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Tiny Greens, Big Flavor: Exploring the World of Microgreens
84 Plays27 days ago
In this episode, we dive into the exciting world of microgreens! We'll discuss why these nutrient-packed powerhouses are a fantastic winter growing project, even for those with limited space. Learn about the simple steps involved in growing microgreens at home, from seed selection to harvesting. We'll also explore the diverse culinary uses of microgreens, adding vibrant flavor and a nutritional boost to your winter meals. So, grab your seeds and get ready to experience the joy of growing fresh, flavorful greens all year round!"
A Step-By-Step Guide for Growing Microgreens at Home
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Classic TV Series Discussion
00:00:17
Alexis
All right. I'm queued up. I'm ready. I'm going to learn something about you all today. and I want everybody to learn as well.
00:00:21
Plant People
Oh, man.
00:00:24
Alexis
Have is there a ah television series that you have seen all the way through every episode ever made? At least. Well, I would at least once, but like preferably if you've seen one of them more than once.
00:00:38
Plant People
Like the entire. ah Yes, the entire series.
00:00:42
Jessica
Yes, you know my answer.
00:00:42
Alexis
Okay, i already know you I already know some of your answers, but I want to ah want the public to know.
00:00:50
Alexis
Jessica?
00:00:50
Jessica
Brett, have you? Oh, ah um ah yes, of course. Mine is the office.
00:00:56
Alexis
And you've seen it multiple times all the way through.
00:00:56
Jessica
I, multiple times, I love the office, my husband and I do, and ah it it pains me.
00:01:03
Plant People
Was that your first series that you ever watched all the way through? I know that you love that series.
00:01:09
Jessica
I do I'm trying to think I have watched I think I've watched all the Seinfelds all the way through because also my parents were Seinfeld friends.
00:01:13
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:01:18
Jessica
I'm trying to think what other parks and rec I love parks and rec as well.
00:01:19
Alexis
Parks and rec. Mm-hmm.
00:01:23
Jessica
But the office is one that I can like always watch, you know.
00:01:26
Alexis
Turn on. Mm-hmm.
00:01:27
Jessica
um So like I said, it pains me that like nobody in my office currently like gets my references a lot of times and we had an intern this past summer who is, you know, in his early twenties and he's watched all of it.
00:01:42
Jessica
So I finally had somebody of you this past summer, I can make references and he would get it. And so like, I was like, yes. And so then he would just make them and everybody else would be like, I have no idea what they're talking about.
00:01:52
Alexis
I don't know what you're talking about.
00:01:53
Jessica
Yeah.
00:01:53
Plant People
Inside jokes.
00:01:55
Alexis
Well, Ray, what about you?
00:01:56
Jessica
Anybody else?
00:01:58
Plant People
ah Let's see. ah there Yeah, but my favorite series of all time, Pray, as far as the series goes, has to probably be X-Files. To no one's surprise here. It's got to be the original weird series.
00:02:09
Plant People
But yeah, I was a big, the truth is out there fan back in the day, the Coveney and Gillian Anderson. I was a big fan of that. And before then, even more embarrassing, but not really is not Ryder.
00:02:17
Jessica
Ah.
00:02:20
Plant People
I mean, that was a big not router, not industries 2000 fan David. It's the Hasselhoff man.
00:02:25
Jessica
It was Hasselhoff.
00:02:25
Alexis
It's the hassle off of it all.
00:02:26
Plant People
yeah then Yeah.
00:02:27
Brett
in kip kip was that the name of the kit that's right a comfort series probably not I've seen Buffy the vampire Slayer all the way through the the yeah
00:02:28
Plant People
Yeah. Yeah. Not industries 2000 kit. Yep.
00:02:32
Alexis
Brett, is that do you have like a comfort series like that that you've seen multiple times?
00:02:41
Plant People
I was a fan of that back in the day.
00:02:43
Alexis
okay That one I've never watched.
00:02:43
Jessica
Ah.
00:02:46
Plant People
Okay.
00:02:47
Brett
oh
00:02:48
Alexis
It's on my to watch list.
00:02:49
Plant People
I watched it here.
00:02:49
Alexis
but
00:02:50
Plant People
It was sort of hit and miss, but I really enjoyed it when I could catch it on.
00:02:54
Brett
How dare you say it was hit and miss.
00:02:55
Plant People
ah know I No, it was hit and miss, my ability to watch it.
00:02:57
Brett
Uh, no, no. Oh, I see.
00:03:00
Jessica
Oh.
00:03:00
Plant People
Now, because I didn't grow up with cable.
00:03:00
Brett
I see.
00:03:01
Alexis
ah First of all, how dare you?
00:03:01
Brett
I see.
00:03:02
Plant People
I only had like four channels. So I was very selective on what I could watch and when I could watch it.
00:03:06
Brett
I see. I see. I see. I see.
00:03:07
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:07
Brett
I see. I see. Yeah. It's very campy, very, uh, of its time.
00:03:10
Plant People
It was good. It was a good series.
00:03:12
Brett
I think it feel it probably feels.
00:03:13
Plant People
It was ahead of its time.
00:03:15
Brett
Yeah, definitely.
00:03:16
Plant People
Definitely ahead of its time.
00:03:17
Brett
Um, let's see.
00:03:18
Alexis
He's like, I'm not comforted by it at all though.
00:03:21
Brett
Take no comfort from watching this. um
00:03:25
Plant People
It was a lot at stake.
00:03:26
Alexis
The word slayer is in the title, so that feels fair.
00:03:28
Plant People
Yeah.
00:03:29
Brett
Yeah.
00:03:30
Brett
I'm trying to think.
00:03:30
Plant People
That's true.
00:03:31
Plant People
If it's got a movie spinoff, yeah.
00:03:32
Brett
i've I've seen the, I've seen the office. I've seen the, seen some of these other ones that people, I've seen X files all the way through. I've seen.
00:03:38
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:03:38
Plant People
Oh.
00:03:39
Brett
Yeah. My, my, one of my cousins was really into X-Files. My uncle was really into Buffy, uh, had like the DVDs. So I just borrowed them all from him.
00:03:47
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:03:47
Jessica
Hmm.
00:03:48
Plant People
That was back in the day.
00:03:49
Brett
That's how I watched them on DVDs. I remember being up late at night and, you know, watching them late into the night and then you have to get up and change the disc and, uh,
00:03:58
Jessica
Yeah.
00:03:59
Plant People
Yeah. That was back in the good, I mean, I won't say the good old days, you know, just because, but it seems like even though Netflix was really easy to binge watch stuff, I did better Brett. It's interesting.
00:04:10
Plant People
You bring up like box sets when I had box sets and would borrow that whatever from a friend.
00:04:11
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:04:15
Plant People
I knew that I had to kind of watch that within a reasonable amount of time and give it back. Eventually I was much more of a completionist when I had box
00:04:20
Brett
Right.
00:04:22
Brett
Hmm.
Nostalgia and Evolving Media Consumption
00:04:23
Plant People
sets of DVDs.
00:04:24
Brett
Yeah. I watched house on DVD like that.
00:04:24
Plant People
I did a lot better.
00:04:25
Plant People
Yeah.
00:04:27
Jessica
Oh, you're watching house.
00:04:27
Plant People
It's a great series. It's a great series.
00:04:29
Jessica
Yeah.
00:04:30
Plant People
Yeah, how about uh Not in your
00:04:30
Brett
Yeah. but so So last time, last last episode, we were talking about cracking open shelled nuts from our ah stockings off the boat, you know, from the old country.
00:04:32
Jessica
Wait.
00:04:41
Brett
And now we're talking about DVDs and we're really relating to the to the next generation.
00:04:47
Jessica
Don't, yeah. Don't get me started how upset I was with my newer vehicle and I doesn't have a CD player for me to listen to all my CDs that I still had.
00:04:55
Brett
Hmm.
00:04:56
Plant People
How are you going to listen to your mix jams? I mean, oh yeah.
00:04:59
Jessica
and Right? I still have some from high school.
00:05:01
Brett
Jessica's been accosting youths at Christmas parades recently.
00:05:04
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:05:05
Brett
I mean, we're...
00:05:06
Jessica
I have. I have. But it's a good time.
00:05:08
Brett
Yeah.
