We strive to make Microgreen Manager easy to use and easy to understand, but we've also created concise video tutorials to help you get started. Select one of our videos below to get started. Or if you prefer to read about Microgreen Manager, we have a comprehensive FAQ below.
Microgreen Manager is a web application that helps you manage your microgreen farm and business operations.
To get started, go to the Crops page and start entering your Crops. Once that's done, go to the Blends page and start creating your Blends. Now you have a library of Crops and Blends. You can now go to the Orders page and start creating Orders. You can create one-time Orders or Recurring Orders.
Once you create an Order, Microgreen Manager will automatically create Plantings and Tasks associated with that Order that you can use to track your progress.
Fill out the parameters and our tool will automatically calculate your costs, revenue, and margin per tray and per container.
Use the first section to calculate your cost per try and how much you should charge for your product.
Use the second section to calculate how much you need to grow and sell to make a profit for your farm.
Almost all fields are optional. So if there's a field you don't want to use, just leave it blank.
Note that the calculator is using as many decimal places as possible to do all calculations, but displays only two decimal places for the results.
The results will update automatically as you type.
A Crop is a single type of microgreen. A crop can be generic, such as "Basil", or specific, such as "Purple Basil", "Genovese Basil", or "Lemon Basil".
When you press “Add Default Crops” on the Crops page, a popup will appear with 30 default Crops. These 30 Crops are what our Co-Founder, Garrett, grows at his farm, Piedmont Microgreens. You can select one or more default Crops to add, or you can add all 30. You can edit or delete the default Crops later, if you want.
Note that if you already have a Crop by the same name as one of the default crops, then that default Crop option will not appear as an option to add.
If you want to edit a Crop, select what component you want to change. For example, the yield, safety margin, grow time, or container sizes. For things like yield and safety margin, which affect already calculated tray amounts, Microgreen Manager will automatically update all the Plantings and Tasks associated with that Crop that haven't been started yet.
Crop safety margin is a way to automatically add a buffer to the number of trays you need to plant for an Order. So when you enter the amount needed for your order, Microgreen Manager will automatically calculate how many trays will be needed to fulfill that part of the Order. Then, if the Crop has a safety margin defined, it will automatically increase the number of trays needed by that percentage. For example, if you enter 100 trays for an Order, and the Crop has a safety margin of 10%, then Microgreen Manager will automatically increase the number of trays needed for that Order to 110 trays. This is useful if you want to automatically add a buffer to your Orders for an exra margin of safety.
When you edit a Crop's safety margin, Microgreen Manager will automatically re-calculate the tray counts for all Plantings that have not yet been started (where status is "planned"). In progress and completed Plantings will not be re-calculated.
We are working to improve this functionality so that in progress Plantings can also be re-calculated.
A Crop's yield can be in ounces or grams. Microgreen Mangager will use the crop's yield to calculate how many trays are needed for an Order.
When you edit a Crop's yield, Microgreen Manager will automatically re-calculate the tray counts for all Plantings that have not yet been started (where status is "planned"). In progress and completed Plantings will not be re-calculated.
We are working to improve this functionality so that in progress Plantings can also be re-calculated.
You can create container sizes for your crops. For example, you can create a container size for a 10 ounce container. Then, when you create an Order, you can select that container size to use for that Order. Container sizes are optional.
A Crop's grow time is the amount of time it takes for a crop to grow. Microgreen Manager will use the crop's grow time to calculate when a crop needs to be started and when it needs to be harvested. The grow time is the time between the first step and the last step (harvesting).
A Crop's steps are the different stages of a crop's growth. For example, a crop might have steps for sowing, planting, germination, and harvesting. Microgreen Manager will use the crop's steps to create tasks. Every crop has to have at least a planting step and a harvest step.
When you edit a Crop's grow time or steps, Microgreen Manager will automatically update all the Plantings and Tasks associated with that Crop that haven't been started yet (where status is "planned"). It will re-calculate and update the Tasks needed for each Planting based on the new grow time and steps.
We are working to improve this functionality so that you have more control over how this change affects your farm.
Seed density is the amount of seed per tray that you plant for this crop. Microgreen Manager will use the crop's seed density to calculate how much seed is needed for planting tasks. This field is optional.
