I would think the rounding of the soil sunflowers is probably due to the edges of the soil usually dry first before the middle they probably weren't getting the same amount of water at the edges
Great healthy and fast snack for lockdown. I tried 4 bins with some promix and some tube lights. Just kinda made it work with what we had on hand. Worked great. Kids really enjoyed it to. They grow so fast and are a great family project! As soon as we chopped em down my kids demanded we plant some more because it was so fun watching them grow. I did not know it was so easy to be honest. Stay safe and thanks for the video.
😉G H Would you Be~Leaf we're actively working on tasty recipes that will highlight the various flavors of your favorite microgreens in surprising ways...Not just a garnish...yum!!
GREAT VIDEO!!! I am glad that you did a side by side soil VS ponics (with nutrients) test. I believe that the ponics would have yielded the same wgt or more if you had cut the plants the same distance from the growing medium (dirt VS mat). Maybe even doing it without any mat could also yield the same or better result. I have come across chefs who prefer that they receive the roots with the plants (with no mat or cutting involved), for the plants last longer and fresher in their cooler with the roots; and they can utilize the entire plant (including roots) to their foods. Keep up the GREAT WORK and videos!!!!! 2 thumbs up from me.
Thank you so much for the support!!!! It really means a lot to us! We completely agree with what you are saying and we will be experimenting with that soon! We have been getting some amazing results with hydro recently and we cant wait to try and push that further! We are also going to try growing more without mediums so that we can do exactly what you said and selling everything to be used instead of cutting it up! Thank you again for the support, it makes all the editing and experimenting worth it!
I've watched a few of your videos. All I have seen has it up to the harvest. What do you do with the soil/grow medium after you harvest? Do the stems keep growing? What happens after you cut the greens and bag them?
I so like your videos sharng ideas in Micro-greens, because I am a garden enthusiast. Someday, I will use your guide to have my own. You both are a blessing.
We are growing sunflowers hydroponically without added nutrients and our day 7s look like your day 2s in this video! Is the key to success with sunflowers the nutrients? It's around 65 degrees in our grow room, but everything else seems to e doing just fine. Too cold? We're stumped! Thanks for your videos! Preparing to sell to markets in May- just can't figure out the sunflowers!
So nutrients do help. Maybe you didn't black them out for long enough though, that causes them to get taller. I'll send you the link to our full walk through grow of sunflower. Sunflower is also just a finicky crop in general lol It hates the cold and we've noticed that since its turned winter we run into more germination issues with them. Plus new batches of seed can also play a factor... When we did this video we had seed that produced hearty beautiful sunflower, then we recently opened a new batch of seed that's the exact same type but it produced much smaller sunflower. ua-cam.com/video/kS_Zmu5E7VY/v-deo.html
Hello, great video and I am looking forward to watching your older videos as well as your new ones! What type of knife or instrument were you using to harvest the microgreens?
Great question! Currently we harvest everything with a knife. It works the best for us, some people like scissors and others like electric hedge trimmers. You can see the kind of knife we use on our amazon storefront in our description! You can also see every other item that we use!
Thank you so much! We have tried the sunflowers on the hemp pads but we think we slightly overwatered the hemp and didn’t get that great of germination. That was when we first got the hemp and didn’t realize how well it could hold the water...
We store ours in bags, which can last any where between 2weeks to 1 month depending on the microgreen variety. 🥳 Also 32oz mason jars work great to or reusable containers.
Great video. Thank you. Question if you have time to answer..I just started using hydroponics and are trying hemp pads. I notice these pads get dark spots a couple of days after turning on the lights. Is this mold? It does not wipe away from the fibers, the hemp fibers itself are actually looking dark in areas. I don’t think it is mold because the roots look perfectly clean and healthy.
Thank you for the support! It could be algae or mildew. It is something that will happen to us sometimes... It is more common for it to happen on trays that grow for a much longer period of time, at least in our experience. I’ll see if I can make a video about it soon and figure out exactly what it is!
