Microgreens have taken off in a big way. Here is one stand at the local garden centre
Amazing to think that none of these was marketed in this way 5 years ago. All you got was mustard and cress hidden away with the salads.
I am always on the lookout for overwintering plants that can survive Scottish conditions. Miners lettuce, lambs lettuce and spring cabbage have all worked to some extent. Well I now have a new addition to the list in Mustard Greens. (I have only included the pulsatilla in the frame to give a sense of the season)
The mustard greens were sown on 10th September last year and were not protected from the birds, slugs or weather. They didn't do much and I was prepared for failure (as with the Little Gem lettuce in the adjoining bed which sadly deteriorated being caged from the birds and protected with fleece from time to time). But these held on looking green and small. Then they put on a spurt from March to April. With the first signs of forming flower heads I harvested them in two batches and we ate them as Chinese geens. The mustard flavour was not overpowering (by my reckoning) and the greens tasted geat raw too. One consideration in their abrupt harvesting was that they now towered over the new spring salads in the bed which will soon provide delicate thinnings - or as a marketing agent would call them, microgreens.
Local: If I was going to XXX I wouldn't start here...
I read that the vegetable seed companies are inundated with new orders, especially since the garden centres have shut their doors. So the question arises: What to grow?
First of all consider what space you have available. A windowsill, balcony, patio, garden or allotment? Microgreens, herbs, cucumber, chilli, tomato all suit the first whereas artichokes and asparagus would only suit the bigger sites. Patios are no longer limiting as "crops in pots" has become fashionable in the last decade - even potatoes.
Then there is the season - the reason for the poor joke above. Well the news is surprisingly good for the northern hemisphere. In the UK it is too late for garlic and other autumn planted crops (like rhubarb and raspberries) but still very early in the growing season for just about everything else! Broad beans spring to mind because they can be sown in autumn but also in early spring. It's not too late. In fact April is about the busiest month for sowing in the vegetable gardening calendar. As a rule, what you can't sow in April you can sow in May!
The key consideration for sowing/planting outdoors is the last night of frost. Here in Edinburgh mid May is the usual reference point, but further south you can expect an earlier date. That is not to promise that nature won't come up with a nasty surprise (Edinburgh has exceptionally had frost in June!). Generally plants are 'hardy', 'half hardy' or 'tender' to frost. Peas are half hardy whereas courgettes are tender. That's why you can sow peas outside before the last frost date but you need to protect courgettes and only plant them out after the danger is gone. For tender crops it is worth keeping an ear/eye out for the weather forecast in the days/weeks after planting out sensitive seedlings. Frost warnings feature larger as the year goes as even some weather forecasters are gardeners too.
So you have identified your growing space and are ready to sow. What's best to try? Something fast, something tasty?
'Fast' in gardening terms is relative. You cannot expect to beat 7 days for mustard and cress or other microgreens indoors. Proper salad leaves boast that they are ready in as little as 25 or 30 days. By contrast parsnips are notoriously 'in the ground' for 12 months. Although ready to be dug up in the autumn, there is a reason why they are associated with Christmas. Chillies and tomatoes take all summer to get cropping in Scotland, but then the challenge of getting a return at all is half the fun! In between these extremes most vegetable crops deliver in 40 to 90 days.
Tasty: Tastes differ but one rule is that schoolchildren don't like radishes (a shame as they are one of the fastest crops). Peas and beans, carrots and cabbages are all popular, but each has its own growing challenge. Some unfamiliar crops can turn out to be favourites. When the school garden produced a bumper crop of purple sprouting broccoli some children wouldn't even try it, but others did and enjoyed the novelty. Swiss chard is not common in the shops but really popular in many 'grow your own' households. Bulb fennel is not difficult to grow but divides opinion depending on where you sit on the aniseed tolerance scale. The brassica family (cabbage, kale, Brussel sprouts) is a must for most adults but a no no for many youngsters.
So, time to come off the fence. My top 5 starter vegetable recommendations are:
Mustard and Cress - Quick old fashioned reliable 'microgreens'
Carrots - 6 inches of soil needed for the homegrown taste money won't buy.
Peas - Straight from the pod - unforgettable - or 'peashoots' if you are in a hurry.
Swiss Chard - All the benefits of spinach but easier and with the bonus of buttery ribs.
Beetroot - Red or Gold, so sweet. Worth the wait.
Growing veg isn't as easy as it appears to be on telly, but it is remarkably rewarding in the first year and devilishly addictive once you have taken on the challenge of improving on last year.
