Basil microgreens, in my experience, take much longer to grow than has been my experience in the cases of lettuce, cabbage, kale and sunflower for instance.
The steps needed to successfully grow basil microgreens remain primarily similar to growing most micros. In this guide, I share the steps I took to successfully grow basil microgreens. Basil is a herb. It belongs to the Lamiaceae family. It is known scientifically as Ocimum basilicum.
Pictured above is a fully mature basil herb. A mature basil plant is ready for picking in about two weeks. On the other hand basil microgreens are ready for harvest in about 7 days.
Checklist for growing Basil Microgreens
Here is a good checklist to run through as you prepare to grow your basil microgreens. If you have been growing microgreens already, many of the items on the list would be in place already.
- Microgreens trays (supplier)
- Grow lights (supplier)
- Soil sifting pan (supplier)
- Basil seeds Water spray (supplier)
- Ziploc bags (supplier)
- Kitchen scissors (supplier)
- Seed Shaker (supplier)
- Water for watering
- Garden soil
Practical steps for growing Basil Microgreens
We now turn to the practical steps to take when growing basil micros. By the way, this guide is applicable when growing just about any variety of basil microgreens.
On this site, among other microgreens, you can also find lettuce, sunflower, cabbage, lentil and carrot microgreens growing guides.
I highly recommend growing any of these alongside your basil microgreens for the purposes of creating a microgreens salad mix later on. Microgreens taste very nice when served in a mix.
1. Get your Basil microgreens seeds ready
Basil seeds are extremely tiny and generally tricky to handle. The image above shows the seeds that I used in this guide. I bought these from a local supplier where I live. The seeds are black in color and very tiny.
Unlike when growing Chard Microgreens, for example, there won’t be any need to pre-soak these. They are ready to plant just as they are
2. Prepare your Basil microgreens growing medium
Next, get the growing medium ready. In this guide we shall be using ordinary garden soil to grow our basil microgreens. As mentioned frequently in my microgreens growing guides, any native garden soil will work just fine for growing micros.
I am aware of other growing mediums available commercially for this purpose. Although not critical, I prefer to use native sifted garden soil as shown in the immediate image above.
Simply run your soil through a good sieve or sifter. This will remove debris from the soil. The end result is a fine, clean and soft growing medium ideal for microgreens.
Here is a useful tip…I am frequently growing micros. For that reason, I prefer to prepare my soil in bulk in one sitting for use over an extended period of time.
3. Get a microgreens grow tray or suitable growing container
Get a grow container ready. The in-thing is to use commercially available microgreen trays as shown above. However, truth be told, this is not necessary. The essential thing is to make sure you have a suitable grow container. Not too deep, not too shallow.
This makes even repurposed supermarket punnets equally suitable. Whichever container you settle for, ensure it has holes underneath for draining. If you are getting into microgreens for commercial reasons (vs home consumption) then especially designed grow trays may be perfectly justified
4. Fill microgreens grow tray with sifted soil
Next, take the growing medium we got ready in step 2. Fill the microgreens growing tray with the soil leaving a clearance of about 5-10 mm at the top. This is to prevent soil from over-spilling. Keep in mind the tray must have holes underneath for drainage.
Gently shake the tray to allow the soil to compact only but a little. Avoid excessive compacting as to make the soil impenetrable.
5. Thoroughly, water the grow tray filled with soil
At this stage, your tray is full of soil. The next step is to water it thoroughly. This above file image shows the procedure. Take note, this is the only watering to be done until the seeds germinate.
The watering procedure I recommend is as shown immediately above. It is smart and to the point avoiding any soil disturbance. If you used a spray nozzle in this case, which works by the way, you run the risk of disturbing the soil. A mess is also in the offering!
The method shown here is the easiest. I use it almost always. I concede, however, that for a scaled commercial micros project this method may not be practical nor efficient. You may have to chart your own way here.
Once the tray is thoroughly watered, it is time for planting.