Thank you so much!! I custom designed it and had it built to those specs! It has insulated walls and ceiling, water reservoirs, triple washing sink, hand-washing station, 15,000 BTU A/C, Heater, Aluminum Walls, E-tracking along the walls and so on. I had it built because I was dealing with moving houses at the time and didn’t want to have to build it myself. Next time, I will likely buy the shell, and then do most of the work myself because it is quite easy if you have a little know-how.
@Douglas Dishroon Most of the seeds we have used are from Trueleafmarket.com but we now trying out some from Johnnyseeds.com. Since we have the most experience with Trueleafmarket.com, I would suggest starting with them!
@Douglas Dishroon Another good source is Sprouting.com if you live further North. We are in the south of the U.S. so it takes a while to receive seeds from them!
@Douglas Dishroon Lol, sounds like a good problem to have! Yeah, the Mumm's (sprouting.com) seeds worked really well for us and should be quick to ship to Maine!
I really enjoyed this test but I have a quick question! For the potting mix test did you use PH balanced water or just purified water? Our water source is from a well and its about at a 7 ph.
Thank you so much for the support! Here is a link to some of the trays we use and a lot of the other supplies we use as well: www.amazon.com/shop/onthegrowfarms?listId=DTGPX0RYY5R3
Hi Bro! could you pls clarify some questions about sunflower microgreen : 1. why seed's roots are black during germination? i use nutrition water in bottom apprx 0.5-1 cm and spray by it before 2. what is a temperature in room during germination and how lond sanflower stay at dark? 3. what is a temperature in room when the sanflower goes to ligth? 4. are you change temperature at the night and day? tnaks for yr help!
Hello! Apologies for the delayed response. So sunflowers roots can become black/brown during germination if they are unable to reach water or moisture quick enough. Usually providing the sunflowers with a little weight will allow them to push down into the reservoir and get the moisture they need. The temperature of our room stays between 23 and 26 Celsius and the humidity is 45% or above. We keep our sunflowers in the dark for around 4 days. 3 days with weight (~ 6kg) and then 1-2 days no weight. The temperature in the room stays the same as described before. The temperature will lower a little bit at night because it is winter here, but it stays above 21 at night. Hope this helps!! Let us know if you have any other questions and we'd love to help!
Awesome test! Could you please tell me the name of the material you used at the hydroponic trays? And also, the humidity and temperature level you are working in/with :D Keep up the good work
Thank you so much for the support! We use a medium called Biostrate to grow with hydroponically... We also have a lot of other videos showing other good options like Hemp, Jute, Bamboo and other growing medium options! You can see everything we've ever used in our description in the amazon storefront. Our climate stays at an average of room temperature (72-77F) and our humidity is set to stay at 45%. We don't want too low of humidity or we will get lower germination and weaker plant growth. Thank you again for the support! Let us know if we can help any further!
We found those on Amazon! They are technically compost bags, so we stopped using them because they weren’t labeled as food safe ☹️ we are still looking for a compostable clean bag that is food safe so we can use it for our sales! They do work fine for personal use though!
I'm trying to see if you have a link to the trays that you purchase anywhere. They look much stronger than the crap I have found. Thanks for these experiments!!
Thank you so much for the support! We have only had one of these trays crack in over 7 months of heavy-use... So they are definitely sturdy. We've had a few arrive damaged from shipping, but the company will make it right. www.amazon.com/shop/onthegrowfarms?listId=DTGPX0RYY5R3
Hey C.J. this is a great video! Thanks for making and sharing this great content :-) I'd like to know the following: What sort of biostrae medium polymer blend are you using. Do you perhaps have a maker's name? Is the substrate reusable? Thanks
Great Question! For this test, I don't know the exacts cost of the soils but generally the prices are fairly similar sitting between the $1.00-$4.00 per tray cost in materials. We will be doing that in future comparisons so that there is more data for everyone! Thanks for the suggestion!
We keep it mostly organic! However we do a lot of experiments so we share a lot of those and venture outside of just purely organic… thanks for the support! 🤗🌱🌱
🙂Thank you so much for the Feedback purplemonkeyelephant! We appreciate your support! 😉purplemonkeyelephant Would you Be~Leaf we're actively working on tasty recipes that will highlight the various flavors of your favorite microgreens in surprising ways...Not just a garnish...yum!!