The harvest buffer time is an optional field that will add a buffer between the harvest date and the Order's delivery date. For example if the Order's delivery date is for Friday, and a Crop within the Order has a harvest buffer time of 1 day, then Microgreen Manager will set that Crop's harvest date to be Thursday instead of Friday.
When you edit a Crop's harvest buffer time, Microgreen Manager will automatically re-calculate the harvest dates and Task dates for all Plantings that have not yet been started (where status is "planned"). In progress and completed Plantings will not be re-calculated.
For example, if you increase the harvest buffer time for a Crop from 1 day to 2 days, and you have a planned Planting for that Crop that is supposed to be harvested on Friday, then Microgreen Manager will automatically re-calculate the harvest date for that Planting to be Thursday instead of Friday. And will also re-calculate the Task dates to be moved forward by 1 day.
We are working to improve this functionality so that you have more control over how this change affects your farm.
When you archive a Crop, Microgreen Manager will change the status of that Crop to "archived". This will remove the Crop from appearing in dropdowns. But the Crop will still exist in the database and can always be unarchived.
A combination of two or more crops. Each crop in a blend contributes to the weight of the blend based on a percentage. For example, the “Nutrition Mix” is a combination of three crops - broccoli, cabbage, and kohlrabi. Each crop could contribute 33.3%. Each crop's contribution could also be 1%, 1%, and 98%, respectively. The total percentage must add up to 100%.
At the moment, you can only edit the blend name, notes, and sizes. You can't edit the crops or the percentages. If you want to edit the crops or the percentages, you will need to create a new blend. If this is something you need, please contact us.
When you archive a Blend, Microgreen Manager will change the status of that Blend to "archived". This will remove the Blend from appearing in dropdowns. But the Blend will still exist in the database and can always be unarchived.
The combination of a customer name, delivery date, and crops or blends. Creating a new Order will trigger the software to create Plantings, Tasks for that Order. An Order can be a single, one-off order, or it can be a Child Order. Child Orders are individual Orders generated by the software from a particular Recurring Order.
When you create a new Order, or when Microgreen Manager creates child Orders for a Recurring Order, the software will automatically calculate exactly how many trays you will need to plant in order to fulfill the contents of that Order. It does this by looking at all the contents of the Order, including blends, calculates the amounts that are needed for each Crop, then uses each Crop's yield per tray and safety margin to determine the number of trays needed. It calculates this number to the nearest 100th of a tray (two decimal places).
Your farm will likely have multiple Orders that use the same Crops. When you look at Tasks or Plantings, you will see that the trays needed for those Orders are combined and then rounded up to the nearest whole tray. We do this because we assume that you are not planting and growing partial trays and that you are always planting whole trays.
An Order can have a status of "planned", "in progress", or "completed". An Order is "planned" when it has been created, but has not yet been started. Once any Task for that Order has been completed, the Order will be marked as "in progress". Once all Tasks for that Order have been completed, the Order will be marked as "completed".
When you edit an Order's customer, Microgreen Manager will update the Order's customer, and nothing else will change.
If you edit the Order's delivery date, then Microgreen Manager will delete any Planting that haven't been started yet (where the Planting status is "planned"), and all of the associated Planting's Tasks. Any Plantings that are in progress or completed will not be deleted, but will be removed from the Order, and will be marked as surplus. The Tasks associated with those Plantings will also be removed from the Order, but will not be deleted. Then Microgreen Manager will create new Plantings and Tasks for the Order for the new delivery time. If you also changed the crops or blends for the Order, then Microgreen Manager will use those new inputs to create the new Plantings and Tasks. This means that if you change the delivery date for an Order, you are essentially creating an entirely new Order, except that anything you've already planted for that Order will be marked as surplus and will show up as surplus, which you can then do with what you want.
We are working to improve this functionality so that you have more control over how this change affects your farm.
If you change just the crops or blends for the Order, then things get more interesting. Microgreen Manager will go through all the new inputs for the Order and recalculate exactly how many trays will need to be planted for each crop to satisfy the Order with the new inputs. Then it will compare those tray counts to the previous tray counts for the Order. For each Crop it will calculate the difference between the new tray count and the old tray count.
If the difference is negative (meaning less trays are needed), then Microgreen Manager will check if that Crop has been planted yet (if the Planting is marked as "in progress"). If so, then Microgreen Manager will modify the existing Planting by decreasing the tray count for that Crop by the difference, and also by creating a new Planting with the difference and marking it as surplus. If the existing Planting hasn't been started yet, then it will simply modify the tray count to the new value.