00:05:09
Jessica
Good time had by all except those tween girls.
00:05:11
Brett
Yeah, well.
00:05:12
Jessica
Anyways, Alexis, what about you? What's your comfort show?
00:05:14
Alexis
Yeah, as you all keep saying them, I realize I've seen a lot more than I originally thought all the way through. because like
00:05:19
Plant People
She's thinking about it now.
00:05:20
Jessica
Yeah.
00:05:20
Alexis
Well, we have the box set of The Office, because ah which is always fun when I forget that we're watching like a DVD. And I'm like, why isn't it going to the next episode? And it's because the all the episodes are done on that DVD.
00:05:30
Jessica
Right.
00:05:33
Plant People
It doesn't.
00:05:36
Alexis
I've seen that. I've seen The X-Files. Tyler and I will just like get on a kick where we find something that we've not watched in a while I've seen or at all and we just that's all we watch until they're gone so I've seen scrubs um yeah scrubs the office gilmore girls x-files yeah yeah I know you start thinking about your go oh do I watch too much TV
00:05:49
Jessica
Oh, that's a good one. Yeah.
00:05:57
Jessica
That's another one. Forgot about Gilmore Girls.
00:06:02
Plant People
brands I know you guys have probably seen a few Frans episodes.
00:06:03
Jessica
Just very like specific ones though, right?
00:06:05
Alexis
Yeah. Yeah. Um, friends, yeah. How I met your mother. Uh, I've seen all, well, and and with friends I've seen all but the last episode cause I didn't want to watch it. Cause I was like, it will make me sad.
00:06:16
Alexis
And, uh, the same, there's a couple of series where I've watched everything but the very last episode. Cause I'm like, I can't, I'm not ready for it to be over.
00:06:24
Brett
Do you, do you all feel like you, do you ever watch movies anymore?
00:06:31
Plant People
I'm actually more into movies now because I'm getting to the point where I feel like if I start another series and don't complete it, I'm starting to feel guilt and there's not as much commitment for a movie. So I'm actually watching more movies now than series.
00:06:44
Jessica
Um, we literally watched the movie Cars, uh, every day currently.
00:06:48
Plant People
Over and over again.
00:06:49
Alexis
So that's theirs. Yeah, my brothers was finding Nemo.
00:06:50
Plant People
Yes.
00:06:52
Alexis
So I've seen finding Nemo about 8 billion times.
00:06:52
Jessica
Yeah.
00:06:55
Jessica
Yeah. And it amazes me how like into it, they get every time, like at the end of the final race, they'll like stand up and cheer and like act surprise.
00:07:01
Alexis
Just saw this.
00:07:03
Plant People
They completely know what's going to happen. yeah Lose their minds.
00:07:05
Jessica
Like when things happen in the movie.
00:07:07
Plant People
Yes, it's so cute.
00:07:08
Jessica
Yeah.
00:07:08
Alexis
You're like, is your memory just not good yet?
00:07:08
Plant People
Yeah, it's very cute.
00:07:10
Alexis
Or is this just part of the fun of being a child? I'm not sure.
00:07:16
Plant People
Yeah, we should flip this conversation completely.
00:07:17
Alexis
Fun.
00:07:19
Plant People
I don't want to drag the point down. That was a great starting question. But is there anything that you haven't seen that everybody else seems to have seen and you're just at a point of resistance now?
00:07:30
Alexis
ah Yeah, the Game of Thrones.
00:07:30
Plant People
I mean, is there any popular
00:07:30
Brett
Frozen.
00:07:33
Plant People
game of yeah you really should watch out alexis i will bring you the pot set there we go yeah now you're just being obstinate yeah yeah brett what what did you mention something that uh was popular that you have not seen you just think i have to go see it man let it go just go see it
00:07:33
Jessica
oh Oh, you'd like it.
00:07:38
Alexis
i'm i'm At this point, I'm like, I've held out this long, so why do it? It's like Jessica with Edie McDonald. She's like, I've not had it in so long, so.
00:07:46
Jessica
Yeah.
00:07:47
Brett
You haven't had me, done oh, not, not never, just not in the long.
00:07:50
Jessica
Since October of 2017.
00:07:53
Brett
Okay.
00:07:56
Brett
I have not seen, I have not seen frozen.
00:08:01
Brett
one or two or.
00:08:02
Plant People
Yeah, after I don't think I've seen number two.
00:08:04
Alexis
I'm gonna hand you the DVDs.
00:08:07
Plant People
Yeah.
00:08:08
Alexis
But now it's just, it's like a point. You're just like, well, I've not done it.
00:08:10
Plant People
Did you have one?
00:08:10
Jessica
i I have not seen any of the twilight things.
00:08:11
Alexis
and
00:08:14
Plant People
Oh yeah, well I've watched all of those. I was a little embarrassed to admit, and but I've watched all of those.
00:08:17
Jessica
I was like team Harry Potter. Even though I've had multiple people like, you should just watch them. They're just like entertaining at this point. Like you, you know, yeah, from right.
00:08:27
Brett
You would not cross the picket line to from
00:08:27
Plant People
Which one at this point, you're just not.
00:08:32
Brett
You know, scab. I like that.
00:08:35
Plant People
I'm going to do it, but, uh, yeah.
00:08:37
Brett
I did not know that there was a standoff between Harry Potter and and and Twilight.
00:08:38
Plant People
it's
00:08:41
Brett
I didn't.
00:08:42
Alexis
I feel like it's like the matter of like a couple of years. So like Jessica's a couple of years older than me. So like Harry Potter, it was like really big for me too.
00:08:48
Brett
Wow.
00:08:50
Alexis
But I feel like Twilight, I was like at a younger age to appreciate Twilight in a different way.
00:08:50
Brett
That's fired.
00:08:51
Plant People
Yeah.
00:08:54
Jessica
h Right.
00:08:56
Alexis
um
00:08:58
Plant People
Wolves. Ooh.
00:08:59
Alexis
and Just saying, just throwing that out there.
00:09:02
Jessica
Yeah.
00:09:02
Plant People
Yeah. Sometimes you get, I get to a point of everybody's like, recommended whatever movie or whatever series, I don't know why, but I get to a point I'm just like, listen, at this point, I'm not going to watch it just because it's a matter of principle.
00:09:13
Plant People
ah Sometimes I'll get to that point. And in the wintertime, it becomes more of a discussion when the nights are longer than days are shorter. And these are the kind of conversations we have
Rituals of Rewatching
00:09:21
Alexis
And then I just watch Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit all over again.
00:09:21
Plant People
on hort culture.
00:09:24
Plant People
ah yeah I started it again.
00:09:24
Jessica
Oh, yeah.
00:09:25
Alexis
<unk> habit in
00:09:25
Plant People
I started all the animated series.
00:09:27
Jessica
Now, if we're talking about like movies, we can all agree that probably everyone on here has watched lower the Lord of the Rings series multiple times.
00:09:27
Plant People
Yes.
00:09:35
Brett
Yes.
00:09:35
Jessica
Could we agree with that?
00:09:36
Plant People
Yeah.
00:09:36
Jessica
Yes, we all agree with that.
00:09:38
Plant People
We're the extended cut family. Yeah.
00:09:41
Jessica
Yeah.
00:09:42
Brett
did you answer Did you answer the one that you have nobody's you haven't seen that everybody else has, Ray?
00:09:42
Plant People
It's one that does.
00:09:48
Plant People
I'm trying to think cause I am a kind of a little bit of a trash panda.
00:09:50
Brett
I'm trying to think because I've seen everything.
00:09:53
Plant People
I watch, I have watched, I've watched a lot of things. i I don't, I don't know that I'm at the point of resistance to anything currently. I don't know.
00:10:03
Alexis
necessary
00:10:04
Brett
Yeah, I'm not actually resistant.
00:10:04
Plant People
I don't know.
00:10:05
Brett
I just the the opportunity to watch Frozen doesn't present itself to me very much and actually, he actually never really.
00:10:11
Plant People
Yeah. We used to watch more of the animated stuff.
00:10:14
Alexis
I just went out and bought it. So I don't know. What do you mean by like represent like represents itself? Like, it just happens. I was just like, Oh, it's down on DVD.
00:10:21
Plant People
Lexus is going to present you with an opportunity to watch it.
