How to grow lentil microgreens, although easy, involves a little more hops than other microgreens as you shall see. In this guide we will go through all the steps necessary to successfully grow lentil microgreens at home.
Despite the hops, the good news is that anyone could grow lentil micros at home. No previous experience is required.
The scientific name for lentil is Lens culinaris. It is an edible legume in the pea family. Lentils are available in a variety of colors such as brown, green, black yellow and red.
As far as microgreens are concerned, this guide is applicable on just about any of these varieties. In fact, at time of harvest the lentil microgreens show no colors. Everything is lush green as you see in the images here.
Regular lentils require up to 110 days to be ready for harvest. On the other hand, lentil microgreens only take a maximum of a week to be ready for harvest. This is less than 10% of the time it takes to grow ordinary lentils. Not only that, lentil microgreens are super packed with nutrients better than the regular version.
Checklist for growing Lentil Microgreens
Before attempting to grow your lentil micros, there are a few items that need to be lined up. If you are coming into growing microgreens for the first time, you likely need to source many of these.
However, if you have been growing microgreens you likely have the bulk of these items already in place. So run through the following list to determine what you will need.
- Microgreens trays (supplier)
- Grow lights (supplier)
- Soil sifting pan (supplier)
- Garden soil
- Lentil seeds (supplier)
- Water spray (supplier)
- Ziploc bags (supplier)
- Mason jar for soaking (supplier)
- Water for watering
Practical steps for growing Lentil Microgreens
Growing lentil microgreens is a bit different from growing most microgreens such as lettuce, carrots and cabbage. As you shall see as we start on the steps below, there are some extra steps involved when growing lentil micros.
Here is a quick tip. As you grow your lentil microgreens, it is a good idea to also grow other microgreen types at the same time. I have guides on this site on a variety of other such micros namely lettuce, cabbage and sunflower among others. Growing a variety of microgreens will create a great salad mix at harvest time. Yum!
With all your materials in place as per the checklist above, it is now time to get our hands dirty.
Let’s begin…
1. Get your Lentil Microgreens seeds
Get your seeds ready. Shown above is what they look like. These must be whole and unsplit lentils. Split lentils will not work for growing microgreens. Furthermore, the seeds must be dry (dried). Fresh lentils cannot be used for planting.
In this guide I am using brown lentils, pictured, which I purchased off the shelf from my local supermarket. These are the same lentils that could be used for sprouting as I did here. They can also be cooked as a meal. These off the shelf lentils are great because they are not treated.
We shouldn’t use chemically treated seeds to grow microgreens. This is to avoid potentially dangerous poisoning. If you can’t get lentil seeds locally, they can be found online.
Next, do a quick process of removing any split lentils. These can end up rotting and spoiling otherwise healthy microgreens.
2. Soak your lentil seeds overnight
Next take your sorted lentil seeds. Also take a container or jar such as a mason jar for soaking. Take a handful or two of the seeds and put in the jar.
We soak the seeds before planting for maximum germination rate and to shorten germination time. Lentil seeds are hard when dry. The soaking softens for them enabling the breakout on germination to be easy.
Although I mention overnight soaking, any time of the day will do. Just ensure they are in water for some 6-8 hours. Do not let the seeds overstay in water they would start fermenting. Yikes!
3. Get you growing medium ready
Steps 1 and 2 will generally take a whole day to accomplish. We could use this time to get the soil ready. No fancy soil is needed. Good old native garden soil will do just fine. Your lentil microgreens will get their food from their own seed and not really the soil.
What I recommend, though, is that the soil must be finely sifted. This removes any debris and makes the soil easily penetrable by microgreens roots. Sifted soil is optional but beneficial, in my experience.
4. Fill growing tray with sifted soil
This is now day two. The following steps until planting will happen on this day all at once.
Take your sifted soil and fill your microgreens growing tray. Use any suitable container such as repurposed supermarket punnets.You could also use commercially available growing trays such as these ones. They are obviously bigger and purposefully made.
Whichever route you take, what is critically important is that your tray or grow container should have holes beneath. Microgreens should not be allowed to remain waterlogged. The risk of mold increases badly.
5. Drench the soil in the tray with water
At this stage we are still getting our planting tray ready. Ensure that the soil in the tray is drenched with water. This is the first and last time we are going to water the soil until after germination.
The best way to water the soil in the tray is by using a method that does not disturb the soil. This could be achieved by using a spray producing a fine spray pattern. Such a spray pattern should land graciously on the soil without pushing or splattering it out of the tray or disturbing its evenness. Here are some examples of good spray nozzles.
Shown above is the method that I prefer to use when watering my micros. Simply place your grow tray in a bigger tray filled with water. Within minutes, soil in the grow tray will be drenched with water. The holes beneath the grow tray allow water to smartly sip into the soil from below.
6. Plant your Lentil Microgreens seeds
Next, it is time to plant the seeds. Take your soaked lentil seeds and spread them evenly on top of the drenched soil in the grow tray. Ensure that you are generous in your spread. Cover every inch of the soil in the tray evenly.
As you shall notice, the lentil seeds have expanded from the soak. They are softer and full of water. In this state they are so ready to start germinating forthwith.
7. Gently press-in the Lentil Microgreens seeds into the soil
I perform this ritual nearly without fail each time I plant microgreen seeds. Using your bare hand, in fact the palm of your hand, press on top of the seeds gently. This ensures the seeds get into contact with the wet soil.
