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MICROGREENS

How to grow Lettuce Microgreens in a Grocery Punnet and Harvest them in 10 days

I love lettuce in general, it wasn’t hard for me to appreciate the microgreen version when I first learned about microgreens. Lettuce microgreens are my go to microgreens not only because they are extremely easy and fun to grow but also because they introduce a particular flavor which is just great in a salad mix.

Common microgreens growing equipment & material

Before I go on to explain how to grow lettuce microgreens, here is a list of some equipment commonly used when growing microgreens. Also see how to grow microgreens indoors here.

Other applications of lettuce microgreens include as toppings, garnish, and filling in all kind of wraps and sandwiches.

Compared to say sunflower microgreens, lettuce microgreens take much longer to get to the point of being ready for harvest. That’s some 7 vs 10 to 14 days. In any case, compared to a mature lettuce crop which requires some 55 to 60 days, 10 to 14 days of growing lettuce microgreens is still very good.

One more thing that I appreciate about lettuce is that it is not seasonal as can be the case with mature leaf lettuce. You can successfully grow lettuce microgreens be it in winter or summer. In a small container as I will show you here how to, you can grow lettuce microgreens from your window sill in your kitchen, any time every time.

So what do you need and need to know before you get started?

Get a simple grocery punnet container

Your lettuce microgreens will be growing from this punnet for the next 10 to 14 days.

This is just my choice. I like to re-purpose my grocery store punnets. However, you are welcome to use just about any container or tray your hands can access. Only ensure it has a depth of 3cm/1.8 inches, that is to say not too deep and not too shallow.

Get a needle or something similar and start poking some holes evenly spread across the bottom of the punnet. These are essential to avoid your crop being water logged when you water, and one more thing, to make it easy to water as I show here.

Get your soil ready

People say use compost soil, use pot mix, use vermiculite and so on. Well that works and it’s good, but I can tell you that it’s not necessary and I don’t always do that. That is at least in my experience.

I use any soil that I can get my hands on. In my garden area, I have corner that I scoop my soil from directly from the ground. There is, however, one thing that I do that underpins my success. I sieve the soil to make it fine removing any large particles, debris and stones.

I find this helps the delicate microgreens easily penetrate the soil as long as I keep it moist which is a requirement anyway when growing your greens. If you check out this pots, you can learn in detail how to prepare your soil for microgreens. It’s dead simple but a winner!

Get your lettuce seeds ready

Finally, you obviously need some lettuce seeds. There can be some strong views and controversy here. Some swear by organic non-chemically treated seeds. Some say any seeds as long as they are not chemically treated are just fine. Yet some say all of the above but refrigerated first.

These are all approaches worthy of respect. However, I respect the most the idea that the seeds mustn’t be chemically treated. However, I do use chemically treated seeds whenever I can’t access non-chemically treated seeds.

The use of non-chemically treated microgreen seeds is a precaution against a potential hazard to health in the event of ingestion of the chemicals one way or the other.

The fact that the lettuce seeds are covered, albeit lightly, in soil, and that the plant breaks out from the seeds leaving the outer layer in the soil, for the most part ensures that the microgreens are safe even though a product of chemically treated seeds.

I would have very strong reservations on using chemically treated seeds for sprouts compared to microgreens. Sprouts often entail consumption of the sprout with the seed still attached.

Microgardeners who first refrigerate their seeds do this to shock them into quick germination once placed in soil. The length of time it takes for my ordinary seeds to germinate i.e 2 days has been good enough for me.

Let’s getting growing lettuce microgreens!

Now that we are clear of what we need and why we need it let us get growing. This is were the fund really begins…

Step 1: Planting your lettuce microgreens seeds

Get your punnet or tray with tiny holes beneath. Spread some soil as prepared above filling it to the top of the punnet. Once this is done, water your punnet following this exact method shown here.

Once your soil is moist and soaked in water, sprinkle your lettuce seeds evenly across the punnet on the surface of the soil. You don’t want your seeds too dense as is the case when doing sunflower microgreens. When growing lettuce microgreens, evenly spaced seeds is good enough and not overcrowded.

After sprinkling your lettuce seeds on top of the soil in the punnet, proceed to sprinkle lightly some soil from the same soil source as the soil beneath the seeds i.e fine sieved soil. Ensure all the seeds are lightly covered in this sprinkle.

Proceed to water the punnet one more time using the same method of “reverse osmosis”. This ensures your seeds are not displaced which is always a challenge when watering microgreen seeds on planting.

Once this is done, the planting is done, let’s go to step 2

Step 2: Cover your container and place in dark place

You can cover your punnet with a card and put a weight on top. This is a trick to get the seeds germinating evenly. As they germinate in the next 48hrs they will begin to push the covering card up in an even manner. This gives you a nice even growth.

Put your covered punnet in a dark place say under the sink, in a pantry or anywhere where there is no light.

During this time, the seeds will require no watering whatsoever, but will go by the planting watering that we did in Step 1. This is why it’s critical to make sure that the soil is absolutely soaked. If you use the method that I recommend in Step 1, you should get this correct.

If you slightly lift the card at the end of day 1 or start of day 2 in the dark place, you should be able to witness some exciting activity of the germination occurring.

Step 3: Remove your container and expose it to light

Round about day 2 and 3, much of the germination of your lettuce seeds in the dark should be complete. The emerging crop is ready to face the world of light.

Take it out of the dark and place it out in light but not in direct sunlight. Your window sill or kitchen counter were there is natural or artificial light is great.

As shown here, I have a special cupboard/closet with access to fresh air where I grow my microgreens. In there I use artificial lighting which is essentially LED light placed some 12 cm/5 in above the microgreens.

Within 15 to 24 hours of exposure to light, the photosynthesis magic will begin to show were your lettuce microgreens transform from that yellow lack of light color to a lovely promising green which will only intensify as shown below.

One important thing to do on this first day of taking your container out of the dark is to water it. Repeat the watering process as taught in Step 1. Notice how gentle this watering method is to the delicate newly life-finding microgreens.

Repeat this watering process once per day, increasing to twice per day at about day 5 after germination or as the microgreens grow bigger.

Step 4: The harvest

When is the right time to harvest? There answer is there is a general standard that many people follow but the gem is n that you mustn’t be bound by it at least all the time for the sake of experimentation.

The right time is though to be just when the true leaves are coming out. A typical lettuce microgreen plant has cotyledons and true leaves that look like below.

On germination, what comes out first and turns green on exposure to light are the cotyledons. As the crop progresses, true leaves begin to emerge. Many microgardners carry out harvest at this point. You could follow the same for your first crop to have a benchmark.

Feel free to delay your harvest until the microgreens get to another stage and see if you like the flavor and taste when they are older. This helps in you finding your sweet spot for harvest.

Storage

Cut your lettuce microgreens above the soil line ensuring you avoid picking any soil or debris. Rinse the harvested microgreens preferably under running and store in a zip lock bag as shown and store in the fridge.

Lettuce microgreens are great to consume the closer they are to the harvest date. It is for this reason that in my own gardening I avoid growing a whole lot of them at once which would force me to keep them in the fridge for too long (more than 3 days). They tend to change color to yellow the longer they stay and that’s a bad thing.

Instead, plan around a cyclic routine so that you are always harvesting and almost instantly eating them. As you collect data on how long it takes from planting to harvesting, it is possible to develop your own customized growing routine to ensure a steady supply of fresh lettuce microgreens.

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