on a wire shelf by a window

02

Trays first, jars as an add-on

Tray-grown microgreensSeed sown on a growing medium, grown in light and cut above the roots. This is the base kit and the main subject of this guide.

Start here

Sow one tray of radish this week. Keep it covered for three days, then move it under light and cut it when the seed leaves are fully open.

Penn State Extension step-by-step guide

SproutingSeed germinated in a jar with nothing but water and eaten whole, root and all, after 3 to 6 days. It needs no light or medium, and it carries a higher food safety risk than tray growing, covered below.

Start here

Read the food safety section first. Then sanitize a quart jar, soak 1 to 2 tablespoons of alfalfa or broccoli sprouting seed overnight, and rinse and drain it 2 to 4 times a day until the sprouts fill the jar.

Nebraska Extension jar method

Open a card for the first thing to do. The sprouting card also adds the jar kit and sprouting seed to the rack list.

Free jar method, start to finish

Nebraska Extension: Growing Edible Sprouts at Home Free jar method with soak times, the rinse schedule, jar sanitizing and an optional seed pre-treatment

03

What to grow first

Radish

Start here. It germinates in a day or two, shrugs off uneven watering and is ready in 6 to 8 days.

Broccoli, kale and other brassicas

Mild flavor, 8 to 12 days, and they all grow the same way, so one method covers the whole family.

Peas and sunflower

Thick, crunchy shoots for later, bought as their own seed once the starter bag is used up. The large seed needs an 8 to 12 hour soak and a weight on top while it germinates.

Basil, cilantro, beets and amaranth

Slow or fussy. Leave them until radish and broccoli are routine.

Never tomato, pepper, eggplant or potato

The leaves of nightshade plants are toxic. Also skip seed packets treated with fungicide. Buy seed sold for microgreens or sprouting.

Close view of purple-leaved radish microgreens standing on bright pink stems in a black tray — Purple radish microgreens on pink stems

Seeds just beginning to germinate across the surface of a black shallow tray

04

Your first tray, start to finish

Sow, cover, light, cut

The tested method these steps follow

Penn State Extension: A Step-by-Step Guide for Growing Microgreens at Home The tested method this guide follows. Needs seed, a tray with drainage holes, a growing medium such as coconut coir, a spray bottle, drinking water and scissors

What you can grow in your first month

Radish microgreens

The fastest and most forgiving tray, peppery and ready in 6 to 8 days.

Broccoli microgreens

Mild, a little slower at 8 to 12 days, and a good test of even seeding because the seed is small.

A mixed salad tray

A blend of brassicas sown together, which shows you how differently varieties grow at the same age.

Two trays a week apart

Sow the second as the first comes out of the dark and you have a steady supply instead of one big harvest.

A jar of alfalfa sprouts

Four or five days in a jar on the counter, using the Sprouting add-on and the safety rules that go with it.

05

What trips beginners up

Mold from crowding and wet leaves

Seed sown in heaps, watering from above after day three and still air are behind most moldy trays. Sow thinner, water from below and crack a window or run a fan in the room.

Root hairs are not mold

Fine white fuzz hugging each root on day two or three is normal and flattens when misted. Mold is gray, webby, spreads across seeds and smells musty.

Tall, pale, floppy greens

Not enough light. Lower the light to 6 to 12 inches above the leaves or move to a brighter window.

Patchy germination

The seed dried out in the first two days, or the surface was lumpy. Mist daily while the tray is covered.

Harvesting too late

Once the second set of leaves (the true leaves) grows in, most varieties turn tough or bitter. Cut on time and refrigerate.

Expecting regrowth

Most microgreens are a single cut. Pea shoots may give a small second flush, and that is about it.

Small yields at first

A first tray often gives a few handfuls. Yield climbs once seeding and watering are consistent.

Trays of young pea and sunflower shoots at different stages, some still wearing their seed hulls — Shoots at different stages, tray by tray

06

Food safety, especially for sprouts

Raw sprouts are a known source of foodborne illness.

They have caused repeated Salmonella and E. coli outbreaks. The bacteria usually arrive on the seed, and a warm, wet jar at about 70°F multiplies them within days. Growing sprouts at home does not make them safer than store-bought.

