How to grow cabbage microgreens is a straightforward process anyone can and should do this including the inexperienced. Cabbage microgreens are ready to harvest within 10 days. If you wanted to grow a mature cabbage you did have to wait up to 180 days!
Be it microgreens or mature cabbage, cabbage is a member of the brassica family. Other family relations would include broccoli, brussel sprouts, bok choy and turnip.
In this guide, I will be sharing with you how I grow my cabbage microgreens with so much ease and with the best results. I like the fact that it takes so little time to start enjoying your microgreens from planting to harvest. This is also highly motivating for beginners who may want to see results soonest.
You need not have any prior experience to grow your cabbage microgreens using the technique that I use here. So all are welcome to try this out and have some tasty fun in the process. But first what are the benefits of growing cabbage microgreens?
Cabbage microgreens benefits
Cabbage microgreens literally bring some serious health benefits to the table. This may surprise some, but microgreens have been scientifically shown to have more nutrients than their mature crop counterparts. Red cabbage microgreens in particular have a concentrated degree of vitamin C, vitamin E and beta carotene. This is not all, Cabbage microgreens benefits include a lowering of bad cholesterol and helping control blood sugar.
If you are one interested in digging deep into scientific literature that backs these clams have a look here.
Let’s start by looking at equipment and materials you will need to successfully grow your cabbage microgreens.
1. Requirements for growing cabbage microgreens
You will need (follow links for possible online supplier):-
- Seeds (supplier)
- Two trays, one with holes one without (supplier)
- Soil sifter (supplier)
- Soil
- Watering spray (supplier)
- Grow light (supplier)
- Grow room/shelf/stand (supplier)
2. Get your cabbage microgreens seeds
Special attention must be paid to seeds for your microgreens. The main thing is that when growing just about all microgreens or sprouts you should avoid using treated seeds. Chemically treated seeds can potentially be toxic when consumed by humans or animals.
When growing microgreens, especially without soil as I do here with sunflower microgreens or wheatgrass there is a risk of ingesting some of the un-sprouted seeds or seed shells. Cabbage microgreens take only 10 days to reach harvestable “maturity” which is not enough time to rid the crop of chemicals coating the seeds.
For this reason, if inexperienced, I recommend using untreated/organic/non-GMO cabbage microgreen seeds. Due to the rapid growth and interest in microgreens, these are no longer as hard to find.
3. Get growing trays and fill with soil
Next, get your microgreens growing trays. Remember you will need two trays. One with holes and another without holes. Your soil, which we will talk about in a second, will go into the tray will holes. In my experience any tray size will do. The most popular trays are the 10″ x 20″ plastic trays with a depth of about 2.5″.
The second tray without holes will go at the bottom with the purpose of catching water that will drain from the top tray with soil and crop. Once your cabbage microgreens have germinated and growing, you will also use this second tray to water the microgreens.
Next, let’s talk about soil. Many people get hang up on which soil type to use for growing cabbage microgreens and microgreens in general. In my experience, just about any good soil will do. Microgreens rely so little on the fertility of the soil. Although, some do add compost and what not to the soil, I haven’t found a need to do this.
In the first ten days of life to harvest, your cabbage microgreens will almost exclusively propel themselves using nutrients contained in the seed. This is why it is possible to grow healthy microgreens or sprouts/shoots without any soil. So grab any good soil and fill your top tray with holes.
The only thing I recommend you do to the soil is sift the soil prior to planting your seeds. You will need to sift the soil fine, removing all debris. We do this to make sure the seeds don’t have to struggle to germinate due to heavy soil particulates, stones and so fourth.
4. Thoroughly water the soil in the tray
Just before we start on planting the seeds, using a spray (as not to destabilize the soil in the tray) thoroughly water the soil in the tray. This water will bring enough moisture in the soil to sustain the germinating seeds for the next few days before you come back with another round of watering AFTER the seeds germinate.
5. Spread your cabbage microgreens seeds on the tray
With your tray filled with wet sifted soil ready, it is now time to proceed to evenly but densely spread your cabbage seeds on top of the soil. You can use your hand to do this.
Densely spread the seed across the tray making sure not to have any area on the tray too concentrated with seed but evenly spread.
After this, go ahead and gently press the seeds into the soil. The seeds must not sink into the soil but just pushed down gently to enable good contact with the wet soil. You could also use a board or other flat object to achieve the same, but your hands should do just fine.
Notice, we are not putting any soil on top of the seeds to cover them. Some microgreens growers cover the seeds with soil. This can be avoided, in my experience. Not covering your seeds with soil is helpful in achieving a cleaner/neater crop. So everything should go just as well without any top covering soil.
6. Water your cabbage microgreens seed one more time
At this point you should have your tray with wet soil planted cabbage microgreens seed. Before we move to the next step, spray the tray with your seeds one more time with a fine spray of water.
7. Cover the tray and put away
We are almost there, next cover the tray with a dark cover and put away in a dark cool place. We are intentionally creating this dark environment to make the seeds think they are underground. This stimulates germination. If you have a third tray, though optional, you could use it to cover the tray with your seeds in a Dom fashion.
Although optional (and it works well), you may also add some weights on top of the seeds. This could be a wooden board the size of your tray. The board sits directly on top of the soil with the seeds planted. This has been shown to hasten germination which is rather even.
Check your seeds again at about day 3 at which point you should witness the early signs of germination. Let the germination continue in the dark until the majority of the seeds are germinated.
8. Set the germinated seeds under a grow light
Once “all” your seeds are germinated in the dark, you may remove the tray from the dark place it under an artificial light source. As stated above in the requirements, you will need a strong grow light which is usually a florescent light that will run 24 hours until harvest.
Natural light will not produce the best results for the reason that you cannot put the microgreens in direct sunlight which is too hash.
Furthermore, the plants tend to pull sideways towards the direction of the sunlight when placed under a shade, for example. A grow light has the effect of “pulling” the microgreens straight-up which encourages rapid growth which is also aesthetically pleasing. This is even more needful if you are going to go commercial with your microgreens project.
9. Water your cabbage microgreens from the bottom
How to grow cabbage microgreens does not just end with steps listed above. How you water your microgreens may make or break how things finally turn out.
Due mold and other disease problems, it is highly recommended to water your microgreens bottom up. This is the purpose of the second tray without holes. It catches the draining water but we can also fill it with water so it can facilitate the watering of the microgreens in the top tray. See my other article here on how to water all kinds of microgreens using this trick.
10. Harvest your cabbage microgreens before true leaves arrive
At about 10 days your cabbage microgreens should be ready for harvest. The idea is to harvest the crop before the emergence of true leaves.
True leaves are usually the third leaf that will start shooting as the plant progresses. Keep in mind that cabbage microgreens are simply baby seedlings. They are as good as they are baby plants.
Following the arrival of true leaves, the cabbage microgreens will begin changing in taste thus becoming bitter. This should be avoided if we are looking for cabbage microgreens in the true sense of the concept. Shown in the image above are microgreens past harvest point and progressing to seedlings.
Once you harvest your microgreens, you may store them in the fridge for a few more days. However, they are generally best in taste and flavor fresh from the tray or at least the same day they are harvested.
As has been shown in this guide, how to grow cabbage microgreens is straightforward as long as one pays attention to the key steps necessary to have a successful crop. If you follow the steps as laid out here, you should do well. Happy gardening!