We are not going to bury the seeds under any soil. This is one of the major differences in approach when growing microgreens. It encourages faster germination. The seeds sit on top of the soil, in contact with the soil, but are never buried. At least this is what I do.
I am aware that some growers sprinkle a light layer of soil to cover the seeds. This too works but I rarely do this. The gentle pressing-in of the seeds creates good enough contact with the soil, in my experience.
8. Put some weight over the tray and put away
In order to encourage a more even and successful germination of your lentil microgreens, cover the tray with a weight. In this case, a paper board cut out to fit the tray worked. To avoid the board getting wet, you may wrap it in plastic. You may also use a plastic board, wooden board or other such material.
Additionally, you may also put a stone or brick on top of the board. Fear not, this weight does nothing to stop the germination. The energy in the many seeds below is enough to slightly lift the board at germination. Of course, as soon as you notice some widely spread germination, the board and weight have served purpose and must be removed.
After placing the board and/or weight over the grow tray, put the tray away. This could be in a dark place under a kitchen sink or store room. Ensure that the tray is sitting in an airated environment.
9. After germination, move tray to a light source
Next, check on the tray at about day 2 or 3 after putting it away in step 8. At this time we should have as much as 95% germination. Lentil microgreens tend to germinate very well as seen in these images.
However, some microgreen types suffer from delayed & uneven germination. In such cases, I usually go with fair enough germination. Much of the remaining seeds tend to catch up later under the light. You can see this phenomenon here from my radish microgreens guide at step 7.
So having gotten a fair enough germination, move your lentil microgreens tray to sit under an artificial light source. Above is the tray on day 2 after germination and being placed under the light.
Microgreens should not be grown in direct sunlight. This impacts on the flavor and overall quality of the micros.
Place your tray under grow lights which are now widely available for purchase online. See some good examples here.
Your lentil microgreens will remain under grow lights until harvest time. The grow lights should be situated in a place which has fresh air in circulation. The actual position of the tray below the lights should be no more than 30cm, in my experience. The image below demonstrates why.
Close enough intense light (which is not hot) encourages a straight-up growth which is aesthetically pleasing. The image above shows an example of straight growing micros when I was growing cauliflower microgreens. Aesthetically pleasing micros become a factor especially if you plan to supply grocery stores and restaurants with your produce.
Again, to illustrate that microgreens follow the light, the image above shows lentil microgreens leaning right towards natural light. On this day, I had removed the light source for some hours. Sitting under a garden shed, the micros started looking towards the nearest source of light. This means a light directly above the micros directs them to grow uprightly and even faster.
10. Water the Lentil Microgreens
At the time of putting your microgreens under a light source, also water them. This would be the second watering. The first watering was at step 5. From this point, you will need to be on the lookout to water the microgreens at least every other day until harvest.
Again, I recommend using the watering method shown above. In a), place your grow tray in a bigger tray. In b), fill the bigger tray with water. Let it once again drench the tray then move under the light source. Do this each time you have to water.
The alternative is to use a spray. I hardly use the spray method myself. I do this to reduce the risk of mold. If you use a spray bottle or hose, ensure that you water the microgreens at the base to avoid any water contact with the microgreens canopy or the leaves.
Your watering frequency will overall be guided by your climatic conditions. The hotter your climate is, the higher the frequency in watering needed. The file image above shows a tray with moisture distressed cauliflower micros. They begin to fall over. This tends to happen fairly quickly. I managed to have this corrected a few hours after watering.
I do not recommend allowing your microgreens into this state. This may impact their flavor. Keep them happy until harvest for best results!
11. Harvest your Lentil Microgreens
Lentil microgreens are ready to harvest within 4 days of planting. When to harvest is subjective. I prefer my microgreens very tender. My usual guide is before the appearance of the 3rd leaf.
However, lentil microgreen leaves are distinctly different from other microgreen leaves. Even as microgreens they have many leaves that begin folded and then open up as the plant progresses. My decision when to harvest these lentil microgreens was thus guided by how tender they looked and tasted.
Overall, when to harvest lentil microgreens will be your call. My guide is at about day 3 or 4 after germination. Delays will allow the micros to develop into bitter plants which may not be ideal for many people.
The method of harvest is by using kitchen scissors. Lentil microgreens stems are edible. Cut the microgreens just above the soil. Below is how my tray looked after harvesting with a kitchen scissors.
Generally speaking, many microgreens need some dressing to really taste good. Exceptions include lettuce and pea microgreens. Throw them in a salad mix with other micros or add them to a salad. Also see a few recipes here in which you could use your microgreens.
12. Store your Lentil Microgreens
After harvesting, the next step is to ensure proper storage. After harvest, microgreens should be stored in the fridge until they are consumed. Tops, budget 3 days for best taste of lentils. This is generally the timeframe I work with when storing all my microgreens. After this point, their best taste and flavor is not guaranteed.
Use a ziplock bag or any suitable storage container which can be sealed to keep in the freshness.
SO this is how to grow lentil microgreens at home easily. As you get on with growing your own lentil microgreens, you are likely to find different approaches to certain things which may come to represent your own approach. More power to you. Enjoy your journey up ahead in this highly satisfying niche of microgreens gardening.
