Red Giant Mustard microgreens are a hearty green microgreen with a spicy mustard flavour, enjoyable as a garnish on salads, sandwiches and within different curries.
Microgreen growing guide:
Equipment you will need:
- Growing trays – I used small, 500mL takeaway containers
- A cover – For the trays to use during their blackout period, use a dark colour to block out all light
- Mustard seeds – I used approx. 1 teaspoon of seeds
- Growing medium
- Spray bottle – To mist the seeds with water
Notes:
- Mustard seeds don’t require soaking before planting
- Blackout period is around 3-5 days
- They take 3-5 days to germinate
- 7-14 days to harvest
- Ensure good circulation in your growing space and sufficient watering daily
Growing method:
- Clean your equipment
- To start this growing process, I thoroughly cleaned all of my equipment, in terms of containers and the cover I was using. This helps eliminate the threat of cross contamination or other disease inhibiting my microgreen growth.
- Growing medium
- Following this, I spread my growing medium evenly across the bottom of one 500mL container, around 3cm high.
- Get your seeds ready
- I then used a used a teaspoon of seeds and poured them into a small container, to help spread the seeds evenly over my medium.
- Spread seeds evenly across medium and water
- Evenly spreading them will help with aeration, reducing the possibility for mould and will also help the microgreens to not mat together.
- After spreading them across the medium, I then took my spray bottle and heavily sprayed the seeds with water. This helps them settle into the medium.
- Blackout period
- I then placed them in a well-ventilated room with a black plastic cover over the top of the container.
- These seeds do not need to be weighted as I found they shed their seed hulls relatively easily over time. However, I have read sources that recommend using a weight, I believe this could make them shed their seed hulls earlier into the process, but in turn you would get the same outcome, maybe in a few less days. Therefore, it is at your own discretion whether you believe this is suitable for you.
- Wait for germination
- Once planted, the seedlings took around 4 days to germinate.
- During this period, I kept them in their blackout phase and would mist them with water 1-2 times daily, depending on how dry the soil looked.
- Sprouting time
- When they began sprouting and the cotyledons became visible, I removed the blackout cover and moved the microgreens to a windowsill.
- This windowsill receives direct light for around 5 hours of the day, I also opened the window to aerate the soil, reducing the possibility of mould and allowing the soil to dry out daily.
- I would recommend, especially if you’re watering using a misting technique (opposed to a bottom watering method), to ensure your microgreens are in a well-ventilated space, as if they’re not, excess moisture can invite bacterial growth.
- Watering
- I maintained watering the microgreens twice daily throughout their whole growing period.
- Harvest time
- Mustard microgreens are known to be ready for harvest between 5-14 days.
- Based on the way mine grew, I would harvest closer to the 10-14 day mark as this is when they were nice, tall, and tasty. The cotyledon leaves were fully opened by this stage, however, make sure you harvest before the first true leaves begin growing, as the taste and texture of your microgreens won’t be the same.