If the difference is positive (meaning more trays are needed), then Microgreen Manager will check if that Crop has been planted yet. If it has not been planted yet, then it will simply modify the tray count to the new value. if it has been planted already, then it is presumably too late to plant more trays for that Crop. So Microgreen Manager will look to see if there are existing surpluses in the farm for that Crop to fulfill the increase in the Order. If it finds that there does exist surplus for that Crop currently available in the farm, then it will assign as much available surplus as it can to the existing Planting (and thus to the Order). If after all that there still wasn't enough to fulfill the increase in the Order, then you will see on your dashboard that you have a deficit for that Crop for that Order. From there you can decide how to handle that deficit.
We are working to improve this functionality so that you have more control over how this change affects your farm.
If you want to add a new Planting to an Order, you can do so by going to an Order's options menu and clicking the "Add a New Planting" button. This will open a dialog where you can select the harvest date, crop, trays, and other information about the Planting. This will create a new Planting assigned to that Order. This can be helpful if you need to override the existing Plantings for an Order to better reflect the actual status of your Order.
When you cancel an Order, Microgreen Manager will not delete the Order information from the database, but will mark it as "cancelled". This is so you have historical records of your Orders. Cancelling an Order will also affect the Plantings and Tasks for that Order. Any Planting that has not been started (where status is "planned") will be deleted, along with it's associated Tasks. Any Planting that has been started or completed (where status is "in progress" or "completed") will be moved to your surpluses.
It is possible to delete an Order, if the Order is not in progress or completed (has a status of "planned") and it is not a child Order of a Recurring Order. To delete an Order, go to the Order's page and click on the Options dropdown and click the "Delete Order" button. This will delete the Order and all associated Plantings and Tasks. This action cannot be undone.
The combination of a customer name, delivery date, order frequency, and crops or blends. Submitting a Recurring Order will trigger the software to create Child Orders. Child Orders have the same parameters as the Recurring Order. However, Child Orders are for a specific delivery date based on the start date and order frequency of the Recurring Order.
Microgreen Manager will automatically create new Child Orders 30 days in advance of the project start date for each new Child Order. If the Recurring Order has a crop in it that has a grow time longer than 23 days, then Microgreen Manager will make sure to create new Child Orders 7 days in advance of the projected date at which the Child Order needs to be started (ie. the first crop needs to be soaked or planted).
When you create a Recurring Order, Microgreen Manager will add that Recurring Order to the database, and will automatically see if any new child Orders need to be started within the next 7 days based on the Recurring Order's start date, end date, frequency, and crops. If so, then it will create those Orders and all the Plantings and Tasks needed for those Orders. So you may see that once you create a Recurring Order, depending on how long the lead time is, and when the Recurring Order is supposed to start and end, that Microgreen Manager may create several Orders for you to start. After that, Microgreen Manager will check multiple times a day, every day, to see if it needs to create new Orders for any of your Recurring Orders. It will check the lead time of each of your Recurring Orders, and if the lead time is within one week of the current time, it will create a new Order and all the Plantings and Tasks needed for that Order.
When you check "Create Overdue Orders" when creating a Recurring Order, Microgreen Manager will create any Orders that are it deems are too late to plant given the grow time of the child Order, and what the fulfillment date of the new child Order would be. When this isn't checked, Microgreen Manager will not create any Orders that are overdue. But when it is checked, Microgreen Manager will create new Orders even if they can't be planted/started in time. It will also automatically mark those Orders as "in progress", since it assumes that you've already started planting for those child Orders. This is primarily useful when you are first getting setup with Microgreen Manager and you want Microgreen Manager to accurately reflect the state of your farm.
Note that you will then potentially see "overdue" Orders and "overdue" Tasks in your dashboard. You should go through the overdue Tasks you see and mark them as complete. Then you should have an accurate view of your farm.
Pausing a Recurring Order will stop Microgreen Manager from creating new child Orders for that Recurring Order. It will also delete any existing Orders created by that Recurring Order that haven't been started yet (where status is "planned"), including any of the Plantings and Tasks associated with those Orders. You can always go back and unpause the Recurring Order and Microgreen Manager will start creating new child Orders for that Recurring Order again.