00:10:22
Alexis
I'm gonna go. but No, I never seen it.
00:10:24
Brett
but you'd already But you'd already seen it though. You bought it to watch it?
00:10:29
Alexis
Yeah.
00:10:29
Brett
Oh, wow. Was this like 1994?
00:10:36
Jessica
was It was a Disney, but Disney like special release from the vault.
00:10:36
Brett
No.
00:10:37
Alexis
I mean, it was pre COVID.
00:10:39
Plant People
Yes, special edition.
00:10:39
Alexis
So like, basically, yes, it was 1994.
00:10:42
Brett
I gotcha.
00:10:45
Alexis
Well, we are a plant podcast. And while we could probably come up with some good, you know, ah you know, maybe we should do a whole episode on just like, flaws and plants we've seen in movies.
00:10:56
Plant People
Plant and popular culture. Yeah.
00:11:00
Jessica
Yeah, or like TV shows, like I will, this is getting kind of talked about, I am not a big fan of Walking Dead, right?
00:11:07
Alexis
Mm hmm. I've not watched.
00:11:09
Jessica
But it did, when my husband tried to make me watch it, like, you know, zombies are supposed to have taken over everything and like society has gone away, but the lawns were like perfectly manicured.
00:11:09
Alexis
you
00:11:13
Plant People
Didn't go well.
00:11:22
Alexis
Yeah.
00:11:22
Jessica
Like, right, there are these beautiful hydrangeas, the lawns were mowed, all this stuff.
00:11:25
Alexis
Yeah.
00:11:25
Jessica
And I was like, this, this is not right.
00:11:27
Plant People
It was early in the timeline, Jessica.
00:11:27
Alexis
Was it? Wasn't there like a whole thing that came out there with that movie?
00:11:30
Plant People
yeah
00:11:32
Alexis
Oh, what was it called? The one where they had to be quiet or the aliens would gi could hear get them.
00:11:37
Plant People
Yeah, quiet place.
00:11:38
Jessica
Yes.
00:11:39
Alexis
Yeah.
00:11:39
Plant People
Yeah.
00:11:39
Alexis
Yeah. And so ah there's like scenes in there and it's like multiple years after the aliens invaded and society has fallen and there's like perfectly straight rows of corn. And it's like you can't use tractors.
00:11:51
Alexis
They're loud. It's like that corn does doesn't come back every year by itself in Iowa. like And it was like plant people are furious.
00:12:01
Brett
I didn't actually know, but that it was actually, a that was a prequel to the office.
00:12:01
Plant People
These are the things.
00:12:04
Brett
People don't know that most people don't know that long before.
00:12:06
Plant People
Yeah. A not quiet place.
00:12:08
Alexis
Indeed. Yeah, that was pre-PAM.
00:12:08
Jessica
Miss that.
00:12:11
Plant People
Yeah.
00:12:12
Alexis
This is insane.
00:12:12
Plant People
Back when things were quieter.
00:12:14
Alexis
Well, ah anyways, on to the
All About Microgreens
00:12:16
Alexis
plants. We are talking about microgreens ah today because it is winter and you, it can be hard to think about or you can miss, miss being able to maybe grow something fresh for yourself.
00:12:17
Plant People
What plans?
00:12:29
Alexis
And so I feel like microgreens are a fun way to be able to still grow something that you can eat something that you have grown and it's very quick return on investment and it's very,
00:12:40
Alexis
I feel like you get a lot of satisfaction because it's just so fast. It's like every week is, you know, you get, you get you have ah fruits of your labor every week happen.
00:12:47
Plant People
Well, last week we talked about like dish gardens and terrariums, and you know we had a little bit of a side note to that that you know it's not producing typically any food.
00:12:49
Alexis
Has anybody here ever?
00:12:59
Plant People
Well, this is kind of just the opposite.
00:13:01
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:13:01
Plant People
It is something that you you can grow just about any time during the year, but it actually is food that can be used lots of different ways. um I guess a good place to start, you guys, talking about this conversation is you know You've already mentioned the term microgreens, but when I hear like young eating young plants, ah there's kind of three broad categories like you know immature plant parts, whatever. um It's kind of three broad categories that I kind of lump everything into and that I've seen lumped into is the first one is sprouts, which is basically you're eating everything. It's a process that I don't do a whole lot and we won't probably won't talk a whole lot about.
00:13:39
Plant People
on this episode but it's sprouts you eat every part of the plant it's the youngest and next in the middle is microgreens it's a 14 to 21 day very young plant sometimes has true leaves on it and then i see this third class that i've come to just called baby greens and it's more of the 30 to 40 day it's still immature but it's older than microgreens so sprouts microgreens and baby greens and today we're talking about microgreens which is sort of right in the middle there yeah
00:14:02
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:14:07
Alexis
Yeah, they're fun.
00:14:08
Jessica
Right.
00:14:09
Alexis
They're easy.
00:14:09
Plant People
Have you guys, ah yeah, go ahead Alexa, sorry.
00:14:10
Alexis
they're Yeah, obviously they're really easy to grow. like I like to do them with like to do with kids again, because it's like something very quick turnaround.
00:14:20
Alexis
And it's fun to watch. ah Because the way you're growing them is you're not using any soil, so you really get to like experience the growth ah you know from seed to harvest and really be able to to see it. And also there's like some interesting like flavor combinations and things that you might not normally think of.
00:14:39
Alexis
as being something edible. So what an example is like sunflower micro grains. And so sunflower like shoots. And so we normally I mean, you think maybe about sunflower seeds, we don't think about eating the plant itself. And so um there's that's actually one of the things you can grow, they're really high in nutrients as well for how small they are, like relatively speaking.
00:15:00
Alexis
And so that can be kind of a fun thing to, you know, add to salads for a little bit of extra flavor or a nutrient boosts or sandwiches. And again, I think there's just something like for me as a plant person that's exciting about like having something actively growing and like feeding myself with that in the middle of winter.
00:15:18
Alexis
It's just, I don't know, it feels feels better.
00:15:18
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:15:21
Alexis
Something feels feels good about that.
00:15:24
Plant People
People, ah it's interesting when we say microgreens, I guess it's not very descriptive and people think it's more exotic than it it really is. So usually when I talk to folks that are new to the concept there at the office, you know, we're talking about what microgreens are and are not. We sort of giving you the three, you know, class, typical classifications of plant based on really age.
00:15:45
Plant People
But with microgreens, we usually start at the beginning and you know people ask, well, what kind of seeds? And you already mentioned some, Alexis, those are the larger seeds you just mentioned, like beets and sunflowers. So you can break you know the different seeds down into big seeds or small seeds.
00:16:01
Plant People
But it starts with the seeds and people ask, well, where do you get these seeds at? ah yeah and and And I'll mention to people that broccoli is a microgreen. That's an option. And they're like, oh, so we can just go and get broccoli seed and do that. But what I encourage people to do when you're first learning about microgreens is, since they're pretty readily available from online order sources, is do get seeds.
00:16:24
Plant People
that are meant for microgreen production. They're not going to have any kind of fungicidal coating or anything on there, no seed treatments.
00:16:28
Jessica
Right. No treatments.
00:16:33
Plant People
That's sort of important because remember, we're talking about microgreen, something that grows three to four inches off of um potting soil or, you know, we'll talk about like grow mats here. at some point, but it's growing very close to the growing medium.
00:16:46
Plant People
So you don't want to any kind of seed coating. So that's important. so But microgreen seeds, there's all different kinds of mixes. You can get themed mixes like a mild mix or a spicy mix that'll have five to six different flavor combinations in a seed pack.
00:16:59
Alexis
Mhm.
00:17:03
Plant People
And those are really super available. In fact, the last couple of years, I've stopped at my local box store. I won't mention any names. It starts with a wall.
00:17:11
Alexis
Mhm.
00:17:11
Plant People
ends with a marble, like a local supply source. And they had this incredible selection of microgreens. We talked about on the last episode, you know, succulents had become so available and I had not realized you all that microgreen seeds, you can just go and buy them now at a common local sources.
00:17:17
Alexis
Mhm. Mhm.
00:17:27
Jessica
Right.
00:17:28
Plant People
Have you guys found that at your local, like, box source?
