How to Grow Your Own Microgreens

Are you obsessed with microgreens yet?? Microgreens are baby veggie shoots grown from seeds. They can be harvested after about 10 days, and are super easy and fun to grow. These sassy shoots add color, texture, flavor, and nutrients to all kinds of dishes and make your meals instantly feel more gourmet. In this post, I’ll share with you my favorite methods for how to grow your own microgreens!

What’s so great about microgreens?

Sprouting improves protein content, unlocks extra nutritional benefits like vitamin c and antioxidants, and can be easier on digestion. The University of Maryland recently found that these sassy seedlings contain up to 40 times more nutrients than adult vegetables.

What can I sprout?

Lots of seeds and legumes can be grown into microgreens! Some of my favorites include:

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get growing!

My favorite methods for growing microgreens:

Method 1: Windowsill Gardens

Trays of microgreens are a lovely way to use a sunny windowsill space or indoor spot. You don’t need a special tray, you can grow them in anything that will hold dirt. In the photos below I just used a baking dish, but you can use cafeteria trays or plant trays. It doesn’t need any drainage.

To plant them, fill your tray with 1/2″ to 1 inch of soil, then sprinkle your seeds in a single, even layer across the top. It’s ok for them to be crowded and touching, but you don’t want them to be on top of each other. Sprinkle with a little more dirt to cover, and then water them well without soaking or over-saturating the dirt. Spray them every day or two with a spray bottle, or water them gently using anything with a sprout. When they are 5-7 inches tall, cut them and enjoy!

If you want to stop their growth, you can cut your greens and store them in the fridge, wrapped in a plastic bag or ziplock with a wet paper towel to keep them crisp.

If you’re short on windowsill space, I love the window garden company, they make an awesome tray that suctions onto your window! They also sell great microgreen kits with little magical dirt packs that expand with water, like those toy dinosaurs in capsules. I used their kits for the sprouts in the photos above, and I loved them so much I also brought them to school and let my elementary students plant a bunch for our classroom. My favorites are the sunflower sprouts and pea shoots.

Method 2: Hamama Sprouting Kits

If you’re not into dirt, there’s an AMAZING company called Hamama that makes growing your own trays of microgreens sooooo easy. Hamama is a subscription service that sends you seed quilts by mail at a frequency of your choice. All you have to do is put them in a tray of water, and then 7-10 days. No dirt. You don’t even have to water them. They send you everything you need. They even have beautiful bamboo trays if you want to feel even fancier.

Hamama sprouts don’t need any light, because the plants use the energy in the seed at the beginning of their growth. I’ve been known to grow mine in closets, on top of the fridge, and even in cupboards when counter or table space was tight. I also love that they are living food, so they can’t go bad in the fridge while you’re contemplating what to do with them.