Thank you so much for the support! We do our best to help everyone out! Yeah absolutely! If the weather in your area is nice, they can be planted outside and do very well!
@@OnTheGrow can we use reguler vegetable seed for microgreens? or there is special seed for microgreens? because in my area reguler seed is much more cheaper (almost half) than seed labeled for microgren .
@@ilhamr99 Make sure that the regular seed is untreated... Generally it is cheaper because it is treated with some kind of poison for field farming. As long as it is untreated and clean seed, you should be able to use it!
Interesting and good to see the pros/cons between grow medium methods. Always enjoy the videos and info y’all provide... well not so my that 8 bit synthesizer outtake music. 👎🏻 Lol
Ummm... im using a soil less potting mix to my hydroponic lettuce. Can i just use regular water for the lettuce or do i really need to use hydroponic nutrients???? >~
You can use regular water! We just notice that if there is no form of nutrients for the plants, such as a nutrient rich soil or nutrients added to the water, then they will grow a little slower.
During germination use 15lbs of weight on top and that should help them drive that radical down into the medium. Here's are full walk through grow of sunflower microgreens that might interest you: ua-cam.com/video/kS_Zmu5E7VY/v-deo.html
Thank you so much! For sunflower we now seed at 125g/tray (1020 tray)! This gets us the best growth in our space and allows more airflow through the crop reducing chance of mold or disease. Thanks again for the support!
On The Grow is that dry or soaked? And if soaked, how long? And could I also ask how fence do you seed your peas?Thank you so much ur videos they have really helped me out keep up the hard work👍🏽 could
Thanks for the support!! We are just now beginning experiments with heat mats and they are working really, really well! Most of our videos are with the room temperature being 75-80F in Summer and 67-73F in Winter. We got the best growth in summer with the warmer temperatures.
Really enjoyed this thanks, I would have liked to have seen the results visually in a graph. Also, it would have been interesting to know the cost differentials.
Thank you so much for the support! In our newer videos we started showing some graphs and comparing the costs... generally, hydroponics is about $0.50 or so cheaper than using soils. The average cost per tray is about $1.20 for seed and soil, but it depends on what you use.
@@OnTheGrow Brilliant! Thanks so much for the timely response! I'm a teacher, so always looking at ways to bring food, planting and science into our classroom (and my home.) Have you seen the explain everything app, or whiteboardfox.com which could be fantastic for illustrating info and graphics to your viewers.
OK, ill be the guy to ask about the trays, i see Q's about trailer. But im very interested in your opinions of those colorful trays. Ive seen them once online, and wondering if they are good? Do you have a preference too either kind, i see some are two part, so as to bottom water, and some taller ones. Do they stand up to heavy use, do they fade quickly, price, or any other thoughts you may have on them trays.... Thx in advance.
Great questions! So these are Bootstrap Farmer trays and honestly they are the most rugged trays that we have used. We do prefer the shallow 1" trays because we find the taller trays to be too much... They are way too deep to comfortably harvest greens grown on a hydroponic medium. If you use a soil, we just find them to be wasteful because we can get the same results with the shallow trays. The deep trays do hold water better, so you water them less frequently (with soil-like mediums only) but we prefer to water twice a day so we can check on the crops more. Some of them have faded from being in the sun, but when we keep them in the grow space, they keep their color quite well. We have been growing with them for several months and I can't notice any losing color that has been indoors only. The sun will lighten them if you leave them outside though. The price is quite high but if you consider that you're not going to need to replace it for years, it is totally worth the investment. We slowly kept buying more as we grew instead of just buying a lot of them at once. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Suggestion: if you want to make it more systematic you can increase your sample size. Maybe have 3 trays per group and then get the average of the three trays. And then you can even blind the study by having the cutter not know what he is cutting.
Great suggestion! We’ve started upping our groups to two trays per group on our more recent tests and we’re doing blind taste testing! As for cutting, we do our best to keep it even and it’s hard to hide what tray it’s is because we spend so much time with the trays, we become so familiar with each crop. Thanks for the support and suggestion Hans!