00:17:32
Jessica
Yeah, i've I've started noticing that more at box stores or even some of our um like ag supply stores who carry like, you know, some seeds that they have started also carrying those as well.
00:17:34
Plant People
Yeah.
00:17:40
Alexis
Mm-hm.
00:17:43
Plant People
Um.
00:17:45
Jessica
But easy, like you mentioned, like easy to find with most vegetable seed catalogs. um There are a few out there who kind of specialize in microgreens and will have wide varieties.
00:17:52
Alexis
Mm-hm.
00:17:53
Plant People
Yeah, there are.
00:17:55
Jessica
um and or they'll have like some just general selections like you said like a spicy mix versus um versus not but ah very easy to find but and you make a very good point of saying like well if you have some leftover broccoli seed from last year you know maybe not use that just in case it had a seed treatment on it
00:18:00
Plant People
Yeah.
00:18:04
Plant People
Um.
00:18:15
Plant People
Yeah.
00:18:16
Jessica
um because like you all said they're very very short when we're harvesting them and a very small window right there and we don't want to accidentally cross contaminate or get any of those chemicals ingest any of those.
00:18:28
Plant People
And the seeds, really, a ah pack of um microgreen seeds, a mix, it's it's pretty common to get them in some kind of mix, like a mild mix or spicy mix.
00:18:35
Alexis
listen
00:18:37
Plant People
It's not just a single run of beets or a single run of arugula or whatever, or let lettuce.
00:18:40
Jessica
h
00:18:43
Plant People
ah There's all sorts of microgreens. Once you dive down that hole, there's even wheat and, so like Alexis said, sunflowers, buckwheat, all sorts of things that, like alfalfa is a microgreen that I really enjoy.
00:18:49
Alexis
Vakui and stuff, yeah.
00:18:55
Plant People
but you know And that's why I love these as kids' projects. You can talk about like wheat and alfalfa, and they're like, ew, our cows eat that. And that's an awesome discussion point that when you eat these things at a tender stage, and that's essentially what microgreens are, ah it's different.
00:19:03
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:19:10
Plant People
And the nutritional values there, the tenderness is there, and lots and lots of flavor for such a small little tiny um plant you know product but it starts with the seeds and those are readily available so that barrier for most of us has been taken out of the way you can find the seeds easily either online or at your local store and I guess talking about microgreens the next step is I mean containers but really that's not anything special is it you all because microgreens don't take much of a volume of like potting mix at all if you're using like a potting mix
00:19:18
Jessica
mm hmm.
00:19:45
Alexis
Yeah. i And one, just like on the seed note, if you aren't able to find like the mix or maybe you don't like what's in the mix.
00:19:49
Plant People
Yeah.
00:19:53
Alexis
First of all, I would say try it because the microgreen ah version of it might, you know, be exciting, but if you don't necessarily want a mix for some reason.
00:19:57
Plant People
Yeah.
00:20:02
Alexis
And you're worried about well how do i know if it's been treated or not of an easy way to go as if it's or if it's organic because organic seeds are not treated and so then you can feel a little bit more safe there but if they say you know untreated raw seed it doesn't have to be organic but that's just kind of like an easy way to cue yourself in on that so i just wanted to.
00:20:06
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:20:20
Plant People
Yeah.
00:20:22
Alexis
kind of point that out as well in case you know you can't find the mixes or you want to buy bulk so if you were going to do so microgreens you know we are on this podcast we kind of talk about a lot of the time we talk about like home stuff or larger production things you know we try our best to kind of have something for everybody on each episode and microgreens I think are a really great example of that because there are people who are doing you know even in the state of Kentucky who are doing
00:20:22
Plant People
and
00:20:26
Plant People
Yeah. Mm hmm.
00:20:48
Alexis
you know, what we'd consider commercial production of microgreens and they're selling to restaurants or they're selling at a farmer's market and they're doing large quantity.
00:20:54
Plant People
Mhm.
00:20:56
Alexis
So they're buying seed in bulk, you know, they're buying big bags, you know, 20 pound bags of radish seed that they might be using for microgreens.
00:21:02
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:04
Alexis
But you can also do this, you know, in your own home with, um you know, when I've taught it before, ah we collected from our office staff, you know, ah our FCS agents who would be doing uh, programs on food. They always had like fresh fruit containers or something like that, those little plastic clamshells. And so we would save those and use those with, um, you know, our little workshops or where we do microgreens and we, you can grow them on something as simple as like a wet paper towel, which can, you know, require a lot more maintenance, but is cheap and easy. Or you can just put a fine layer of potting soil, uh, in there as well.
00:21:45
Alexis
if it's something that you know you might more readily have on hand.
00:21:46
Plant People
Yeah.
00:21:47
Alexis
And so anything that drains and can hold in some humidity is perfectly good to use.
00:21:54
Plant People
especially during germination. And before we move on from seeds, we've already mentioned it, to but it is good to know if you have one of the larger seeds, the the seeding process is gonna be a little different.
Growing Techniques and Tips
00:22:05
Plant People
A beet seed or a sunflower seeds, gonna be a different process than the tiny little broccoli seeds, where those seeds basically you're putting right on top of the soil in whatever container you have, you know, an inch, a half, two inches of soil, or, you know, whatever process you're using there.
00:22:22
Plant People
um the tiny seeds you're just putting right on and kind of just pressing those seeds in and that's a common failure point as I've had during workshops I see people scruffing that in with their fingers and I tell them that that's going to go too deep because number one you're seeding these seeds at a much thicker rate because microgreens you want them really really really thick.
00:22:41
Alexis
Well, you got a carpet.
00:22:42
Plant People
almost like a head of hair, yeah like a carpet. You're running them very thick and that's one of the differences in seedy microgreens is you're putting them thicker but with tiny seeded things you're just basically pressing those into the soil.
00:22:54
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:22:55
Plant People
If you have something big like a sunflower seed there may be you'll read in literature that it'll say soak for 12 hours and and you can do that to speed up germination. But the seeding process is different in that you actually can cover those with potting soil, sola some some kind of solace mixture ah when you're seeding those.
00:23:12
Alexis
Mm-hm.
00:23:15
Plant People
So it is a little bit different seeding process, tiny seeds versus big seeds. And there's a lot of the bigger seeds that have a soaking requirement. And the easiest thing to do that is just look at reference material.
00:23:27
Plant People
And all that's going to do is just speed up the germination rate on those larger seeds.
00:23:28
Alexis
Mm
00:23:31
Plant People
for you
00:23:31
Alexis
-hm.
00:23:32
Plant People
So you'll run into that when you're first getting started. But be careful. I forget, you guys kind of helped me out here. There's some seeds that will absolutely slime up. Is it arugula? That if you get it wet, it like so there's some certain seeds that have a a seed coat that if you soak them, ah yeah, they they develop a slimy substance.
00:23:46
Alexis
A mucilage.
00:23:51
Alexis
Chia is ah is a one a lot of people know that has that.
00:23:52
Plant People
So yeah, yeah.
00:23:53
Jessica
Yeah.
00:23:55
Plant People
So watch out for that. That's a kind of a pro tip. but Don't soak the slimies.
00:23:58
Brett
the the vegan, the vegan, the vegans actually use use that to their advantage when using chia as a food product to make like a pudding kind of type vibe.
00:23:58
Alexis
And that's not a bad thing. It's just something to know.
00:24:06
Plant People
Mm-hmm. Oh.
00:24:09
Alexis
I've seen it, uh, is it, I think it's like a flat flax, the, um, from flax seed and they'll use it in as a substitute for like egg whites.
00:24:09
Brett
Slime pudding.
00:24:10
Plant People
Ooh.
00:24:13
Brett
Yep.
00:24:16
Alexis
Cause it's kind of a similar texture to egg whites.
00:24:17
Plant People
Oh, yeah. Become a gel like texture, yeah.
00:24:20
Alexis
I've seen. Yeah.
00:24:20
Brett
flax, a flax egg as in many, uh, many, um, vegan recipe.
00:24:22
Alexis
Yeah. Flax egg. Yeah. I was like, I've used that before.
00:24:27
Brett
That was and my wife and I were, were vegan for, I don't know, seven or eight years.
00:24:27
Alexis
Yeah.
00:24:30
Plant People
um So just be aware of that.
