Introduction

You’ve heard about microgreens and you’re ready to start growing, but you don’t know what varieties are the easiest. As a seasoned grower, I can confirm that certain varieties are far trickier to master than others. This article will cover how to grow, I believe, the best beginner-friendly crops: broccoli, peas, and radish. These three varieties are great. They are easy to grow. They have a wide range of flavors. They are in high demand and have high profit margins. If you’re growing for personal consumption, you can skip past the last two sections. To learn about a beginner setup for growing microgreens, read our blog, How to Start Growing Microgreens for Profit with Less Than $1,000. I’ll link various YouTube videos throughout the article as learning aids.

The Growing Process

(12 Min.)

Let's outline the basic process for growing microgreens. We'll also list the tools and supplies you need to succeed.

• Fill a 10”x20” tray with soil and spread it around evenly. The tray should have holes in the bottom. People will refer to this type of tray as a “hole-tray” or a “top tray.” Place another empty tray on top of the soil and press down firmly on the soil to create an even and compact surface.
  1. Bootstrap Farmer Trays - Top & Bottom
  2. Promix Soil
• Use a kitchen scale to weigh out seed for each variety. True Leaf Market is a great all-in-one place to buy seed when you’re getting started. We suggest using 16-20g of broccoli seed per tray, 250-300g of pea seed, and 30-40g of radish seed. Place a deli container on your kitchen scale, press tare, and weigh out the seed. One tray’s worth of seed per deli container.
  1. Kitchen Scale
  2. Deli Container
  3. Broccoli Seed
  4. Pea Seed
  5. Radish Seed
• With your trays prepped and your seeds weighed out, you can now sprinkle the seeds evenly across the tray. Use a generic garden hose sprayer to water the seeds and soil. Use the "Shower" setting. It will water evenly and won't dislodge the seeds. Add enough water to saturate the soil, but water should not be dripping out the bottom of the tray.
  1. Hose Head
• Place the freshly planted tray inside another tray that doesn’t have holes. People refer to this type of tray as a “bottom tray” or “no-hole tray.” You can place the entire tray set on top of any other tray sets you planted. Finish the stack by placing one more no-hole tray on top. Place the whole stack on a rack. Place a paver on top of the stack.
  1. Wire Grow Rack
  2. Paver
• Broccoli, radish, and pea microgreens are great. They all germinate in 3 days. You don’t need to do anything during these three days, if you watered the trays appropriately during the planting process.
• After three days, remove the paver and the top-most tray. Spread out the freshly germinated trays under the grow lights. Use the same hose as before to water the trays from below. Lift the top tray and add about 500mL of water to the bottom tray. Slowly lower the top tray. Water will move into the soil through the holes in the top tray.
  1. Grow Lights
• Broccoli, radish, and pea microgreens are hearty, disease-resistant varieties. They’re also fast growers. You can expect radish to be ready in 7-9 days, peas in 8-10 days, and broccoli in 9-11 days. These grow times include the germination time, which means they’re under lights for only 4-8 days.
• When each variety hits its grow time, use a sharp knife or scissors to cut the microgreens you want to use.

After a few trial runs, you can expect to yield about 6, 12, and 16 ounces of microgreens from a tray of broccoli, radish, and peas, respectively. There are great YouTube videos explaining the growing process for each variety, which I’ve linked below. I highly suggest you watch each one before getting started.

(29 Min.)

(6 Min.)

(12 Min.)

(30 Min.)

(51 Min.)

Flavors

As you start growing microgreens for profit, it can be tempting to grow dozens of different varieties in an attempt to offer a wide spectrum of flavors, colors, and textures. For example, herbs like basil, fennel, cilantro, and shiso have unique flavors. You won't find these flavors in easier crops like radish, broccoli, and peas. It can be tempting to expand your menu to offer more and more varieties. Thankfully, though, the three beginner varieties we suggest in this article do a great job. Peas are large, crunchy, and slightly sweet, like Spring peas. Radish is mid-sized, succulent, and peppery. Broccoli is small, delicate, and mild, just like mature broccoli. You can sell each variety on its own with great success, and you can combine them in a blend for more options. If you're selling to the general public, such as at a farmers' market or at a grocery store, most people want these types of microgreens.

High Demand

Broccoli, pea, and radish microgreens are in high demand. All three varieties are approachable to new microgreen consumers. Shiso? What’s shiso? We grow shiso for specific chefs, but most people have never heard of shiso. Everyone has eaten broccoli, radish, and peas in their mature form. Consumers don’t have to imagine what they’ll taste like or hope they like the flavor. They already have a good idea. Not to mention, these varieties are packed with nutrients. Many scientific papers on nutrient density in microgreens focus on these varieties. They confirm how nutrient-rich they are. And don’t get me wrong, chefs also love these varieties, often for the same reasons. You can be confident in a market for your microgreens if you grow these varieties in the beginning.

High Profit Margin

It costs $5.00-$8.00 to grow a tray of microgreens. That's for seeds, soil, packaging, labor, and utilities. Remember I said you can expect to yield around 6, 12, and 16 ounces per tray of broccoli, radish, and peas, respectively. You can expect to sell broccoli for $2.50-$3.00 per ounce, radish for the same, and pea for $1.50-$2.50 per ounce. With these numbers, you can expect to make $15.00-$18.00 on a tray of broccoli, $30.00-$36.00 on a tray of radish, and $24.00-$32.00 on a tray of pea microgreens. After subtracting the $5.00-$8.00 production costs, you’re left with $10.00-$25.00 of gross profit per tray. Not bad, right?

Conclusion

We like broccoli, radish, and pea microgreens for beginner growers because they’re uncomplicated to grow, appealing to the everyday consumer, and profitable. Now that you’ve read the article, go back and rewatch the videos linked above. Take notes on what the growers are doing to generate successful trays of microgreens. After that, the only thing to do is get growing!

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