Introduction

In another article, we discuss plant nutrients and fertilizers - Understanding Plant Nutrients & How to Read Microgreen Fertilizer Labels. This article will explain how fertilizers can boost yields in your microgreen farm. Higher yields will increase revenue and profit. We use Ocean Solution 2-0-3 in my farm, Piedmont Microgreens. We’ll walk through the costs, yield boosts, and resulting revenue and profit improvements to demonstrate why you should be adding nutrients to all your microgreen crops.

• Ocean Solution (OS) 2-0-3 comes in a one gallon bottle for $58.00 from Amazon.
• One gallon is equal to 128 fluid ounces.
• We dilute OS at a ratio of ounce per gallon of water.
• We get 128 gallons of diluted OS for a $58.00 bottle of concentrate.
• Each tray of microgreens will get just one dose of dilute OS after germination.
• A standard watering is 500mL.
• 128 gallons of dilute OS equals 485 liters or dosing for 970 trays.
• The cost per dose is $58.00/970 or ~$0.06.

Now that we know the cost per tray for a dose of fertilizer, we need to calculate the additional labor cost for hand fertilizing each tray. We normally water our trays using a hose, which is slow but still faster than how we fertilize. We fertilize our crops by diluting the OS in a 20-gallon bucket on casters. We roll the bin around and use a three-liter pitcher to dose six trays before scooping up more OS from the bin.

• It takes two hours to hand dose our farm with 600 trays under lights per week.
• The average pay for my employees is $18.00 per hour.
• The labor cost is $36.00.
• The labor cost per tray is $36.00/600 or $0.06.

The total cost to fertilize a tray of microgreens is $0.12.

Now let’s look at the additional revenue and profit we could generate as a result of fertilizing our crops.

• We’ll use wholesale pricing to be as conservative as possible.
• Our wholesale prices range from $1.25/oz for sunflower and pea shoots to $4.50/oz for basil.
• We compared crop yields with and without OS. We found a 10-20% yield increase depending on the crop, all else being equal, like grow time.
• We’ll use 10% as a conservative yield increase. We’ll assume 16 oz. is the average yield per tray (YPT) for sunflower and pea shoots and 4 oz. is the average YPT for basil.
• An additional 1.6 oz. of sunflower or pea shoots is valued at $2.00. An additional 0.4 oz. of basil is valued at $1.80.

Let’s put it all together. For an additional $0.12 in costs, we can generate an additional $1.80-$2.00 in revenue or $1.68-$1.88 in profit PER TRAY. If we have 600 trays under lights at Piedmont Microgreens each week. We harvest 350 trays per week, which is an additional $588.00-$658.00 in WEEKLY PROFIT.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Fertilizing your crops can also stave off nutrient deficiencies that might appear in longer growing crops, like celery, basil, shiso, and sorrel.

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Understanding Plant Nutrients & How to Read Microgreen Fertilizer Labels