00:24:32
Brett
So I didn't eat the chia. The chia stuff is the chia stuff is no, not my thing, but I'm also not a big okra person for a similar reason.
00:24:34
Plant People
yeah
00:24:40
Brett
You know, slime is now
00:24:40
Alexis
not Not into the slime.
00:24:41
Jessica
Yeah.
00:24:42
Plant People
With okra, that wouldn't be a problem, Brad, if you just deep fried it in a heavy coating of bread. I'm just saying.
00:24:46
Brett
that I can get down with.
00:24:48
Plant People
and Me too. I'm right there with you, Brad. But that with seeds, just know that not all seed processes are exactly the same. They're a little bit different.
00:24:58
Plant People
When you get your container ready, um you know just be aware of that. If you're kind of doing it on your own, pay close attention to the literature that you're reading and the type of seeds that you have. so
00:25:08
Brett
Have you all seen the the racks, ah the microgreen racks that people market?
00:25:12
Plant People
Mm-hmm, no.
00:25:14
Jessica
Mm-hmm.
00:25:14
Brett
it's like um
00:25:17
Brett
They actually remind me of, like ah the there's there's racks that people use for like breeding um snakes and rat rats and stuff, but but it's basically like a drawer sliding drawer.
00:25:31
Brett
I don't really know that that's a reference point that anybody else is gonna know. so
00:25:34
Alexis
i
00:25:34
Jessica
I was like, now yeah I'm like, now do I want to Google this?
00:25:34
Plant People
It's like, uh, yeah.
00:25:35
Alexis
Everyone's face right now. We know this is an audio, but
00:25:36
Brett
I had it halfway out and then I, so yeah, it's not as exciting as you might expect.
00:25:40
Jessica
I don't know.
00:25:41
Plant People
Yeah, sliding or slight cracks, microgrids.
00:25:41
Jessica
Like, what am I talking about? now
00:25:44
Brett
It's a, it's a basically like a metal framed shelving unit that is built in a way that sliding, like a hard plastic tubs go in and out kind of like drawers.
00:25:58
Jessica
Okay.
00:25:58
Brett
And so you slide it in and in the case of the microgreens, there's usually lights and sometimes there's water injection.
00:26:04
Plant People
Oh, gotcha. and
00:26:06
Brett
and other stuff like that so you can sort of have these drawers of microgreens growing. And I've i've actually seen, ah maybe we could talk about this, I'm not trying to derail us, but um i've seen I've seen microgreens held up as sort of like a,
00:26:20
Brett
I wouldn't say get rich quick scheme, but in a kind of like you can do you to get a microgreens rig and here's how you can make $10,000 a month with microgreens or something like that, you know, like on YouTube or places like that.
00:26:31
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:26:31
Brett
So maybe we could talk about that.
00:26:32
Plant People
yeah I know commercially that's a big problem, man.
00:26:33
Brett
But yeah, there are, there are some racks that are kind of cool.
00:26:36
Plant People
and that that's That's the thing, Brett, with commercial production, ah people that are doing microgreens you know for a sort of a pay scale kind of thing, is space is the biggest issue. Because i mean you have flats of microgreens in whatever size containers, they take up a lot of room, a lot of shelf space, so I could see why they would want to innovate and you know in that area and just have kind of a stack of things. I could see that, yeah, space is at a premium when we're talking about microgreens.
00:27:04
Plant People
Where does that leave us?
00:27:05
Alexis
Yes.
00:27:06
Plant People
I guess there's there's soil next. We talked about that, like ah a sterile potting medium. By the way, don't reuse if you use a potting soil. That's one thing in microgreens I go over with classes is don't use it. Once you use it once, don't throw it away.
00:27:17
Jessica
It's one and done.
00:27:18
Plant People
One and done, put it out in the garden. The reason being, we'll go back to the fact that microgreens are something that glows that grows. close to the soil and you don't want that soil to get contaminated and then splash up, you know, depending on your watering system onto the microgreens themselves.
00:27:35
Plant People
So just use that once and throw it out. a Good quality potting soil is the most common thing to use ah with my classes.
00:27:40
Alexis
Mhmm.
00:27:41
Plant People
And it's only once again, just a thin layer of that, as Alexis said, a very thin layer.
00:27:45
Jessica
and And I was going to go into like, so we think of soil and we can talk about the the mats too, but I think, you know, it gets brought up with soil thinking about like fertilizing, which that's not something that you need to do with microgreens because they're just growing for that short window and there should be enough energy from inside that little seed to pop out that little ah microgreen for you.
00:27:46
Alexis
Yeah.
00:27:51
Alexis
Mhmm.
00:27:54
Plant People
Yeah.
00:28:02
Plant People
at all. Yeah.
00:28:11
Plant People
Yeah. And that that, in fact, can be a problem. I'm glad you brought that up, Jessica, because a lot of the soil mixes now, they love to put pre-mixes of fertilizer in potting soil.
00:28:18
Jessica
Mm hmm. Yeah.
00:28:22
Plant People
Love, love that.
00:28:22
Alexis
Yeah.
00:28:23
Plant People
So the hard thing now is I actually look for potting soil that has no fertilizer added whatsoever, because that'll cause your microgreens to get legged. And that's a super common problem ah for them to get legged.
00:28:35
Plant People
In fact, you know commercial operations, you'll see fans on microgreens to actually provide movement and you know with the density of plants that you have in there, and that makes the stem straighter and stronger. um so But now if you have a bunch of fertilizer in there, the legginess is going to be a problem. You don't need that, as Jessica said. So look as you're looking for supplies, if you're going to try microgreens, look for some kind of soulless mix that does not have any fertilizer.
00:29:02
Alexis
and And then there's the mats that a lot of and from like a commercial standpoint you'll see them a little bit more often that I mean I've seen like wool like they're like almost like a um ah It makes me think of the like batting that you will see in a quilt I don't know if you guys know what I'm talking about like the white batting
00:29:10
Plant People
Yeah.
00:29:13
Plant People
Let's see.
00:29:19
Plant People
Oh.
00:29:20
Jessica
Yeah, I don't strike him out.
00:29:21
Plant People
Yeah. In between the high density and batting.
00:29:22
Jessica
Yeah.
00:29:23
Alexis
Yeah, that's what it looks like. that It's something that comes like in a roll and it's about an inch or something like that.
00:29:25
Plant People
I've seen the cocoa fiber like that. Yeah.
00:29:29
Alexis
ah That's what it reminds me of. That's not what it is, but ah that they'll actually grow those seeds in. And so again, that key is having the media, whatever it is that you're using damp and moist.
00:29:35
Plant People
Yeah.
00:29:42
Alexis
And then making sure those seeds are in good contact and then kind of overhead missing them and and creating an environment where they're going to germinate where it's warm ah and ah moist. So those are pretty interesting.
00:29:53
Alexis
And then they shave them off. So they like, it's almost like a little pair of hedge trimmers and they just kind of go right down at the base and they shave them off into, into your clam shell or into whatever it is ah that they're selling them for.
00:30:01
Plant People
Yeah.
00:30:06
Alexis
Usually bags.
00:30:06
Plant People
I've seen the microgreen kits, Alexis, at the farmer's market where they sell the mats and everything in the little clam shells.
00:30:10
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:30:11
Jessica
Mm-hm.
00:30:12
Plant People
And that makes a cool little kit. And now the the mats that we're talking about, the hydroponic mats typically is just the class of mats that they are, but they don't they only work for the small seeded stuff. They will not work for the large seeded stuff because they either take dark or they have to be covered or both.
00:30:26
Plant People
um they So it wouldn't work for sunflowers, but it'll work for small seeded things. But the mats are so cool because you have this little, usually perfectly cut square mat that matches some little clamshell container.
00:30:37
Plant People
And you can sell it as a living kit because one of the things about microgreens, I don't know about you guys, but when I have them sitting in a window, so I do not cut those rascals until I am ready to use them because they don't keep very well in the refrigerator.
00:30:47
Alexis
Yeah.
00:30:48
Jessica
Right, because they don't. Yeah, they need have a short shelf life, right?
00:30:50
Plant People
Yeah. I learned that the hard way I not only did I cut them and did not use all of them the first time I ever grew them is I decided to rinse them a little bit.