When you edit a Recurring Order's customer, Microgreen Manager will update the Recurring Order's customer, and will update the customer name for all planned child Orders (where status is "planned"). You also have the option to update the customer name for all in progress child Orders.
When you edit a Recurring Order's start date, end date, and frequency, Microgreen Manager will delete any planned child Orders (where status is "planned"). Any completed or in progress child Orders will not be affected. And the software will re-create new child Orders based on the new start date, end date, and frequency.
If you also want to re-create child Orders that are too late to start (based on the grow time of the crops in the Order), then you can select the "Create Overdue Orders" checkbox.
Note that you cannot change the start date to be in the past.
We are working to improve this functionality so that you have more control over how this change affects your farm.
When you edit a Recurring Order's contents, Microgreen Manager will update the Recurring Order, and will update the contents of all the planned child Orders (where status is "planned"). Child orders that have already been completed will not be affected.
If you want to apply the changes to the in progress child Orders, then check the "Modify In Progress Orders" checkbox. Doing this will update the pack lists for all those orders, but may not necessarily update the plantings assiged to those orders. To understand how this works for each order, see the section on "Editing an Order's Contents" above.
Note that if you made changes to an individual child Order that is now planned or in progress, then the changes you make when editing the Recurring Order will override those changes.
Some planned child Orders may be "overdue" at the time you edit the Recurring Order's contents. If you also want to re-create child Orders that are too late to start (based on the grow time of the crops in the Order), then you can select the "Re-Create Overdue Orders" checkbox. Usually you want to do this to have the changes affect those planned child Orders.
We are working to improve this functionality so that you have more control over how this change affects your farm.
When you delete a Recurring Order, Microgreen Manager will permanently delete that Recurring Order from the database. It will also delete any existing Orders created by that Recurring Order that haven't been started yet (where status is "planned"), including all of the Plantings and Tasks associated with those planned child Orders. You also have the option to select which in progress child Orders from that Recurring Order should be cancelled. Child Orders not selected to be cancelled will not be changed. Any completed child Orders will not be changed and will continue to exist in the database for your records.
A Planting is a group of trays for a specific crop that were all planted at the same time and are going to be harvested at the same time. Plantings are how Microgreen Manager keeps track of what crops are being grows in your farm, how many trays are being grown, what stage they are in, and other information.
Plantings are created when you create a new Order, or when you create a new Planting independently of an Order.
A Planting can have a status of "planned", "in progress", or "completed". A Planting is "planned" when it has been created, but has not yet been started. Once the Planting has been started, the Planting will be marked as "in progress". Once all Tasks for that Planting have been completed, the Planting will be marked as "completed".
To create a new Planting, go to the Harvests page, the Surpluses page, or the Plantings page, and click the "New Planting" button. This will open a dialog where you can select the harvest or start date, crop, trays, and other information for the new Planting. This will create a new surplus Planting. This can be helpful if you want to create Plantings independently of an Order.
If you want to create a Planting for an Order that is already in progress, then you can go to dropdown options for the Order and select Add New Planting. Select the harvest date, crop, trays, and other information about the Planting. This will create a new Planting and assign it to the Order. This can be helpful if you need to modify the Order independently of the Order's existing contents.
If you want to increase the trays for a Planting Group, you can go to the dropdown options for a Planting group and select "Increase Trays". This will open a dialog where you can enter the number of trays to add to the Planting Group. The trays added will not be assigned to any orders and will be surplus trays. Use this feature to override the exiting calculated tray count to better reflect the actual state of your farm.
Note that only users with order editing permissions can increase the trays for a Planting Group.
This is considered a more advanced feature for when you want to plant more trays for any reason.
Surpluses represent trays that aren't currently assigned to an Order. Surpluses come from trays being rounded up to their nearest whole number. Supluses can also come from Orders that were cancelled or modified after being planted. Or from plantings created independently of an Order.
Harvesting is the process of cutting and packing mature microgreens. A specific Harvest is the collection of all harvesting taking place on a specific day. For example, you could have 180 trays to harvest across 12 Crops for 20 Orders. The harvest page summarizes all the information you need for harvesting on a specific day.