We were not actually comparing cost in this test, but will look at that in a future test! Also, two similar but💚 different subjects when you compare paper towels to this! Thankyou for your support!
Thank you for sharing ...if you’re growing hydroponically why can’t you leave the roots on the greens? I would think there’s valuable nutrition in the whole plant.
I guess you could if you wanted to, but some of them are just weird!😊 The flavor of the root is different as well! Cj Lively 😀We are so excited to announce that both our Microgreens Master Book and our first Microgreens Cookbook will be available very soon! 😃Please visit our new website at 0nthegrow.net for info and early sign up!!!
Maybe the dome-ing is because the seedlings in the middle get stronger pressure from the bricks. Maybe use more bricks all over the whole tray on top. Seems like sunflowers really like the weight, eh?
Great question! Currently we only do a few sales, we focus mainly educating and sharing information through our videos as our revenue stream. We do some farmers markets and home deliveries but the majority of the produce is given to friends and family and eaten by us! Whenever we do sales, we always do really well. We only sell in large quantities so that it is less work packaging the product. There are a ton of people doing very well with microgreens. They are incredibly profitable and they are easy to grow once you get it down... A lot of people are doing this as side businesses and making an extra $1,000-$10,000 per month from the sales. The trays sell for between $10-$50 with the average being about $25.00/tray. The trays cost between $1.00-$5.00 per tray to grow depending on a ton of different factors like medium, nutrients, labor, etc. There are a lot of other UA-camrs who focus on the business aspect, but it is honestly quite easy... If you are already an established farmer, these should be easy to incorporate and manage.
On The Grow thanks, so where would I start in the selling process, like who should I approach to sell to, on a large scale, I assume friends, family, associates would be easy, but for volume who would be the interested parties? Yes, this would be a great non season (for me) extra type of income... thanks in advance
@@leebraddock9789 On a large scale, I'd look for local distributors that you can sell your product in bulk to.. Usually they will take a certain percentage of the sell then give you the rest. Also some chefs buy in bulk and grocery stores. So I'd suggest doing some research and ask questions! We mostly sell to family, friends and some people in our local neighborhood. Plus we do farmers markets whenever they're in season!
Probably not the end all for tests, each medium needs to be perfected, then measure the results after some consistency is achieved. But the video was honest and gave me some good ideas, thank you for making it and sharing! I'd try to find a Vegan nutrient. Farmer's pride, for example, has animal products in it. There is no way a vegan would be happy to know that their food comes from animal bodies. Good questions to ponder: Why does rounding happen? Why didn't the shells come off? Is there a way to test the healthiness of the end results?
Definitely not the end all, which is why we have performed so many test since this one... this was our first video, so we’ve come a long with with the growing practices. We have a vegan nutrient now that is organic called Ocean Solution. We have also got our process down where we don’t get seed hulls anymore and the rounding is no longer an issue! Thanks for the support!
@@OnTheGrow Thank you for the fast reply! You guys rock :) Gah! I need to watch more videos then. I did see the Ocean Solution being used on another video.
@@matthew13579 Thank you so much!! We have a full walkthrough of sunflowers being posting in the next 7 days or so! We will also see if we can get some more nutrient tests going with sunflowers to see what works best!
@@OnTheGrow I used to do hydroponics for cannabis. I was wondering if helped doing some sort of nutrient cleans (water only) the last day or 2 before harvest.
Hi there. I'm thoroughly enjoying all your video's having become a subscriber from here in the UK. I would like to ask what do you use to heat your growing space? I intend to grow microgreens for my own use having just purchased 2 led 6000k white lights, a pair of ac usb fans and I have coco coir and an earth seedling compost mix at the ready to try out along with a bottle of seaweed liquid feed. However, it's rather cold here in the UK and I don't wish to put on the heating in my home, so advice about your heating system would be much appreciated. Regards Mark.
Thank you Pierre! I actually had never heard of Pi water till you mentioned it. I just did some research and it seems like a great concept, curious to see how it would work with these plants. I will see if I can put together a test to try out some. Thanks for the suggestion!