00:30:53
Alexis
yeah
00:30:58
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:30:59
Plant People
So they basically turned a mush in about a day and a half. So now I don't try to only cut in whatever container I have. I cut the microgreens that I can use at that time.
00:31:10
Jessica
And still cut, then rinse, and consume.
00:31:10
Plant People
so
00:31:13
Alexis
isn
00:31:13
Jessica
Just like don't rinse in advance like you.
00:31:14
Plant People
Yeah. No, no, no.
00:31:16
Jessica
yeah So it still still give them a rinse.
00:31:17
Plant People
I mean, mistakes remain. Yes, mistakes were made in my case, but if I'm using them fras fresh, you know, fresh running water, rinse them off good. But that's something about the mats that I think is cool.
00:31:29
Plant People
Alexis said, I see ah those at our farmer's market, they're starting to use those commercially in those living kits. But now at your all's markets, ah you mentioned that you've seen those where they've actually pre-cut the microgreens and put them in a container.
00:31:41
Plant People
I've seen them that way too, it seems like.
00:31:43
Alexis
Yeah, usually what I see them like for sale, they're just like it would be, you know, any, uh, you know, lettuce or something like that, but usually it's in a clam shell.
00:31:50
Plant People
Yeah, lucky dream.
00:31:52
Alexis
Um, and they cost quite a bit per pound, uh, because they are, they are very like labor intensive and like you said, they're very perishable, which kind of goes.
00:31:55
Plant People
Yeah, yeah.
00:32:00
Alexis
lends itself back to the, it's not really the get rich quick scheme um unless you're really, really dialed in and able to sell them quickly because they really don't have, they they don't last.
00:32:11
Alexis
So these people are cutting them the night before, you know, at the most and in putting them in the fridge and then bringing them directly to market.
00:32:12
Jessica
Right.
00:32:14
Plant People
Yes.
00:32:20
Jessica
Going back to the mats, you can reuse those, right? By flipping them over.
00:32:25
Plant People
yeah you can if you're at home yeah yeah and and they're clean on the other side yeah because they're dense and when when you flip them over yeah i've heard that a lot and i've actually experienced that is if you but you have to trim them very carefully or they don't lay flat and that really bothers my top a brain they're kind of bumpy but yeah you flip them over and it's a brand new mat so that's a case where you get two uses out of that mat
00:32:25
Jessica
Like I've heard that before, right? So you could get but possibly two uses out of them, right?
00:32:29
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:32:30
Jessica
Like, yeah, you have like home production. Yeah. Versus that soil we're going to throw out.
00:32:53
Plant People
and which is is kind of a nice perk to using the map.
00:32:55
Brett
You don't like the way that those bumps channel the rolling hills of kentuck Central Kentucky?
00:33:01
Plant People
It channels my discontent, but I see what you did there.
00:33:03
Brett
Oh, it's a little landscape. but A little land's just a little, you know.
00:33:06
Jessica
Ha ha ha!
00:33:07
Plant People
Yeah, the rolling foothills.
00:33:07
Brett
Think of it as think of it as your dish garden, you know? it's You're crafting a landscape.
00:33:10
Plant People
I know, I need down there. I need to chill out about my bumpy microgreen landscape.
00:33:15
Brett
Chill out about the bumpy mats, Ray.
00:33:17
Plant People
i do I do.
00:33:18
Brett
Jeez.
00:33:19
Plant People
I need to chill. Hydroponics to me is about control, Brett. It's about control. But yeah, yeah that's ah I do like that. The mats are super cool. And and Alexis, you mentioned watering, which is another kind of pro tip.
00:33:30
Plant People
If you can pull this off, we've already mentioned, you know be safe with microgreens. ah Be very careful how you water those. Number one, if you water a lot overhead, they'll tend to get diseases and then it just wipes microgreens out very, very quickly, especially if you're a commercial producer.
00:33:47
Plant People
If there's any way you can come up with a ah kind of a two container system and it's easy to do at home, if you have two like disposed, semi-disposable plastic containers, you can nest those together with the top one having holes drilled in it.
00:33:58
Alexis
Mm-hmm.
00:34:01
Plant People
and that's what you're growing the microgreens in and you can like lift that up water from the bottom then set uh i'm not painting a very good picture but set the second container back down in any way you can accomplish bottoming bottom watering is the absolute best to never get the microgreens wet i mean that's ideal now It's kind of hard to pull off sometimes, especially if you don't have a bunch of extra containers.
00:34:23
Plant People
ah But the less you can get the tops of those little guys wet, the better you are.
00:34:25
Jessica
Mm-hm.
00:34:27
Plant People
Because it's high density, high humidity scenario, especially if you're growing a bunch together. And fans and stuff help the commercial producers. But still, it's tough if you're you're constantly getting those wet.
00:34:38
Alexis
And when we say high density, like we we really mean like
Harvesting and Culinary Uses
00:34:41
Alexis
it will look like a carpet, like the seeds are going to touch.
00:34:41
Plant People
Yeah. Yes.
00:34:43
Alexis
So when I'm, you know, a radish seed is a very small, I mean, it's bigger than a piece of pepper or something like that, but it's a small circular seed and you're going to lay them out um where you basically can't see the media underneath them.
00:34:53
Plant People
Yeah.
00:34:58
Alexis
So they are a full thickness, which is why, um, the the humidity builds up with them as much and, but you get more bang for your buck, but you spend more money on seed.
00:35:06
Plant People
Yeah.
00:35:09
Alexis
So you see what I'm talking about here? Just the trade offs going on.
00:35:11
Brett
Thank you.
00:35:15
Plant People
It's a give and take, it's a give and take.
00:35:16
Alexis
It's a give and take.
00:35:17
Plant People
So we've got the seeds, we've got any kind of container that's kind of handy, that's a clean container.
00:35:23
Alexis
Clean.
00:35:23
Plant People
We've got our soil and watering.
00:35:23
Alexis
Yep.
00:35:25
Plant People
Jessica, you said we don't fertilize, which we don't.
00:35:27
Jessica
Right.
00:35:28
Plant People
No fertilize needed at all. Another, I guess, a tip that I see ah where people go wrong is when we're filling containers at our workshops, they will fill whatever container we're using, they they won't fill it all the way up flush.
00:35:42
Plant People
And they'll only fill it halfway. And that's a problem because remember with microgreens, it's really desirable to get as much of that stem as possible. And then they will email me back or text or whatever.
00:35:53
Plant People
They're like, Oh, we did awesome with microgreens, but we were losing half the stems because they didn't fill the containers up flush with the top. So they're leak, they can't get their scissors.
00:36:02
Jessica
I can't cut them, yeah.
00:36:03
Plant People
They can't, and I never had thought about that.
00:36:03
Alexis
Oh, I was like, what are you talking about?
00:36:06
Plant People
I never thought.
00:36:07
Alexis
like I was like, they don't need that much soil. I was like behind the scenes going, this is wrong.
00:36:10
Plant People
No, no, it's it yeah yeah because the the the li yeah Alexa was getting ready to call me out.
00:36:10
Jessica
Yeah.
00:36:12
Alexis
This is not.
00:36:15
Plant People
You should have seen her face. I was like, I better get to the point quickly.
00:36:18
Brett
Yeah.
00:36:19
Plant People
This monologue is going to turn into a confessional and I'm going to be crying.
00:36:20
Brett
It's like a tea kettle building up.
00:36:23
Alexis
It was.
00:36:23
Plant People
It was.
00:36:23
Alexis
I was like, how do I tell him he's wrong without making it obvious?
00:36:24
Plant People
and i I saw the fury.
00:36:24
Jessica
yeah
00:36:27
Plant People
but But get that soil up to whatever the lip of the container and you will be able to harvest because we use just a clean pair of scissors.
00:36:30
Alexis
who
00:36:34
Plant People
Please don't use dirty scissors because you're eating the product that you're cutting. But with a clean pair of scissors, that allows you to actually cut that stem right at soil level because remember with microgreens, you harvest once and you're done.
00:36:45
Plant People
It's not like they're going to regenerate because you're taking the growing point of the microgreens away.
00:36:49
Alexis
Right.
00:36:50
Plant People
ah But keep that in mind. And I'd never thought about that until people had kind of made that comment and actually sent me pictures where like our three inch container with one inch of soil makes us lose two inches of the stem.
