How To Grow Microgreens At Home In 5 Easy Steps

by Maggie on January 22, 2025

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You know that bunch of tiny, fresh greens that comes on top of your avocado toast at a cute breakfast spot? It kinda looks like green confetti? Those are microgreens! They are gourmet-looking, adorable and packed full of both flavour and nutrients. And the very best part? Microgreens are easy to grow at home. Like so easy.

Microgreens have been around for a long time, but really had a “glow-up” over the last 10 years.

They’ve spiked in popularity with both restaurants and home gardeners. Trendy cafés, upscale spots and even diners have embraced topping savoury and sweet dishes with microgreens.

Gardeners, both beginners and long-time growers, have jumped in head first too.

How To Grow Microgreens In 5 Easy Steps

Step 1:

In a large bowl, mix 1-2 cups of your growing medium with 1/4 cup or so of water. I personally like using this coarse vermiculite. But a good quality potting soil like the PRO-MIX Veggie & Herb is good too.

You want your soil to be damp but not have standing water. It should be wet enough that it forms into a ball easily and holds it shape when you squeeze it.

Once your medium is nice and damp, add 1-2 inches of to the bottom of your tray.

Step 2:

Heavily seed your tray so that the entire soil surface is covered in seed.

This is unique to growing microgreens compared to most other edibles.

You do not need to space apart your seeds. You want them to cover the entire tray.

This will give you a nice full tray of microgreens. So be sure to evenly spread them, covering all soil area.

Once your tray is completely covered in seed, use your spray bottle to thoroughly mist your seeds with water. Be sure to get all seeds wet. You should have standing water droplets on the surface.

Step 3:

This is the most important step. It’s the blackout period.

This is when you’ll cover your microgreens with either a black plastic garbage bag, or stack another tray on top to keep out any light.

*Here’s my microgreens in their 3-5 day blackout period. I stack all trays on top of one another and then add a ‘weight’ on top.*

Why? In the dark, microgreens will have to stretch out to look the light source. This results in longer, slimmer and more tender microgreens.

Keep your microgreens blacked out for 3-5 days as they germinate.

Be sure to uncover once every 24 hours or so to mist with water before covering again.

At this stage, you can also add weight on top of your microgreens tray by stacking a few books on top. This helps develop thicker stems and reduces the chance of your soil drying out.

I usually stack several books on top of my tray as weight. It’s an easy, DIY solution!

Step 4:

Once you can see germination (typically around day 3-5)r emove microgreens from darkness and place under a growlight.

Continue misting soil daily to keep seeds and soil wet. You can also water from below if you have a second tray underneath.

I especially like bottom watering as it’s another way to promote strong root growth

*Photo on left shows the strong root development from bottom watering.*

Step 5:

After 5-8 days under light, your microgreens should be 3-5 inches tall and ready to harvest!

To harvest, use a sharp pair of scissors or a knife and cut at the base of the stem right above the soil surface.

For some microgreens, you might be able to get a second harvest off the tray, so place it back under light and continue to water.

And that’s it! That’s how you grow microgreens in 5 easy steps!

Keep reading for more advice and info on growing microgreens at home.

How Much Does It Cost To Grow A Tray Of Microgreens?

Microgreens are super inexpensive to grow.

I’ve calculated the cost of growing one tray of microgreens to be approx $2.00!

Here’s a breakdown of the cost of microgreen growing supplies:

Microgreen seeds — approx $8 for 200grams if buying from West Coast Seeds, which can grow you 4-5 trays of micros.
Potting soil or other growing medium — you can grow 20+ trays with a 1.5kg bag of soil, so as cheap as $1 of soil/tray
Container to grow in — you could easily use recycled at no cost or invest in a good quality tray like this one and continue reusing it again and again

So as you can see, it can cost you as little as $2.00 to grow a tray of microgreens!

Yet they can go a long way by being added to sandwiches, soups and other dishes.

What Are The Health Benefits Of Microgreens?

Research shows that microgreens have incredible health benefits.

According to Medical News Today, evidence suggests that microgreens have an extremely high antioxidant count, which can help prevent a range of diseases.