We can absolutely do that, but from what I understand of a Brix test is that it only measures the sugar content and doesn't accurately reflect nutrition... We will start doing some Brix analysis though just to see!
Thank you so much!! I am not sure and I got rid of all my super early music files :( Recently moved to a new computer so I purged a lot of old files... Sorry! I do know it was from the site we use for music (Epidemic Sound)
hi great info .we are just looking at additional micro.s to are veggie boxes. we would like to know about the shelf live hydro versus soil. keep up the great work. Wayne springhill farms
Hey Wayne! We actually watch y'alls videos too! Honestly, the shelf life is fairly similar, with the exception of having to wash the soil ones. If you wash the soil, and they don't dry completely (hard to do on the delicate crop varieties) then they will rot a lot quicker. So that is why we prefer hydroponics... You could always sell the soil ones unwashed and let the customers know they need to wash. On average though, most of our greens last about 3 weeks to 6 weeks after harvest. We always suggest they people eat them within a week though. -CJ
thanks keep up the great work.we run our veggie boxes year round and thi k microgreens would be a great addition. and for use hydrophonic is the way would like to go. I.ll let you know how we make out. Wayne springhill farms
Depends on the season. Through the winter, we have been around 67-72F for our average ambient temp and in summer it is closer to 75-81F average. We got the best growth in the summertime when the temperatures were higher.
I am having a SEVERE PROBLEM with 95% of my Sunflower Seed Radicals avoiding the soil and growing UP. Also, the roots have 20+ tiny roots growing off the main root. What is going on here?? Does anyone have any suggestions! I live in Las Vegas NV., and it is March 10th.
It depends on the crop variety really! Generally we water most everything twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening. Here’s a link to our full walkthrough for growing microgreens: ua-cam.com/video/D3vnBEvYDZo/v-deo.html
So many factors are envolved in growing seeds....air flow, humidity and temp....well interesting results though...I'm very soil vithout added nutrients...but maby I should try
So the objective is to cut them w a sharp knife well above soil/ grow line So they don't get contaminated from the growing medium if you can avoid that then you don't have to wash them my correct? Thank you
Exactly! We like to avoid any extra steps if possible. Just make sure that it is within your local regulations to sell like that if you are looking to sell the produce. We don't sell anymore and grow for ourselves and neighbors and have had no issues not washing our crops over the past 2 years.
Nope! I presume it would be messy for larger grows! 😀 Marcos V. Dantas-Queiroz Again...we really benefit from your support and nice compliments!!! Have you visited our newest website... www.onthegrow.net ...we are so proud of the help it provides!!!
Wouldn't it be better to grow the tray using multiple rectangular medium thus eliminating cutting and saving harvest time? Package the medium and product selling a live product.
Hello! So we followed the instructions for the lowest dosages on both... I'm pretty sure it is 2.5ml/gallon for both so we did 12.5ml of each into a 5 gallon bucket of filtered water then Ph balanced it down to 5.5-6.0 range. Let us know if you have any other questions and we'd love to help!
Yes! Our growspace had an average temperature of 75-80F during summer and now that it is winter, that has dropped to 67-73F... Since we dropped in temperature, we are getting much slower germination from the sunflowers. They take extra care now to germinate correctly. We are looking at possibly using a heat mat to speed up the germination process.
@@OnTheGrow On The Grow Thanks, my wheat and sunflower failed to sprout weII at aII. I wasn't sure if it was the actual product or the temp. My barley was slow but did sprout. From where are you getting your seeds
@@OnTheGrow the heat mat idea sounds good, if not a heated room. I am concerned with cost. I also wonder if the temp of the room where the seeds are stored makes a difference.
@@docvencil2222 We are getting our seeds mainly from Johnnyseeds.com and Trueleafmarket.com. The majority of the seeds we use are coming from Trueleafmarket and we just started experimenting with Johnnyseeds. Another source that is great if you are further north than us is Sprouting.com. Apologies on the delayed response, didn't see this till now. Yeah, anything the temp drops a lot in our grow space, our grows end up taking a few days extra as we have to wait for a longer germination process and slower growth.