00:37:00
Plant People
And I'm like, Oh, I should have thought of that.
00:37:02
Brett
So it may, it may be, you know, try to select something that's a little shallower would be the other way of the other way of, or or if it's a plastic, you know, you can trim it.
00:37:03
Alexis
Yeah.
00:37:05
Alexis
Mm hmm.
00:37:06
Plant People
Yeah, Brett.
00:37:07
Jessica
Yeah.
00:37:07
Plant People
Yeah, exactly. if we can Yeah.
00:37:09
Alexis
Yeah.
00:37:11
Brett
That's something with pots. People are sometimes like, Oh, I just, it's ah this deep pot. Well, you know, if you got a pair of scissors.
00:37:17
Alexis
I think ah my experience has either been, yeah, the real shallow container, so it doesn't really matter.
00:37:17
Plant People
Yeah.
00:37:22
Alexis
Or like if I'm using an old like raspberry container as an example, right? Those holes are kind of big, so I'll actually line that with a piece of paper towel, and then I'll put my you know little bit of media in there, my soil.
00:37:34
Alexis
in there ah but if it's still sitting too low just because I have like a bigger container because the roots have kind of matted up most of that soil I can usually pick up that paper towel and like lift them up pop it out of the container without it getting crazy and then cut right off there so I was just I know I was like Ray what are you talking about me
00:37:47
Jessica
yeah Yeah, pop it out.
00:37:49
Plant People
Oh, nice. Yeah, it's true.
00:37:57
Plant People
He's like, he is going completely in the wrong direction. What in the world?
00:37:59
Alexis
I was like, how do I tell people that that is not how I have done it?
00:38:01
Plant People
No. Yeah, that's not the way you do it. But yeah, be careful. It's like Brett said, you can, and that's a great suggestion, Brett, that if you have these disposable or, you know, containers that you're repurposing, if they're a thin plastic container, just trim the things.
00:38:14
Plant People
Great suggestion. Because potting soil, I guarantee, is probably, or some kind of potting mix, is more expensive than that throwaway container that you've repurposed.
00:38:21
Alexis
Yeah.
00:38:21
Brett
definitely
00:38:22
Plant People
So there you go.
00:38:22
Brett
Definitely or even even sometimes if you bought it though with the way upon the way potty media is now it's yeah Another that's another another in the
00:38:22
Alexis
oh
00:38:23
Plant People
And you're only getting one of these.
00:38:26
Plant People
ah Yeah, yeah, that's a great point, Brett.
00:38:28
Alexis
yeah
00:38:29
Plant People
Yeah, love it. So that's the next preview.
00:38:33
Brett
Back in my day, potting media was cheap. We...
00:38:38
Plant People
That hurts, Brett. I mean, that cuts pretty deep.
00:38:39
Brett
Yeah.
00:38:40
Plant People
Potting mix is not cheap, friends. That's exactly right.
00:38:42
Brett
It's not.
00:38:43
Alexis
Pete is not a renewable resource, unfortunately.
00:38:43
Plant People
Yeah, it is not.
00:38:44
Jessica
not.
00:38:48
Plant People
So how many days ah for you guys that are growing these things up to four or five inches, how many days do you guys grow off your microgreens? How many days does it take?
00:38:53
Alexis
You grow yours way taller than I grow mine. um and that could And that could be just what you're growing.
00:38:56
Plant People
know What heath are you getting?
00:38:59
Alexis
So that's that's part of this is...
00:38:59
Plant People
It probably is, yeah. If you're growing wheatgrass, it gets about four or four and a half something.
00:39:00
Alexis
um Right. So the, let me collect myself here. Um, when you, going back to the sprout microgreen baby green, right?
00:39:07
Plant People
After I raise my lawn.
00:39:12
Alexis
So a sprout never has what we call true leaves, which we know that's what we call our listeners, the true leaves. But as a reminder, uh, in the botanical term, true leave is the first leaf that looks like what the adult plant leaf looks like.
00:39:18
Plant People
The true leaves.
00:39:25
Jessica
Like a leaf, yeah.
00:39:25
Plant People
leaf, like leaf, baby leaf.
00:39:26
Alexis
It looks like the actual leave versus the cotyledons. Um, that's more of the sprout stage and those just look like am andbique ambiguous ah little tiny green things.
00:39:38
Brett
So if someone listens to a horticulture this horticulture episode and they decide it's not for them, they remain in the sprout stage. They have not become...
00:39:45
Alexis
Sprout seeds. Yeah.
00:39:46
Plant People
Nice.
00:39:46
Brett
they do not have
00:39:46
Alexis
Yeah.
00:39:46
Jessica
Right.
00:39:46
Alexis
They gave it a shot.
00:39:47
Plant People
They never make it to micro green stage.
00:39:47
Alexis
Right.
00:39:48
Jessica
Yep.
00:39:48
Alexis
True leaves are you all listening probably right now.
00:39:48
Jessica
and
00:39:51
Alexis
So anyways, microgreens are harvested at that true leaf stage. So usually there's one or two true leaves, of what the adult plant would actually look like. And then after that, if you get more than one set of true leaves, it would be considered a baby green.
00:40:04
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:40:06
Plant People
Yeah.
00:40:06
Alexis
Uh, so that is going to be size the, you know, how tall those are is going to depend on what it is. A sunflower is probably going to be taller than a radish, um, and where they're at.
00:40:15
Plant People
Yeah.
00:40:17
Alexis
Cause like mine, the varieties I usually grow, which has been like arugula and radish and those types of things are usually only about an inch and a half to two inches.
00:40:28
Alexis
So just like for reference, if you're doing this, you can't necessarily go off the height.
00:40:30
Plant People
Mm hmm.
00:40:33
Alexis
You need to go off the leaf stage.
00:40:35
Plant People
Yeah, ah the earlier you collect those things, obviously, the more tender they're going to be. But it's amazing how something so tiny can have that much flavor. I would have believed it.
00:40:43
Alexis
I know, isn't that crazy?
00:40:44
Plant People
But I mean, it's like broccoli tastes like broccoli or radish tastes like a radish.
00:40:44
Alexis
Cause it's like a radish.
00:40:44
Jessica
Right.
00:40:46
Alexis
Yeah. A radish microgreen tastes like radish. That's like, that's, that's spicy.
00:40:49
Brett
Schnaufberry tastes like schnauzberry.
00:40:51
Plant People
I like it. I like so but enough of the boring growing stuff.
00:40:53
Alexis
Um, yeah.
00:40:56
Plant People
We've got these things grown up and we're harvesting and we've talked about, you know, keeping them safe. What are the rest? How are you guys using microgreens? I mean, like at home, sandwiches.
00:41:03
Alexis
Samages.
00:41:04
Jessica
Yeah sandwiches
00:41:05
Plant People
Yeah, my favorite. We do wraps with microgreens like a wrap.
00:41:06
Alexis
I love to just. grab like a big bundle of them. you know and just It's like a little nest of them.
00:41:11
Plant People
um
00:41:13
Alexis
You just smash it on a sandwich. and Yeah, because then it's like it's cool because you get that like spicy radish flavor you know on your turkey and Swiss.
00:41:15
Plant People
Yeah, good stuff. Mm hmm.
00:41:23
Alexis
It adds a little extra jouge in there, so big fan.
00:41:26
Plant People
fancy soups. I mean, I've seen them in the restaurants, like ah yeah at least pictures in ah pictured in restaurants as a garnish for like fancy soups.
00:41:33
Alexis
Mm-hmm, or are the ones that will get some color to them like the little baby chards and stuff that'll get like the red stems and Those are pretty like in salads and again adds like a a flavor complex there that you know lettuce minus not necessarily Hmm I don't know.
00:41:33
Plant People
So.
00:41:38
Plant People
Yeah, the red stuff. Yeah.
00:41:42
Plant People
Mm hmm.
00:41:46
Plant People
Smoothies, they're really good in smoothies.
00:41:48
Jessica
That's yeah, that's what I was going to say.
00:41:48
Plant People
Jennifer used to have been smoothies. Yeah, she got to got into the spicy one.
00:41:51
Jessica
I have not put them in smoothies, but I know other people who have.