Individual actions. Tasks can be automatically generated by the software or manually created by the user. The software will generate the tasks needed to grow the right crops, at the right time, and in the right quantities. These tasks stem from the life stages entered under each Crop. For example, the user creates a Crop with steps for soaking, planting, weighted germination, blackout, lights, and harvest. The software will use these steps to create corresponding tasks. Users can also manually create one-off and recurring tasks for other activities, such as tray cleaning and inventory.
When you mark a Task as complete it will update the Task status, but will also automatically update the Planting and Order that the Task belongs to. If the Planting and/or Order that the Task belongs to hasn't been started yet (status is "planned") then that Planting and/or Order will have their status updated to "in progress".
Also, Microgreen Manager will automatically check if the Planting that the Task belongs to has all of its Tasks marked as complete or cancelled. If so, then Microgreen Manager will automatically mark that Planting as complete. And will do the same for the Order that the Task belongs to. If all the Tasks for that Order have been marked as complete, then Microgreen Manager will automatically mark that Order as complete.
A Task can have a status of "planned" or "completed". A Task is "planned" when it has been created, but has not yet been started. Once the Task has been completed, the Task will be marked as "completed".
If you accidentally mark a Task as complete, you can undo the completion by going to the details page for the Task, click the Options dropdown and click the "Undo Task Completion" button. This will undo the completion of that Task. Note that this option is not currently available for planting tasks, because when a planting task is marked as complete, Microgreen Manager will update the Task status and also create a surplus Planting for the rounded up trays.
Overdue Tasks are Tasks that should have been completed but haven't been. For example, if a Task is "planned" (not completed yet) and it's assigned date is Monday, November 4th, and the current date is Tuesday, November 5th, then the Task is overdue.
If you want to edit a Task's date, you can do so by going to the details page for the Task, click the Options dropdown and click the "Edit Task Date" button. This will open a dialog where you can edit the Task date. The new Task date cannot be past the harvest date for the Planting that the Task belongs to. Note that if you create another planting for this crop for the same harvest date, then Microgreen Manager will create a new version of this task at the original task date and you will have two versions of this task on different dates.
There is also a shortcut for moving the Task date forward by one day. In the same Options dropdown, click the "Move Task To Tomorrow" button. This will move the Task date forward by one day.
The combination of a task name, start date, and frequency. Submitting a Recurring Task will trigger the software to create Child Tasks. Child Tasks have the same parameters as the Recurring Task. However, Child Tasks are for specific dates based on the start date and frequency of the Recurring Task. Recurring Tasks are great for broader farm management, such as inventory, sweeping, and replacing filters.
Microgreen Manager will automatically create new Child Tasks 30 days in advance of the project start date for each new Child Task.
Pausing a Recurring Task will stop Microgreen Manager from creating new child Tasks for that Recurring Task. It will also delete any existing Tasks created by that Recurring Task that haven't been started yet (where status is "planned"). You can always go back and unpause the Recurring Task and Microgreen Manager will start creating new child Tasks for that Recurring Task again.
If you just edit the task name or task notes, then Microgreen Manager will update the Recurring Task, and will update the name and notes for all the child Tasks that haven't been started yet (where status is "planned") that were created by that Recurring Task. Any new Tasks created going forward will have the new values as well.
If you edit the start or end times for the Recurring Task, then Microgreen Manager will update the Recurring Task, and will delete any existing Tasks created by that Recurring Task that haven't been started yet (where status is "planned") and that now fall outside the new start and end times. And then will also check to see if any new Tasks need to be created that now fall within the new start and end times and is coming up in the next week.
If you edit the frequency for the Recurring Task, then Microgreen Manager will update the Recurring Task, and then delete any existing Tasks created by that Recurring Task that haven't been started yet (where status is "planned"), and then will create new Tasks based on the new frequency.
When you delete a Recurring Task, Microgreen Manager will permanently delete that Recurring Task from the database. It will also delete any existing child Tasks created by that Recurring Task that haven't been started yet (where status is "planned"). Previous Tasks from that Recurring Task that have been started or completed will not be deleted.
The calendar page shows you all your tasks in a convenient monthly calendar view. You can easily jump to any date, go to the previous or next month, and toggle which tasks you want to see in the calendar. You can also click on any calendar day to see all the tasks, orders, and harvests for that day in a table view at the bottom of the calendar.
