Growing micro-greens under color lights
Ana Siachoque
DAY 1. SETTING UP
TO PREPARE MICRO- GREENS:
GROW LIGHTS: Daylight Red Blue 9 W LED (No heat)
3 Hellofresh recycle boxes (13”x13”x13”)
6 food containers (Average 5“ to 8”)
SET UP LIGHTS One bulb per box, located in the middle
3 lights I located the three boxes under mi desk at home. They fit perfectly and it was easy to turn on and off the lights. Also, is was not a bright place either too warm.
CONTAINERS I used the lid as the holder of the soil or mat an make some holes to it so it could drain inside the container. the lid allowed me 1/2� of soil.
SOIL/ MAT PERFORATED LID DRAIN AREA
Ideal Seeds grow process
COMPACTED SOIL
HEMP MAT
WATER SCHEDULE
DAY 1: Seeds soak in water Day 2 - 6: 2 times a day 1 pm - 10 pm Day 7 : 3 times a day 8 am - 4 pm - 12 pm Usual application: Cup of water for 6 containers.
TRYING VARIATIONS OF SEEDS
BIG 1/8” SEED
MEDIUM 3/16” SEED
Regular bag bought on Fairway, 125th st.
SMALL 1/16” SEED
Flax seed opening
LIGHTS OFF When growing micro-greens you should rest the seeds in a dark place while they start opening. When open, turn lights on !
DAY 2
FLAX open 40 % grew up to 1/16”
BARLEY open 0 % grew up to 0”
Buckwheat open 60 % grew up to 1/8�
DAY 3
Soil
Hemp Mat FLAX open 90 % grew up to 1/4”
Buckwheat open 80 % grew up to 1/16”
BARLEY open 0 % grew up to 0”
Buckwheat One seed Mold Extracted right away.
DAY 3
LIGHTS ON
The natural white grow light would produce an intensive green.
Before light, flax seeds have grown up till 3/8�. Buckwheat has stopped its grown. Barley is not growing (starting to believe I bought cooked seeds) Lights produce: GREEN PLANTS
DAY 4
Flax seeds start growing exponentially. The seeds are starting to open more and generate bigger connections.
Barley hasn’t come out and Buckwheat is slowly growing.
DAY 5
Everything is stable / same as day 4
blue light
Red light
white Natural light
DAY 6-7 Flax seeds are growing Extremely fast. Even in all lights and fields.
The barley starts to look bad, glued to each other. Some have change color to brown even red.
In the second water spray of the day. The Barley presented a thin layer of mold on top and Many seeds turn to red.
I decided to extract all contaminated areas.
DAY 8 Flax seeds has grown up to 1 1/2� The steams are white and thick. I can see a better growing on soil than on the Hemp Mat
The heat start to be too hard on the remaining seeds after taking away the Barley and its soil.
I have augmented the water schedule up to three times a day. 8 am, 4 pm, 12 pm.
The Mats are starting to dry, burning on the edges.
DAY 9
Flax seeds had reach 2�.
The Mats are still dry and they even look a little burn on the edges. Mostly on the red light.
DAY 10 Some of the buckwheat grown as long as the flax seeds. But since the seeds where heavier they look low and not too strong.
Flax seeds are strong, healthy and green.
DAY 11
I left the room with the heater and lights on for about 12 hours and when I came back, all the micro-greens where down. The flax seed on the red light got completely burned mostly on the Mat which was extremely dry.
Roots from flax seed micro-greens on soil Day 7
Roots from flax seed micro-greens on Mat, blu light.
BIOREMEDIATION Microgreens