Now here is a tune that seemed laughable not so long ago:
Here is the current state of play with my cut and come again autumn sowings. Set in the (unheated) greenhouse I have half trays of "Nice and Spicey"(N&S) to the rear and "Speedy Mixed" (SM) in the front. The earliest sowing was 19th August followed by 8th September and both of these have been harvested once. I think the slugs had a nibble of the earliest sowing when it was still outdoors, so there isn't much "come again" about that one. The 26th September sowing of N&S and the 7th October of SM are currently harvestable as Macrogreens whereas the SM sown 27th October could only qualify as Micro, still being at the cotyledon stage of leaf development.
In fact they are pretty much the same as my most recent indoor sown rocket microgreens,
Microgreen Rocket at 10 days old
To date I have yet to get a second harvest off any of the Cut and Come Again sowings. 8th September is nearly there but all growth is in abeyance now that the temperature has dropped. I might squeeze it onto the kitchen windowsill for a week or so before cutting!
On the left, cut and coming on again - 3 week later sowing on the right just about big enough to harvest for the first time.
So I have been having fun experimenting how far in the year I can push the cut and come again salad cold sowing. I think I have definitely reached the limit and both heat and light would be required between now and next spring.
And yes I still have some basil and coriander microgreens under lights. The coriander that has germinated (about half) is nice and tall but the basil is very low growing. No chance of getting scissors in there. I am beginning to see the advantages of mustard and cress!
I started out 4 weeks ago using a bespoke microgreen growing tray from Johnsons. Following the instructions scrupulously I sowed coriander and basil which, according to the packet, should be ready in 10-16 days and 16-21 days respectively. Well I am now 28 days in and it is time for some intervention. Progress has been painfully slow, and I make the following observations:
The design of the kit needs to be modified. What you get is a clear tray that holds a reservoir of water over which the growing trays are suspended. At first sight I thought the clear tray was a cover to retain moisture in the atmosphere above the seeds but no, it is the base and there is no lid. After the slow progress of three weeks I have enclosed the unit in a polythene bag to rectify this omission.
Also after three weeks I was having doubts about the design from the point of view of the growing medium. Spraying kitchen towel 2-3 times a day doesn't seem particularly onerous. Once you have been doing it for 21 days without fail you begin to wonder who is the mug! If you miss one session the kitchen towel soon dries out.
So after three weeks I took the third packet that came with the kit (Rocket - Ready in 16-21 days) and sprinkled it on the surface of a more conventional set up. A half sized seed tray with potting compost and a cover. This had the advantage of being moveable without the reservoir of water sloshing all over the place. I put this enclosed unit in an internal cupboard and forgot about it for 4 days. On first checking it looked like this:
so I removed it to the kitchen windowsill alongside the designer model. Given the time it has taken for germination of the first sowing I have to conclude that our kitchen is colder than your average kitchen. (Although it gets hot from cooking and the boiler is located in there too, there is no radiator so the temperature can drop.) I also have become convinced that there is a decided lack of sunlight.
Time to deploy the growlight setup in our (former) coal cellar. The tray can be heated but I haven't switched the heat on just yet. Now that germination has occurred I feel sure that the level of light is the crucial factor in producing green microgreens.
So, in conclusion, my purchase of the right kit for the right job turns out to be a bit foolhardy. It is less faff just to use the same system as I do for cut and come again salads but harvest them a bit sooner and pamper them a bit more with indoor temperatures and the supplement of some artificial light. No bother really but it has taken a bit of working out! To grow a seed needs adequate moisture warmth - and light.
We have had three sub zero nights here in Edinburgh, so the outdoor gardening is severely curtailed.
Time to retreat to the kitchen (windowsill).
I bought this kit early in the year in a fit of online gardening enthusiasm but haven't deployed it until now.
It is simply a water tray with a drainage tray propped on top of it. The growing medium (a sheet of kitchen towel) you supply yourself!
Once the tray is filled with water and the paper wetted you sprinkle the supplied "microgreen seeds" on top and, using a water spray, keep them moist for two weeks....
The microgreen seeds I have selected are coriander and basil. Perhaps unsurprisingly they appear the same as my other coriander and basil seeds. There is a little voice at the back of my head that says. "Ah but these have been specially selected for microgreen growing and have no fungicide or insecticide treatment that garden seed might have been treated with" but I really do wonder if they are any different.