There’s a lot more to love about microgreens too. All of which I’m covering for you today in this post!

What Are Microgreens

The word ‘micro’ says it all

Microgreens are newly germinated seeds that are still in their seedling stage.

Microgreens are typically harvested after 12-21 days of being seeded.

The easiest way to think of microgreens is as a baby vegetable that hasn’t yet developed into its full form.

For example, you can grow kale microgreens, which are just the baby stage of what could eventually mature into the full vegetable if you let it continue to grow with the proper conditions.

Pro Tip: Professional gardeners will often refer to microgreens as cotyledons.

This is the food source of the plant embryo. Cotyledons are the first leaves the emerge from the soil as a plant germinates.

So really the terms microgreens and cotyledons can be used interchangeably.

What’s The Difference Between Microgreens And Sprouts

*Microgreens on the left, sprouts on the right.*

Though they look similar, sprouts and microgreens actually have several differences.

The biggest difference between the two is that sprouts are germinated seeds whereas microgreens have a developed stem and leaves.

Another key differentiator is how you grow them.

Microgreens are grown in a growing medium, like soil, peat moss or vermiculite. The seeds germinate in the medium and grow stems vertically.

On the other hand, sprouts are typically grown in water or can germinate on a moist paper towel if kept very humid.

A few other differences between sprouts and microgreens:

Sprouts grow quicker and are usually ready to eat within 5-8 days
Sprouts have a more pungent smell and taste than microgreens, which can sometimes be described as bitter
Sprouts have a lower nutritional value than microgreens. They are lower in fibre and amino acids

I will say, sprouts are even easier to grow than microgreens.

They don’t require much light and can easily germinate from natural sunlight even in the Winter months.

Plus, all you need to grow sprouts is a jar, water and high quality seed!

So if you are brand new to growing your own food, start with sprouts! They are as easy as it gets.

What Are The Easiest Types Of Microgreens To Grow

Ah — the golden question all new gardeners want to know! “What’s the easiest thing I can grow? “

Well, when it comes to microgreens, I’ve found the smaller the seed, the easier it is to grow.

Typically, salad greens, brassicas and mustards are all smaller seeds and easier to grow.

Whereas pea shoots and sunflower seeds are larger and more difficult.

The reason being it can be tricky to keep the larger seeds moist during the germination period. If microgreen seeds don’t have enough moisture, they won’t germinate and your tray will have spotty areas.

My List Of 8 Easy To Grow Microgreens

What Do You Need To Grow Microgreens

A great thing about growing microgreens is that it doesn’t require a large investment in supplies!

The only item you absolutely need is high quality microgreen seed.

My two favourite Canadian microgreen seed providers:

West Coast Seeds based in B.C.
Mumms Sprouting Seeds based in Saskatchewan

Both are great, reliable brands with certified organic microgreen seeds.

Aside from your seed, you can make growing microgreens as simple or complex as you’d like.

You could easily use recycled plastic containers (like from store-bought berries or mushrooms) as your trays.

If they don’t have small holes in the bottom for drainage, simply add some by poking holes with a sharp knife.

Alternatively, you can spend a little bit more and buy durable microgreen trays like these ones that I use.

What’s The Best Growing Medium For Microgreens

When it comes to your growing medium, I find microgreens grow best in either:

1. Straight vermiculite, which is a lightweight expanded micaceous mineral. Add 1-2 inches to the bottom of your tray. I like this option because it isn’t messy like soil and I am often growing microgreen inside my home.

2. Or, I just use organic veggie and herb potting soil. The only downside is that it can sometimes cause mold on the surface. However, this can easily be avoided by ensuring you have good air flow on your trays.

Other optional supplies needed to grow microgreens:

All my fav products are linked below or find them in my Amazon Storefront.

Full spectrum LED grow light to supplement light. This is especially important for Winter growing.
Small fan for air circulation
Shallow bottom tray without holes to go under seeded tray for bottom watering (more details on this method below)
Spray bottle to mist seeds and keep moist during germination