@@thelordschurchfarmandranch6694 Our room is temperature controlled and I think the heatmat could be a great option. We also store our seeds in the same room. Supposedly keeping the seeds in a space that is cold is best for the seeds. Good for the seeds but bad for germination :)
Why you keep it covered after germination? As long as I know, the reason for pressure before the plants get up would be to increase soil and seed contact. Or is there another reason? Sorry, I'm not even a newbie yet :)
Lol, that’s a great question actually! So we keep the weight for usually three days, then we flip the tray to stretch them a little bit. Certain crops will stay short for a while if they are introduced to light quickly after germination. So we like to flip the tray to let them stretch a little and it also makes them push up the tray if they reach it, so they grow a bit stronger. The main reason is to make harvesting easier by making the product taller. If they touch the top of the tray, it also helps to give resistance to push the seed hulls off if they are still intact. Sunflowers are an example of a crop that does this with its flipped lid blackout time. Hope that helps!
I love that you guys do these videos. The tests, the teaching, the humor! You guys are just the best! Thank you.
Thank you so much for the support!! We really appreciate it!
I love how you guys run the videos. It doesnt leave much out for new growers. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the support Ben! We do our best to make it as easy as possible 🤗🌱🌱
Except perhaps how much watering and when. Were the seeds sprayed twice a day? Or was the water added to the hydro from day 1? kind of important.
I would think the rounding of the soil sunflowers is probably due to the edges of the soil usually dry first before the middle they probably weren't getting the same amount of water at the edges
Agreed! Yeah, we will notice the same thing... Usually edges and corners are the first to dry out if there is an under-watering situation happening.
I wonder what testing would reveal about the different nutrients available in each of the different growing mediums.
Same thought
Great healthy and fast snack for lockdown. I tried 4 bins with some promix and some tube lights. Just kinda made it work with what we had on hand. Worked great. Kids really enjoyed it to. They grow so fast and are a great family project! As soon as we chopped em down my kids demanded we plant some more because it was so fun watching them grow. I did not know it was so easy to be honest. Stay safe and thanks for the video.
I like the hydroponic because when you come to harvest you don’t have to worry about the dirt when cutting.
😉G H Would you Be~Leaf we're actively working on tasty recipes that will highlight the various flavors of your favorite microgreens in surprising ways...Not just a garnish...yum!!
GREAT VIDEO!!! I am glad that you did a side by side soil VS ponics (with nutrients) test. I believe that the ponics would have yielded the same wgt or more if you had cut the plants the same distance from the growing medium (dirt VS mat). Maybe even doing it without any mat could also yield the same or better result. I have come across chefs who prefer that they receive the roots with the plants (with no mat or cutting involved), for the plants last longer and fresher in their cooler with the roots; and they can utilize the entire plant (including roots) to their foods. Keep up the GREAT WORK and videos!!!!! 2 thumbs up from me.
Thank you so much for the support!!!! It really means a lot to us! We completely agree with what you are saying and we will be experimenting with that soon! We have been getting some amazing results with hydro recently and we cant wait to try and push that further! We are also going to try growing more without mediums so that we can do exactly what you said and selling everything to be used instead of cutting it up! Thank you again for the support, it makes all the editing and experimenting worth it!
Your late 80s montage theme. You guys are pioneers 😂😂😂 i love you guys. Thanks for everything
I've watched a few of your videos. All I have seen has it up to the harvest. What do you do with the soil/grow medium after you harvest? Do the stems keep growing? What happens after you cut the greens and bag them?
Very good question - I was thinking along the same lines.
Is the 150g of seeds measured dry, or after they have soaked? Thank you for sharing your awesome content!
Can we reuse the soil from which you have harvested the microgreens for another yield? If so, how do you prep the soil for next growth?
Love the trailer idea. Much easier then the containers
Thank you so much!! It really is! We can pull it anywhere with our truck fairly easily!
@@OnTheGrow Love the trailer too. Curious what the ball park cost of that set up is?
@@edurban7236 Thank you! it was about $15,000
What kind of trailer you use exactly?
