Introduction

Regrowing a tray of cut microgreens can be tempting. Regrowing is harvesting a tray and then continuing to tend to it, hoping it will put off new shoots. If you’re growing for personal consumption, regrowth is potentially free food. If you’re growing for business reasons, regrowth is potentially pure profit. This article will explore why regrowing microgreen trays is a bad idea.

Is It Technically Possible?

We know that plants can create biomass before being photosynthetically active. We plant a seed, say, a pea seed, and then it germinates. In the process, the pea plant is germinating, creating biomass, and growing up into the sky. However, during this period, the plant is growing using stored energy from the seed. That store of energy is the endosperm. The plant is digesting the endosperm and using that energy to kickstart its life. The endosperm will sustain the plant until it can begin photosynthesizing. Every seed and every plant will go through this process at different speeds. However, we can see that different plant varieties have wildly different seed sizes. A pea seed is 100x bigger than a celery seed. A pea seedling or microgreen, though, is 100x bigger than a celery microgreen. We don’t know if seed size directly correlates to seedling or endosperm size. We'll assume that bigger-seeded varieties have more stored energy making them more capable of regrowing.

So, what’s the answer? Is it technically possible to regrow microgreens? Yes. You can regrow most varieties with varying degrees of success. Based on what we just proposed, though, the smaller the seed, the less success you should expect. By the time you harvest the first growth, most of the endosperm is likely used up.

Why You Shouldn’t Regrow

Okay, so it’s technically possible. Here are a few reasons why you shouldn’t regrow your microgreens regardless.

• Regrowth will be slow and uneven. You just decapitated hundreds of young plants. You shouldn’t expect the plants to rebound and regrow like they did the first time. The microgreens now have a young root system, but they're still reliant on the now-depleted endosperm. The seedlings can draw from the endosperm and the soil for nutrients, but it won't suffice. The regrowth will take longer, and the canopy will be uneven.
• Nutrient content will drop. Much of the nutrient density we associate with microgreens originates in the seed and endosperm. Now that we have depleted the endosperm with the first wave of growth, there isn’t much remaining to fuel the regrowth. The nutrient quality of your regrown microgreens will thus be significantly lower.
• They won’t look as fresh and vibrant. For reasons similar to the drop in nutrient quality, the regrown microgreens won’t have the same vibrant colors. You can also expect the shelf life to be worse compared to the first cut.
• Disease can become a problem. Growing microgreens means cramming hundreds of plants into a small space. This fosters disease growth. Thankfully, we can grow and harvest most microgreens before any soil or plant pathogens can take over. If we regrow a batch of microgreens, we’re holding onto the soil at least twice as long. That extra time gives any pathogens a greater chance to take hold and take over.

Conclusion

Although it’s technically possible to regrow microgreens, we advise against it. A regrown harvest of microgreens will likely have a worse appearance, a shorter shelf life, and fewer nutrients than the original cut. If you try regrowing your microgreens, use larger-seeded types, like peas and fava.

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