Things to buy to grow microgreens

Here is a list of things to buy that you will see me use. I like to buy things as cheep as I can and get the most bang for my buck! I look high and low for the best prices and value!

If you are worried about a breakdown in the food supply chain. Buy SEED IN BULK! I will sell them here at a competitive rate. The store is opening soon!  I wanted to get this list out to my facebook group and others that need it. If the food chain does break down in 7 days you are eating your own food! Remember this is not just greens for salad, you can cook and eat as side dishes, peas and sunflower work well for this.  It is Money well spent! I did this during COVID and 1/3 of my food came from this! When it happens again (and it will I think!) Currently have a large supply of seed. If Putin goes nuclear even halfway around the world,  we might have to stay indoors until the radiation passes. I am ready for that possibility.  

I am using affiliate links to offset my time putting this all together and experimenting and buying junk that does not work. I do get a little kick back when you use my links. THANKS!

Over the last few years it, my guess is close to $4000 in fails! Just telling you Never try hydroponics! I wasted $2500, it was a disaster. It so modified the flavors... it was bad! (yes I do know how to grow hydro, did it for years growing tomatoes in greenhouse!)  A self-watering system is different it does not reuse the water. 

You need a set of three trays to properly grow microgreens. I want you to make this easy and successful, these trays they will last a lifetime if you treat them nice, meaning never slap the corners down trying to clean them it will break it! This is your big output in money treat it nice.

One tray that acts as a lid and blackout, so these needs to be black in color as black will stop all uv light the other colors will bleed light. One that holds soil with drain holes, I use colored for this. And one that is a catch tray, I use white so when stacked I know where the sets are. see picture below.

This will be your largest investment in growing microgreens 2 domes 5 mesh and a 3 tray set of 10 will set you back around $300 so be ready for that expense.  

These trays to hold my soil in and I get them with holes in them if you're going to get a single color the orange ones and the pink ones tend to fade quicker than the rest so I will pick blue purple or green. Multi-color here pick them with holes.

I would get this next, trays in black with no holes, black for your black out lid. 

I use white for a catch basin so white no holes  are what you need.

These are the mesh trays I use them only for peas, so you just need a few. 

Humidity dome for growing peas. 

This is optional. You can use this for the clam shell grow. I get these in black because sometimes I use them for blackout as well, if I need more height then the shallow ones give me, I will show that on growing the sunflowers  Deep Black trays

Clamshells for clamshell grow on facebook and to store cut microgreens or to package to sell or give away. 

 

It is easy to find them with five shelves but very few folks sell 6 shelve units (BTW this on I am putting together for myself will have 8 shelves before I am done it has 7 now) as I also use these for storage, some places only need 4 or five shelves so I am taking them and adding them here.  This unit is 2 feet deep and 4 feet wide both of which are very important when you're setting up a grow area using the 1020 trays and the 4 foot wide led lights above.  Normally you can put four trays each shelf but with the 2 foot deep ones you have an incredible advantage of being able to stick two extra trays per shelf.This is shown in photo above.

The casters that you can get for the shelving unit it makes it a lot easier to have wheels on it so I would recommend that you get there those as well. Look here setting up your grow space for more info on this subject with spacing diagrams as well. 

If I was just starting out I would just buy a few lights and a few fans and just use 2 shelves it will let you grow 8 trays... use the rest for storage till you get bit by the bug and need the whole thing! 

 If you have a house or apartment that has no space, but you still want to try this. Here is an option for you. it has 8 shelves, but small, very hard to find! BTW you can with a very tight fit, fit 2 sideways pictures bellow.  You will have some plant damage trying to get them in and out, but in a pinch it would work.  Now the main disadvantage with this is you need to buy a light and a fan for each tray, raising the cost significantly. If you just get the 2'x4' big one, you could use two shelves and have about the same capacity and only have to buy 4 fans and two lights.  

 Lights - I will show 2 sizes of lights a 2' long and 4 ft long. they come in 2 types the ones that are official "grow lights"  and the ones that are "shop lights".  The shop lights cost less and work just fine! Here are the 2' these are grow lights one way you can tell them from shop lights are the grow lights have a deflector shield to point the light down very handy for two reasons with first The light efficiency can be increased by 17~20%.  second if you sit in a chair you don't get blinded by the light! these lights are made by Barrina. I have found that they are the best brand overall and yes I have tried others you cannot go wrong with anything they sell, the daisy chain wire is long making it easy to hook them up shelf to shelf.  

The ones bellow come in both 2' and 4'

 They have a new model I will be trying these in the next few days I love that each one has a switch so you can turn off a shelve that is empty! I will update this soon.

Fans I find these work well, 1 each shelve will work but I like it better with two, if you have the 24" x 48" rack. The determining factor on how many fans you need or if you need them at all, is where you live. I live in Texas and my humidity is very high, now water twice a day and it adds to it, I also plant at very high plant density. They need lots of air to dry out.  If you plant at half the seed rate the need for fans goes down, but I want my space producing as much food as it can!  When you grow where it is very dry you don't need fans. Some shelves I use three, if I want to dry some out to package up.

I still have one more fan I am going to try in my shelves that are 6 ft long hard as it is hard to move air at the other side.

 AC Infinity MULTIFAN S7-P, Quiet Dual 120mm this one is nice in that it has an extra connector so you can daisy chain them together.  Costs a little more but makes wiring it easy.   

ANEXT, 120mm USB Computer Fan Black these are great bang for the buck but more challenging to wire.  Here is the wires to make it easy 

 

This has plastic ends, yes I have broken them!  I like it better with brass but the price is right  Metal water Hose 25 ft - Stainless Steel Water Hose with 2 Nozzles

 

Here is the hose with metal ends this is a big upgrade but it does not have a sprayer with it and costs more 

 

My hose hand sprayer Best Made!

 Also if you don't have a sink you can hook this up to your water coming from your washer. There are two ways to do this . Cold only and being able to mix both hot and cold. 

Let me give you both Parts lists 

Cold only:  1 Splitter ,  1 Short Hose , 1 Brass Shut-Off Valve and hose and nozzle from above.

Hot and Cold Mixing:  3 Splitters ,  1 set of washer hoses , 1 Male Garden Hose Gender changer, and hose and nozzle from above. 

So to hook this up put one splitter on each faucets for your washer. Reconnect washer hoses to one end of splitter and then hook up the new washer hoses to the other end of the splitter then take both new hoses and hook it up to the 3rd splitter you bought, then put the gender changer on the splitter and hook up your hose to it. Now put that splitter in a location where you can use it to mix hot and cold or just run hot or cold water!

One more thing I use these Garden Hose Quick Connectors on every hose I use at home and on RV  I use.  The reason is, it will allow the hose to rotate and stop it from wanting to get twists in it.

WHEN YOU ARE DONE HOPE YOUR RACK LOOKS LIKE THIS!