Who should not eat raw sprouts

Children, older adults, pregnant women and anyone with a weakened immune system. Cooking sprouts thoroughly, in a stir-fry or soup, reduces the risk.

Buy seed sold for sprouting

Choose a supplier that tests it for pathogens. Garden seed may be treated with fungicide. Extension guides also describe an optional seed pre-treatment in heated 3% hydrogen peroxide, linked below.

Sanitize the jar and lid before every batch

Soak them for 5 minutes in 3/4 cup of plain unscented bleach per gallon of water, rinse with clean water and let them dry. Wash your hands before handling seed.

Rinse and drain 2 to 4 times a day

Use fresh drinking water, and tip the jar until no water is left standing, because pooled water spoils the batch. Rinsing keeps sprouts fresh. It does not remove bacteria.

Refrigerate finished sprouts

Keep them at 40°F or below once they have drained dry, and eat them within a week. Throw out any batch that is slimy, limp or smells musty or sour.

Tray microgreens carry less risk, not none.

You eat only the stem and leaf, cut above the medium, but contaminated seed and dirty trays are still the way problems start. Use fresh medium for every tray, water with drinking water, wash the trays between crops and rinse the greens before eating.

Keep the growing area clean

Set it up away from raw meat prep, out of reach of pets, and on a surface you can wipe down.

Read before your first jar

Clemson Extension: The Food Safety of Sprouts Free factsheet on why sprouts carry risk, who should avoid them raw and how to handle them at home

07

Light and space

One 10 by 20 inch tray fits on a bookshelf, a wire rack or the end of a counter. A south-facing window can carry a first tray of radish, but window light is weak and one-sided in winter, and the greens stretch toward it. A simple LED bar or shop light fixes that. Look for a white light rated 4000K to 6500K, hang it 6 to 12 inches above the leaves and run it 12 to 16 hours a day. Room temperature between 65 and 75°F suits every beginner variety, and no heat mat is needed.

A mat of green microgreens growing on a windowsill, pale stems and roots showing in the medium — A tray of greens on a windowsill

08

Why the kit looks like this

Trays, seed and a growing medium are the whole essential kit, and the trays are the only part you buy once. They are sold in packs, one kind per pack, so the two tray lines together give you growing trays, watering trays and a blackout cover with spares left for a second crop. Seed is the running cost: a tray uses one or two ounces, so buy by the half pound or pound, not in garden packets of a few grams. Coconut coir is listed because it is clean, light and stores dry in a cupboard. The spray bottle and light are recommended because they fix the two most common failures, dried-out seed and leggy greens. The Sprouting add-on is a jar kit and seed sold for sprouting, kept separate because sprouts follow their own safety rules.

A dense canopy of green microgreens seen side-on over the rim of a black growing tray — A full canopy over the rim of a black tray

A cut handful of radish microgreens with green leaves and pink stems lying on a wet white surface

09

Load the tray rack

Two kinds of tray, seed, coir, then mist and light

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the rack list. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. Buy both tray lines in the same size. The sprouting jar and sprouting seed stay out of the total until you switch Sprouting on.

Shallow microgreen trays with drainage holes

Essential · Core equipment

This is the tray the crop grows in. The holes let the medium drink from below and drain, which keeps the leaves dry and mold down.

budget

Plant Growing Seed Starter Trays for Seedlings Microgreen, Shallow Plants Tray Standard 1010 Tray with Drain Holes 5 Pack Black 10.7 x 10.7 inches Square Trays

4.7(21)

$13.99

Microgreens

What a tray actually asks of you

Trays first, jars as an add-on

What to grow first

Your first tray, start to finish

What trips beginners up

Food safety, especially for sprouts

Light and space

Why the kit looks like this

Load the tray rack

Shallow microgreen trays with drainage holes

Shallow solid trays without holes

Microgreen seeds (radish, broccoli or a variety pack)

Coconut coir growing medium

Fine-mist spray bottle

LED grow light bar

Sprouting jar kit with mesh strainer lids

Sprouting seeds (alfalfa, broccoli or mung bean)