6. Plant your Basil microgreens seeds
Next is to take the seeds in step 1 and plant them. The idea is simply to spread the seeds over the top of the watered soil in the grow tray. This has to be well done.
In other words spread the seeds evenly and densely across the top of the soil. Avoid having seeds too concentrated in one section of the tray.
For precision, a seed shaker can be used to spread the seeds. However, you can achieve just about the same using your hand. Take a scope of the seeds into your hand and begin spreading over the soil.
7. Gently press the seeds into the soil
After planting the seeds in step 6, next press them in. This is a simple and quick process. We want the seed to make sufficient contact with the moisture rich soil.
The idea is not to bury the seeds. All we need is a good enough contact between the seed and the soil. You can use the palm of your hand or four of your fingers (minus thumb) to press the seeds into the soil.
8. Put some weight atop the tray and store away
At this stage the planting is completed. Take a dimensionally fitting board which can be wood, card or glass and place on top of the seeds.
Yes the board will sit right on top of the seeds in the tray. This will further press the seeds down. You may even put a stone or brick on top of the board.
This trick speeds up germination and more importantly increases the rate of germination ensuring a nicely spread out germination.
After covering the tray as explained, store it away in a dark airy place or under a shed. The tray shouldn’t sit in direct sunlight.
9. After germination, move your Basil microgreens tray to a light source.
Basil microgreens will start germinating some 3 to 4 days. Once you have a germination of between 85%-95% it is time to get the tray out into the light.
Basil microgreens and all the different types of microgreens should not be exposed to direct sunlight. This impacts the quality of the microgreens including taste.
Place your germinated microgreens below grow lights. The tray should sit about 15-30cm below the lights.
Ordinary fluorescent lights should work perfectly fine. I have been using these for many years.
This location of your lights should have free fresh air circulation. The microgreens will live here until harvest in some 10 or so days
10. Water the Basil microgreens
If you recall, our last watering of the microgreens was in step 5 above before planting. This will now be our second watering. It is only happening after germination as we introduce the germinated seeds to the artificial grow lights.
The file image above demonstrates how to easily water your basil microgreens. In a) place your tray in a bigger tray or container. As shown in b) fill the bigger tray with water. Water will sip into the microgreens grow tray using the drainage holes beneath.
You can let your tray sit for several minutes. Afterwards, you should see the soil becoming wet. This is a signal that the watering is done. Remove the tray and place under the grow lights.
11. Harvest your basil microgreens
Shown here are basil microgreens ready for harvest. This is about day 10 since germination. As mentioned in the intro, basil microgreens take much longer to be ready for harvest. This is in comparison with other microgreens which take 4 or 5 days.
This wait certainly calls for some patience. This particular variety of basil that I planted doesn’t grow tall at all. As such, I found myself adding a few more days before the actual harvest whenever I thought of harvesting.
Even at harvest, because of the short height I managed to cut them closer to the leaves. You see this in the image immediately above. Unlike kale or cabbage or sunflower, there wasn’t much of any stalk on the micros.
Basil microgreens are super packed with some great flavour. You certainly need to add this to a good salad or microgreens mix.
Keep in mind that when to harvest microgreens is for the most part the grower’s call. It is highly subjective, at least in my experience and approach. However, from day 3 onward it is a good time to start thinking about harvesting.
As mentioned, for basil microgreens you may need to stretch the wait as I did here i.e 10 days.
12. Store your microgreens
Microgreens storage is as important as harvest timing. If you are not going to eat them all at once or take them to market immediately, you need the best storage.
Microgreens tend to lose their quality as days add up from the point of harvest. I work with 3 days tops for consumption after harvest. You could still consume them after this timeframe but they would not be at the top of their game.
The best way to store basil microgreens is the fridge (not freezer) in an airtight container. I recommend ziploc type bags for this purpose. This is what I did here as shown in the image. This storage method is obviously for the home consumer. Commercial growers tend to harvest the same day and deliver to customers within 24 hours
So this is how to grow basil microgreens using simple easy to follow steps. I hope you find the steps I shared here to the point and above all fit for producing for you too a successful crop.