Note that Microgreen Manager will automatically create new tasks and orders 30 days in advance of the project start date for each new task and order. If the task or order has a crop in it that has a grow time longer than 23 days, then Microgreen Manager will make sure to create new tasks and orders 7 days in advance of the projected date at which the task or order needs to be started (ie. the first crop needs to be soaked or planted). This means that in most cases when you try to see days further in the future than 30 days, you will not see any tasks or orders for those days.
You can change the day of the week that the calendar starts on in your account settings. You can set the start of the week to be Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.
If you are an "admin" for your farm, you can invite other people to join your farm. You can do this by going to the account page and clicking the Options button. You'll see an option to "Invite User to Farm". Click that and you'll see a form popup, where you can enter their name and email address. They will receive an email at the address provided with a link to create an account. The email you provide does not have to be the same email they use to sign up. This email is just where the invite will be sent. Once they create their account they will be able to see your farm and all of its data.
By default, when they first join your farm they won't be able to create or edit any data. Once they join your farm you can go back to the Account page. On your Account page, as an admin, you'll see any pending invites you've sent out, and you'll see any current farm members. If the data looks out of date, you can refresh the data by going to your Options dropdown and clicking "Refresh Account Info". Now you should see a "Farm Members" table with your current farm members. Click the Permissions dropdown on the far right to see and edit the permissions for that farm member. You can always cancel pending invites or remove members from your farm.
Right now, the only "admin" in any farm is the person who first created the farm/account in Microgreen Manager. Admins will be able to invite other people to join their farm, and will be able to edit the permissions of other farm members. They can also see and edit all the data for the farm, including farm members and farm invites.
Users invited to the farm by admins will by default be able to see all the data for the farm, but will not be able to edit any data. This means they won't be able to create orders, plantings, tasks, or harvests. They also won't be able to edit any of the data for the farm, including not being able to mark tasks as complete. But you can give them some permissions to edit data if you want:
If you need or want more permissions, please contact us.
Click the remove icon on a farm members in the Farm Members table on your account page to remove a farm member. This will remove them from your farm, and they will no longer be able to see your farm or any of its data. Their account will be deleted from Microgreen Manager. They can create another account with their email, but they will no longer have access to your farm or any of its data, unless you invite them again.
If a farm member has marked any tasks as completed in your farm, Microgreen Manager will record who completed that task or tasks. If that person then deletes their account, Microgreen Manager will still retain the name of who completed those tasks, for historical record keeping.
When you create an account with Microgreen Manager, you also create a farm. From then on, the account which created the farm is automatically an admin account with special priviledges. Admin accounts can invite other users to join the farm, modify other user's permissions, can remove other users from the farm, can reset farm data, and can delete the farm.
Right now there is no way to change which account is the admin account or to make other accounts admins. If you need this functionality, please contact us.
You can selectively reset parts of your farm data without deleting your account. Under your Accounts page, select the button “Reset Farm Data…”. Decide what data you want to reset, and then type in your name before hitting submit. Once you confirm and press submit, your data will be reset. This action is irreversible. Only the farm's admin account can take this action.
You can delete your account by going to the Account page and clicking the Delete Account button. It will ask you if you are sure you want to delete your account, and to be extra safe it will request that you type in your full name to confirm that you want to delete your account. Once you confirm and press submit your account will be deleted, all your data will be deleted, and you will be logged out. This action is irreversible, but you can always create a new account if you want to start using Microgreen Manager again.
If you are the only admin for your farm, then deleting your account will also delete your farm and all its data, including all the accounts of all the other farm members. If you are not the only admin for your farm, then deleting your account will not delete your farm, it will only delete your account and nothing else.
Farm members can delete their own accounts, but they cannot delete the farm or any other accounts within your farm. No other data in your farm will be affected if one of your farm members deletes their own account.
To get a quick overview of how many trays have been planted in your farm, broken down by crop, go to the Farm Report page.
The Farm Report is a summary of all the crops and trays planted in your farm. It is useful for seeing how many trays you are planting of each crop, what percentage of the total trays that each crops makes up in your farm, and the amount of seed used for each crop. The seed planted is calculated by multiplying the trays planted by the sowing density of the crop. This means that this number may be inaccurate if you used different sowing densities over the time period you are looking at. It only takes into account the current sow density of the crop.
This feature will be expanded in the future to include more information about your farm.