00:41:52
Alexis
Yeah, what it would have to not be radish Pea shoots
00:41:56
Plant People
She, and I mean, she's like, like a, lots of kale and all kinds of things like that, but throws those in just to kind of, you know, spice it up a little bit when we, you know, have a quantity of those. It takes pretty good quantity though, unfortunately.
00:42:08
Plant People
So pound of microgreens is an incredible amount of microgreens.
00:42:08
Alexis
Yeah, and that's why where you you'll start seeing like the numbers associated like, oh, it's you know, ah how many dollars per pound and it's really high in comparison to something like tomatoes, but then you think about how small this product is and how many microgreens Yeah.
00:42:24
Plant People
That's in a lot of microgreens.
00:42:24
Alexis
so it's
00:42:27
Plant People
Yeah.
00:42:27
Alexis
and you know From a commercial perspective, ah there's there's a lot of labor involved. um I think when I've talked to people who do microgreens commercially and are selling primarily to restaurants or or schools where they're putting them like in salads and stuff, um they say that you know space is definitely an issue, but when they've converted to going vertical, you know that helps a lot.
00:42:41
Plant People
Yeah.
00:42:49
Alexis
ah But labor, because you're turning them over so quickly, ah where you know some of these varieties, they're harvesting in 10 days. So that means that like every day they're having to do you know hundreds of trays and they're going to fill them and seed them so that they have a consistent supply for their their market. um And so you pay a lot ah for your labor and to be able to. So it's, again, going back to the don't get rich quick scheme. There's there's no such thing in horticulture, unfortunately.
00:43:18
Jessica
What?
00:43:19
Plant People
No.
00:43:19
Alexis
What?
00:43:20
Jessica
Just now finding this out.
00:43:21
Alexis
Yeah, I know, right? I've been farming this whole time. What did I miss?
00:43:25
Plant People
And if you do find that, you better keep it quiet and we're going to replicate it.
00:43:29
Alexis
so
00:43:30
Jessica
That's right.
00:43:30
Alexis
We're going to tell everybody on the podcast about it because we don't gate keep around here.
00:43:36
Plant People
Microgreens are just one of those cool things. It's a great, you've noticed our last podcast, it also involved projects you can do on the inside. And that's what we're striving to do, I think, as ah plant people around here, is we're looking for the joy in our life through plants that, you know, projects that we can sort of do. So, dish gardens, terrariums, microgreens, these are all projects that you can do through the winter, either you or your family can do and have
Microgreens as Educational Tools
00:44:00
Plant People
a lot of fun with.
00:44:00
Plant People
In this case, Brett, it's got some form and function, mainly function, not so much form with microgreens. Last week was more about the form rather than the function of eating.
00:44:08
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:44:10
Plant People
um But yeah, microgreens are fun.
00:44:11
Alexis
Mmhmm.
00:44:13
Plant People
I like those, especially for youth projects and lots of school garden, you know, we have lots of discussions on school gardens, but when I work with schools a lot, um you know, if we're doing a traditional in-ground garden, they're like, well, when do we need to be? I'm like, well, it's when you're out of school is when most of the learning and growing ah for a traditional garden takes place. So what we do is substitute a lot of projects like microgreens in that matches the shorter attention span sometimes of adults and and younger people.
00:44:42
Plant People
But you can learn a lot in a small amount of time.
00:44:43
Jessica
Uh-huh.
00:44:45
Plant People
And you can see things go from a seed to something edible, and then use that edible project product in a recipe. And it's pretty cool. It makes a and makes ah it makes ah fun and tasty project, especially in the wintertime.
00:44:58
Plant People
It's good stuff.
00:45:00
Alexis
We will put a link in the show notes to some publications that have some a good list of things to try. I think it's a a nice variety of things that are can be used that way, you know, whatever you can put your hands on. But for the most part, you can use just about anything. It might and just kind of remember.
00:45:21
Alexis
Uh, it's going to taste like the, the leaf kind of thing or the, or the what the root might be. So like carrots, uh, can be one, uh, and they're going to taste kind of carroty, but it's only a foliage. And I say that because like, if you were to do.
00:45:37
Alexis
Tomato microgreens is not a thing because those are not going to taste like a tomato or a bell pepper or something like that.
00:45:41
Jessica
Mm hmm.
00:45:43
Alexis
So I just want to caution you on on that.
00:45:43
Plant People
know Don't go too rogue on your experimentation.
00:45:46
Alexis
ah Stick with your root crops or your leafy crops for the most part. um To get some good ah taste there, but that we have uk has at least one publication That talks about and has like a really broad list. I think uh fennel is one I would like to try uh lemongrass I thought was interesting uh as another one that would be good but also I feel like lemongrass seed would be too expensive to do that, but maybe I don't know enough about lemongrass seed.
00:46:14
Jessica
Yeah.
00:46:16
Alexis
Like some of these, you know, you'll think and you're like, this is a really quick way to lose money if I'm not buying cheap seed. But it could be, it can be fun.
00:46:25
Plant People
Yeah.
00:46:26
Alexis
You know, maybe you can do like a taste test and you seed them all in one day and then you kind of can have like a little taste test of all the different ones. And can you guess which plant it is and things?
00:46:35
Brett
Yeah, maybe.
00:46:35
Alexis
ah So yeah.
00:46:35
Brett
And if you just put a little bit of lemongrass like in a mix to accent, then it wouldn't be so expensive.
00:46:39
Alexis
yeah
00:46:40
Brett
You know, I wonder how it's probably, it's probably pretty relatively powerful.
00:46:40
Alexis
Yeah, a little lemony goodness yeah to your celery.
00:46:46
Alexis
I would imagine.
00:46:46
Plant People
I think so. Yeah. I've never gotten that.
00:46:48
Alexis
So yeah, give it a shot. They they are really easy and for you know a packet of seeds can be really inexpensive for some of these things. And so you can have some fresh something fresh to eat and play around with ah in the middle of winter really quick for you know a buck or two.
00:47:04
Alexis
And so I think that can be a fun thing to do. so Definitely give that a shout. Any other thoughts on microgreens? No?
00:47:13
Alexis
Silence?
00:47:13
Plant People
Make yourself a tasty wrap and go at it, yeah.
00:47:13
Jessica
It's just a fun winter project, right?
00:47:16
Alexis
I know. Now I'm like, I need to go do this. I need to go find.
00:47:19
Plant People
It's not a thing exotic, people.
00:47:20
Jessica
I just got a whole supply of stuff sitting on my desk over here for microgreens class.
00:47:21
Plant People
It's an easy process, relatively easy.
00:47:25
Alexis
Maybe I should visit my county agent to see if they have any resources for me.
00:47:26
Plant People
Oh, do you? You have diagram.
00:47:30
Jessica
Right.
00:47:30
Plant People
Dang.
00:47:30
Jessica
You can come and participate.
00:47:32
Alexis
I'm laughing because it's Jessica. Jessica is my county agent for those of you who are new around here.
00:47:35
Jessica
I am, I am.
00:47:37
Plant People
I can see Alexis going to Jessica's. You better lock your door, Jessica. Alexis will visit your microgreen mix.
00:47:41
Alexis
I just walk through anymore. I don't stop. I'm that bad person who's like, I know people.
00:47:45
Jessica
Everyone's just like, hey. Yeah.
00:47:47
Alexis
Yeah. I just, I just walk in and I probably need to act like a normal taxpayer.
00:47:48
Jessica
Hey, Alexis is here.
00:47:52
Alexis
Uh, but oh, well. So anyways, try microgreens. If you have questions about them, uh, you know, reach out to us. You can do that on Instagram at hort culture pod. You can also shoot us an email and that is in the show notes if you've got a question about them or if you you know want us to expand or have other ideas for our episodes.
00:48:11
Alexis
We work those in based on kind of time of year and when we think they would be the most helpful, so feel free to reach out on there. and I'm going to try and find, I have an old, not old, I guess it is old because it was COVID times,
00:48:25
Alexis
but a video on doing microgreens for when we were all stuck inside and we had nowhere to go. And so I'm gonna try and put that on the Instagram. And so ah maybe it'll put some visuals to some of this audio that we've had for you today. And I'll do my best to to get that out to you guys. ah But yeah, we hope you will follow us and we hope that you are enjoying this podcast and that as we grow it, you will grow with us. Have a great one.