Introduction

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of crops you could grow in your microgreen farm. Today I’m going to tell you about the ones you should not grow. You shouldn’t grow these varieties because they aren’t profitable enough, aren’t safe for human consumption, don’t have strong market demand, or they’re redundant. When running a microgreen farm, you want to focus on the 20% of crops that drive 80% of the results. It’s called the Pareto Principle. In many scenarios, 80% of your results come from just 20% of the inputs. Not all inputs affect the results equally, just like not all crops are equally desired. For example, let’s look at my Farm Report on Microgreen Manager. Looking at the past 3.5 months, the top 10 crops comprise 83.98% of our production volume. If we eliminate Rambo Radish, nine crops comprise 81.26% of our volume. We currently offer 30 varieties on our menu. So, 30% of our crops (9) generate 81.26% of our production volume. The goal of this blog is to keep you on track when expanding your menu. Success is as much about what you don't do as it is about what you do. We want to avoid the crops that won't actually create the results you want in your company.

Crops & Categories to Avoid

Solanums (AKA Nightshades)

Let’s start with the Solanaceae (Solanums) family, also known as the nightshade group. This family includes popular crops like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants. These plants have toxins, such as alkaloids, that act as natural pesticides. They protect the plants from herbivores and pathogens. We’ve bred these crops to have safe toxin levels, but some are still present. Eating Solanum microgreens gives us more of these compounds than mature Solanums. Like we seek microgreens for their nutrients, called phytochemicals, we can also consume more toxins. Microgreens are potent; we want to make sure to find the beneficial compounds instead of the toxins. There's another reason we don't want to grow Solanums as microgreens. Any guesses? Think about what part of the tomato, eggplant, and pepper we usually eat. Is it the plant itself? The foliage? Or is it the fruiting body? For eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes, their fruiting body is considered a berry. For potatoes, it's called a tuber. Since we'll harvest these as microgreens, we won't have a chance to grow berries or tubers.

Multiple Varieties of the Same Crop

The paradox of choice shows that having too many options can increase anxiety and lead to decision paralysis. More choices doesn’t always mean more sales. In the world of microgreens, there are 30-40 unique crops worth growing. After that, you’re likely to offer different varieties of the same crop. Take mustard, for example. When you add Scarlet Frills Mustard to your menu, you check the mustard box. If you want to expand, you might also add Mizuna Mustard, Red Streaks Mustard, Red Giant Mustard, and Red Leaf Mustard. Most customers won't care about the differences among these mustards. By offering all five, you must stock seeds for each, learn to grow them well, and explain their differences to your customers. If you have five variants of all 30 crops, you’ll have a menu with 150 items. You must remember the Pareto Principle - 80% of your sales will come from a minority of your crops. If you're going to add different variants of the same crop, make sure they're substantially different. For example, purple basil and Genovese basil have significantly different colors. Same for purple and green shiso or Rambo and Triton radish.

Low Demand Varieties

Unique and rare varieties can be great for experienced farmers with high-end clients. However, 90-99% of growers should avoid these crops. In my other blog, The 20 Microgreen Varieties Every Farm Should Offer, I discuss “Rare” crops like fenugreek, lemon balm, cantaloupe, and anise hyssop. These unique crops usually comprise less than 1% of a farm’s total sales. It’s fine to offer them if you have a strong base of high-end restaurants and you already provide the basics, such as basil, beet, broccoli, and sunflower. However, you can skip them without affecting your profits. Focus instead on growing the best microgreens for the popular crops.

Sorrel & Most Perennials

Sorrel, or red-veined sorrel, along with many perennial microgreens, face two main issues. First, they are low-demand varieties. Sorrel is popular with chefs but rarely ordered by wholesalers or retailers. Second, they have a poor revenue-to-grow-time ratio. Many farms are space limited. Once you find regular customers, you quickly run out of room. You might start in a spare bedroom, then move to a garage or basement. Transitioning to a leased commercial space is a big step. To make the best use of your limited space, focus on crops that grow quickly. Why? You can’t charge proportionally more for a crop based on its grow time, and longer growing crops, ironically, tend to yield less. For instance, radish takes 7 days to grow, while sorrel takes 35–42 days. Radish yields 12 ounces per tray, but sorrel only yields 2 ounces. Radish sells for $2.50 an ounce, while sorrel sells for $25.00 an ounce. Even though sorrel is worth ten times more, a farm full of radish is much more profitable. Let’s break it down. You can harvest sorrel every six weeks, but radish can be harvested six times in that period. You’d get 2 ounces, or $50.00, from sorrel, but 72 ounces, or $180.00, from radish. Other perennials, like anise hyssop and lemon balm, have similar challenges.

Conclusion

Stick to proven varieties unless you're an advanced grower or have a clear demand for a specific crop. Only agree to grow these crops if you trust the customer will need them long-term. Keep in mind, trialing and adding a new crop can be costly.

Related Articles

The 20 Microgreen Varieties Every Farm Should Offer

Which Microgreens are Most Profitable?

The Profit Margins for 24 of the Most Common Microgreens