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Rather than rotate our crops using our new kit configuration, I tried three distinct crops to test them side by side. Last night I highlighted the MEGA radish crop. Tonight I'll post shots of the entire three crop grow out. All of the crops were successful and produced an abundant and tasty harvest. Our system works extremely well ... note again that these results were obtained using our kit and grow out time of just SEVEN days .... 
Radish, Kale & Arugula Microgreens at 7 days ...
Here are more closeups of each of the crops. Great results using our bioSoil and seeds using our trays that are all included in the new kits now for sale ... Click on each of the shots to get a better look at the vibrant growth. Each crop has a distinct taste that will add zip to any use.
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I couldn't believe the harvest today of our radish blend that we started exactly a week ago ... the plants are enormous and do not have primary leaves emerging yet, they were so big they were falling over the sides of the tray ... 
If you look at some of the harvest, I clipped the stems above the media and they were still taller than 5". I believe there were a few that were over 6" if you were careful to clip them close to the bioSoil. This is just a few hours shy of 7 days ... MEGA Microgreens !!! 
Have more photos tomorrow of the rest of the crop harvested today ... it was epic ...
Expanding on yesterday's post we formalized the kit offering and have it for sale on our order page. The new kit will allow you to produce three trays of microgreens and contains enough media and seeds for six crops of broccoli microgreens. We have included all the supplies to do this, but note that this does not include the large seed tray that should be locally available (tray would have created oversize shipping requirement and ballooned the shipping costs). This basic kit is for home use to provide for a family an ongoing supply of microgreens. 
By staggering the growing trays, you can use approximately a fourth of a tray daily, this allows for daily harvesting and a twelve day growing cycle. This appears to be ideal for the broccoli and several of the other fast growing varieties. We are now experimenting with some other varieties and will start to provide seeding refill kits with other crops. Those kits will be available in the next few weeks as we determine amounts of seeds and growing periods for kit use ... 
Broccoli tray at 7 days ready to start harvest.
Our new microgreen kits are now available in limited quantities through our ebay store, go to the ordering page here and click on the link to order. In using our kits for our day to day production of microgreens, we accidentally created a home production system so you have a source of fresh microgreens for your family on a continuous basis. Here is the idea. You take 4 trays or 2 kits (if you already have a kit, we offer just the trays for sale) and use one pair in the normal way to germinate your microgreen crop. Once that crop has gone the 3-5 days to sprout up, you would start another tray using the top again and then repeat a third time. You should then have 3 trays of microgreens that will mature at 3-5 day intervals. Once you harvest a tray, the next tray should be ready for you to go ... 
Here is photo on one of our trays to show you how three trays would fit in a standard full seed tray. These trays are readily available at most hydroponic stores and home and garden shops. This is a standard seed tray with no holes and measures approximately 10"x21". These full trays are also available through our store, but far cheaper to source locally due to oversize shipping requirement. Cost should be in the $2-$5 area locally.
Our pre-measured media and seed packets become your source of simple, no waste, home farming of microgreens. Here is the last post on this microgreen crop of broccoli that will be contained in our new kits. We harvested some of the crop last week at 7 days and used it over the weekend. The first pic is one of the tray in half harvested condition that was left after our 7 day harvest. You will notice how strong and tall the broccoli is now. The second pic shows us harvesting the crop ... the roots create our mat and we simply pull the whole section up like it was on seeding mat. We use a small kitchen scissors to cut the microgreens about an inch above the bioSoil to complete our harvest.  This last shot is to give you a sense of how large these microgreens really got. These were chosen to be measured because they not only were tall, but were several of the few that had sprouted the first true leaves that indicate it is time to harvest the crop.
Here is the promised shot of our tray taken today showing a 7 day growth in our microgreen kit. Contrast today's photo with that of the same tray at 5 days ... notice the bioSoil label to see the remarkable amount of growth that has occurred in just 2 days. Notice also the size of the leaves, they have more than doubled in size in these two days and have not gotten secondary leaves yet ... spectacular stuff !!! Below is the first picture available of our new kit that will be offered for sale in the next few weeks. At this point, pricing and contents are not set, but the kit will provide all the materials needed to grow four crops like the photos above. 
OK ... here is a photo taken at 5 days from seeding and with 2 days of exposure to light. This photo is of an actual tray of broccoli microgreens growing on our bioSoil that is premeasured to work in our new Microgreen Wellness Kit that will be available soon. We are expecting to launch the product on a limited basis in two weeks and will have more details next week as we finalize the contents and instructions for use. Take a look at the growth and vibrance of these microgreens, we believe our kit will distinguish itself as one of the premiere home farming kits on the market. 
These earlier photos show the tray newly seeded and the seeds after three days of being in the dark. The above phote shows growth in 2 days on the light. We are shooting for harvest in two more days or seven days from seed to harvest .... Our new kits were designed to minimize any waste generated by our microgreen crops. Since our organic media is predominantly coir with nutrients provided by worm castings, the used media is an ideal addition to a container garden or vegetable plot. The nutrients from the worm castings provide an organic source of biofertilizer for your further growing needs. All of the roots and stems left over after the harvest add another dash of organics to your soil for more fertility. Below is a photo taken today of the spent media that was put into our backyard container garden last week ... 
These baby greens have sprouted from the remnants of our sango radish mix!!! We got a full tray of beautiful microgreens, organics and nutrients for our container garden, and now we have a crop of baby greens to boot ... what a deal !!!
We are going through a grow cycle with the final configuration of our kit with actual amounts of bioSoil and seeds to document the expected results from using our new home microgreen kits. We are finalizing the contents of actual kits and have decided on organic broccoli seeds. We believe that broccoli microgreens with their nutritional content and zesty taste are an ideal starter crop for our consumers. The seeds have gone through three days of germination and initial growth in the dark. We will document the greening of the crop over the next four days to document a total growing cycle of seven days from seeding to harvest. Our initial prototype kit is now officially out for testing ... we should have feedback within the next two weeks and will do our final tweaks to the product. The target launch date for the Home Kit will be the end of July. The initial run will be sold on this site and through our ebay store. If you are interested in ordering a kit, please send us a note indicating interest ... final pricing yet to be determined, but we are shooting for between $20 - $25. The kit will include supplies to grow 4 crops of microgreens. Part of our design highlights are shown above. The trays are made with recycled plastic and are recyblable. We include a sprayer head so you can use an old water bottle and save another piece of waste from being landfilled.
More details on the kits will be posted in the coming weeks ... |
UrbaformUrbaform is a technology integrator and developer specializing in food production in the urban environment ... Archives
February 2020
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