I took some of these micro arugula greens to the stores on Mayne Island today.
It has been almost two weeks since I’ve delivered shoots and microgreens to my customers because of a nasty little greenhouse catastrophe. One day a little over two weeks ago when I was away from my greenhouse for a couple hours, the sun came out bright and strong after quite a chilly time and in just over an hour, it overheated all my little plants.
….actually, luckily not all of them but especially these tender and sensitive little cool season pea shoots….they sauteed in their trays!….very disappointing 🙁 oh well, I’m over that now, getting back on track.
Micro arugula has become one of my true favorites to grow and to eat. They are so simply deeelicious on a sandwich with tomato and feta….mmmmm, yum.
A few first tries at growing them in trays in my greenhouse this past winter got me convinced that it was an idea to follow and I knew I’d want to be doing this for a while. I was convinced enough to buy a ten pound bag of certified organic arugula seed. Even for a person like me who’s growing lots of these trays, that’s still an awful lot of arugula seed! yikes!
A few folks have asked me about how I grow these so here’s a little bit about what I do. These days, I try to get 5-6 trays of arugula planted at least once a week and sometimes 2 times a week. I plant them on Sea Soil potting mix.
I don’t cover the tiny seed with heavy soil…instead, I cover it with a paper towel and wet it thoroughly to keep the seed moist while it’s germinating and setting roots into the soil.
After a couple days, my curiosity has me pulling back the wet paper towel to see what’s going on under there!
They grow quite quickly….this is about 4 days after planting. Look at all those fuzzy little root hairs!
At about 5-7 days after planting, depending on weather conditions, it’s time to take the paper towels off the growing green trays…they’re now ready to grow on without moist cover.
Happy little plants, standing at attention.
I like to try for a few true leaves in my micro arugula and have learned that the higher the ph of the soil, the harder that is to achieve and moisture seems to effect it too….so I’m still experimenting….
Cut. Weighed. Bagged. Just a few weeks ago, I realized I needed to label the bags now that I’m beginning to do so many different little microgreens…was beginning to worry that folks would pick up some sunflower shoots thinking they were peashoots or some arugula, thinking it was radish!
A couple boxes, earlier today, waiting to be delivered to Happy Tides and to the Farm Gate Store.
On the shelf at Farm Gate.
An amazingly beautiful lettuce from Deacon Vale Farm’s greenhouse I saw on the shelf at Farm Gate today. I wish I was a better photographer….it was so gorgeous in real life!
Thanks for the great time-elapsed pictures. We too had a 'greenhouse misshap' recently. It involved dozens of tomato plants getting fried. Needless to say Glen now knows what to do when the sun comes out and I'm not home. Happy Growing! Kim
Thanks Christina for sharing your experience growing arugula!
I live an a condo and grow most of the sprouts in trays with the soil, but I would like to learn how to grow other sprouts such arugula. Do you use just usual white paper towel to cover the seeds? On the photo it looks different. Could you please get back to me with your advice on that?
Thank you so much,
Eva
Barrie,
Ontario
Hi Eva,
I use 100% recycled paper towels from the company "Seventh Generation". They're a light brown colour because they have no added dyes, are made using no chlorine and have no added fragrances or inks, etc…I've seen growers using regular white paper towels and it's probably fine, I guess? but I really like the idea of knowing that there aren't synthetic, chemically things coming that close to my tender organically grown greens. Happy growing!
Can I grow arugula microgreens by putting soil into a tray, wetting soil, placing damp paper towel over soil and sprinkle arugula seeds on top of the paper towel? I wonder if the roots will grow through the paper towel and when harvestng I don't have to deal with the soil on the microgreens, just lift the arugula greens from the paper towel. If the answer is yes, will the roots on the arugula be nourshed by the soill.
Can I grow arugula microgreens by putting soil into a tray, wetting soil, placing damp paper towel over soil and sprinkle arugula seeds on top of the paper towel? I wonder if the roots will grow through the paper towel and when harvestng I don't have to deal with the soil on the microgreens, just lift the arugula greens from the paper towel. If the answer is yes, will the roots on the arugula be nourshed by the soill.