Cindy Henchell
It all started with our indoor cat, Nermal. We felt sorry that we had to restrict his outdoor access to fresh grass so I ordered a kit for growing organic wheatgrass for indoor cats. The concept was simple and easy: Densely sow wheatgrass seeds in a fiber pot filled with a coconut coir disk (more about that later), add water and in a few days introduce it to your cat. Nermal (literally) loved it to death. He greedily mowed it down, knocked it off the shelf and scattered the remains all over the floor. But that’s a cat for you.
The kit happened to come from a company that supplies similar kits to grow microgreens. If you aren’t familiar with microgreens or have only seen them pre-packaged in the grocery store or farmers market, usually near the packaged sprouts and wickedly expensive, the real reason people are willing to spend lots of money for them is that they pack a nutritional and flavor punch. Unlike sprouts, microgreens are a little older, harvested usually shortly after producing their first true leaves and typically without the roots. They can be up to forty times more nutritious than full grown green leaves and they are super flavorful.
The types of microgreens range from the relatively mild lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, beans, and peas to the pungent varieties of radish, mustard, fenugreek, and onion. Herbs such as dill, oregano, basil, cilantro, and parsley are flavorful versions of their full-grown selves. Most people use microgreens as additions to salads, soups, sandwiches, or smoothies. A little goes a long way. As a bonus, they are great just to munch on.
So what’s the connection with cat grass? I was curious to know how I could grow microgreens without spending $15 for a kit. Surely you can just buy some seeds and a bit of seed starter mix and plant a tray in a sunny window (protected from the cat, of course) until harvest time a couple of weeks later. So, I consulted farmer Google for tips on DIY microgreens and got a lesson in everything from coconut coir to hydroponics to optimum lighting for plant growth. Everything that an experienced cannabis grower already knows.
I only needed a simple, inexpensive method for growing just a few square inches of a few varieties for a few weeks. I happened to find the extremely useful YouTube channel, “Keep on Growin’ with Mike VanDuzee.” His premise is to use easily obtainable, reusable or recyclable materials to grow these little powerhouses year around. And so I was introduced to the repurposed uses of (wait for it…) those plastic frozen/fast-food containers piling up in the back of my cupboard!
Right: An almost-finished crop of basil microgreens, only slightly roto-tilled by the cat.
Here’s how to do it: First, invert the lid from a 5” x 7” container on top of its base, make a few holes in the lid to allow some wicking (untreated) cotton cord to pass through, and place a 40 mm coconut coir disk in the center of the lid.
Left: Base of the container filled with water that is wicked up by cotton wicking cord to moisten the planting mix.
OK, now I’ll explain coconut coir. It is the inner husk of coconuts that is milled and compressed into bricks or disks and used as a sterile germination base or soilless planting mixture. It is highly sustainable, just the right texture for germinating seeds, and super efficient to transport and use. Once the compressed material is watered, it expands to about five times its original size. One or two 40 mm diameter disks are just right for the lid of a food container.
Coconut coir disk before and after hydrating.
Put plain water in the base of the container and the wicking action should keep the coir moist, but not wet. Watering from below keeps the greens dry which prevents mold. Densely sow the seeds and then invert another base over the seeds to keep the sprouting seeds in the dark. Place this setup someplace out of the reach of cats for a few days. It’s wise to check on it daily, but usually after about 48 hours there should be sprouts forming. Allow these to expand in height in the dark for another day or so before removing the lid and allowing them to green up and grow some more by the light of a sunny window.
Harvest using scissors just after the first true leaves emerge. Use them as needed or harvest the whole batch and use another plastic food container lined with dry paper towels to store them in the refrigerator. For longest storage, keep them in plastic bags, wrapped in dry paper towels and most of the air squeezed out of the bag. I recommend not washing them until they are ready for use. They can also be plucked out with intact roots and used as seed starts for your summer garden.
Toss the used coir into your garden, wash out the food container and repeat. Who knew that these nuisance containers could be so useful?