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What Tools & Equipment to Use for the Scale of Your Microgreen Farm

Jul 11th, '24

Written by Garrett Corwin

Introduction

The scale of the problem determines the size of the equipment. It doesn’t make sense to buy a $150,000 automated harvesting machine to harvest ten trays a week. Conversely, you’d be mad to cut 2,000 microgreen trays by hand. This blog will roughly outline what tools to use based on how many trays per week (TPW) you’re harvesting. The three farm sizes are 0-250, 250-1,000, and 1,000+ TPW. I have based these delineations on four years of personal experience in the industry. I also own and operate Piedmont Microgreens, which currently harvests 350 TPW. When growing from 0 to 250 TPW, you'll only use off-the-shelf hand tools and DIY setups. You'll rely heavily on manual labor. When growing from 250 to 1,000 TPW, you'll switch to semi-specific and niche-specific equipment. Manual labor is still involved, but you'll be less reliant on the operator's ability to endure long hours of work. The machines will do more of the heavy lifting. As you scale past 1,000 TPW, the equipment will be hyper-specific to the task. At this scale, the operator is there to monitor, adjust, and fix the equipment. They’re not there to directly be involved in the activity.

Disclaimer: Links and pricing are provided when available. These are meant to be rough guidelines, not hard and fast rules. The price for the more expensive machines is unlikely to include shipping or lift gate services. Brief explanations are included in the 0-250 category because the tasks are more DIY.

0 - 250 TPW

Filling Trays

Brief Explanation: Dump a 3.8 cubic-foot compressed bale of Promix into your bin of choice. We prefer a garbage bin because it’s on wheels and you don’t have to bend over as far. Attach a mixing paddle to a hand drill and begin breaking apart the clumps of soil. Proceed with the normal steps for filling and tamping your trays.

Planting

Pint Containers ($28)
Kitchen Scale ($10)

Brief Explanation: Place a pint container on the kitchen scale and tare the container weight. Measure out the appropriate amount of seed for one tray of the chosen variety. Repeat the process for every tray you intend on planting. When it comes time to plant, sprinkle the contents of each pint container onto a prepared tray of soil.

Watering

Hose Link - Retractable Hose - Hand Watering ($250)

Brief Explanation: Watering is one of the harder and more expensive activities to automate. Using a retractable hose will make your life easier because you won’t be fighting to coil and uncoil a hose each day.

Harvesting

Chef’s Knife ($40)
Kitchen Scale ($10)

Brief Explanation: A chef’s knife is a much better option than scissors. Lightly grab a section of the canopy with one hand while cutting the stems with a knife in your other hand. Place the microgreens directly into your packaging.

Cleaning Trays

Brief Explanation: A triple basin sink is the ideal setup for cleaning knives, harvest bins, and trays. You should fill the three basins with soapy water, clean water, and a sanitizing solution. Clean all trays and food contact surfaces in each of those basins and in that order. If you don’t have the space or cash for a triple basin sink, use two or three plastic totes. We used to put one on a table outside and one on the floor at our feet. The first tote was a rinse bin full of water. We’d then scrub the trays and dunk them in the bottom bin full of diluted sanitizer.