Very nice comparison. I am going to try the hydroponic method for sunflower also. Tired of cleaning the grow rack in my kitchen.
Hydroponics is quite a bit of fun! Once you get the hang of it, it is really easy to manage
I so like your videos sharng ideas in Micro-greens, because I am a garden enthusiast. Someday, I will use your guide to have my own. You both are a blessing.
What about a cost comparison between the different methods? Could be deciding factor for some.
We are growing sunflowers hydroponically without added nutrients and our day 7s look like your day 2s in this video! Is the key to success with sunflowers the nutrients? It's around 65 degrees in our grow room, but everything else seems to e doing just fine. Too cold? We're stumped! Thanks for your videos! Preparing to sell to markets in May- just can't figure out the sunflowers!
So nutrients do help. Maybe you didn't black them out for long enough though, that causes them to get taller. I'll send you the link to our full walk through grow of sunflower. Sunflower is also just a finicky crop in general lol It hates the cold and we've noticed that since its turned winter we run into more germination issues with them. Plus new batches of seed can also play a factor... When we did this video we had seed that produced hearty beautiful sunflower, then we recently opened a new batch of seed that's the exact same type but it produced much smaller sunflower.
ua-cam.com/video/kS_Zmu5E7VY/v-deo.html
Also we keep our grow space between 75F - 80F with the humidity 50% or lower
Forgot to add in that in the winter time our space stays between 67-73F
75-80F is in the summer
Hello, great video and I am looking forward to watching your older videos as well as your new ones! What type of knife or instrument were you using to harvest the microgreens?
Great question! Currently we harvest everything with a knife. It works the best for us, some people like scissors and others like electric hedge trimmers. You can see the kind of knife we use on our amazon storefront in our description! You can also see every other item that we use!
Thanks for the reply and the info!
What is the purpose of applying weights during the germination process?
I'm finding 3 farmers pride mixes on Amazon. Which one did you use?
Awesome vid and Great test...have you all tried sunflower hemp pads?
Thank you so much! We have tried the sunflowers on the hemp pads but we think we slightly overwatered the hemp and didn’t get that great of germination. That was when we first got the hemp and didn’t realize how well it could hold the water...
Thanks CJ ... really appreciate the tests on soils and lights... I used your amazon links!... Like Mandi's how-to's also!
can you explain or show how you storage the micros and explain how long can stay fresh after a full growth?
best regards,
Zivko
We store ours in bags, which can last any where between 2weeks to 1 month depending on the microgreen variety. 🥳
Also 32oz mason jars work great to or reusable containers.
Thank you for doing a taste test :)
Our pleasure! Thank you for your support!
Great video. Thank you. Question if you have time to answer..I just started using hydroponics and are trying hemp pads. I notice these pads get dark spots a couple of days after turning on the lights. Is this mold? It does not wipe away from the fibers, the hemp fibers itself are actually looking dark in areas. I don’t think it is mold because the roots look perfectly clean and healthy.
Thank you for the support! It could be algae or mildew. It is something that will happen to us sometimes... It is more common for it to happen on trays that grow for a much longer period of time, at least in our experience. I’ll see if I can make a video about it soon and figure out exactly what it is!
On The Grow thank you for your reply 👍
Love your set up !!!
Did you customize the interior, insulate and vinyl lining ? Or was it manufactured so ?
Thank you so much!! I custom designed it and had it built to those specs! It has insulated walls and ceiling, water reservoirs, triple washing sink, hand-washing station, 15,000 BTU A/C, Heater, Aluminum Walls, E-tracking along the walls and so on. I had it built because I was dealing with moving houses at the time and didn’t want to have to build it myself. Next time, I will likely buy the shell, and then do most of the work myself because it is quite easy if you have a little know-how.
@Douglas Dishroon Most of the seeds we have used are from Trueleafmarket.com but we now trying out some from Johnnyseeds.com. Since we have the most experience with Trueleafmarket.com, I would suggest starting with them!
@Douglas Dishroon Another good source is Sprouting.com if you live further North. We are in the south of the U.S. so it takes a while to receive seeds from them!
@Douglas Dishroon Lol, sounds like a good problem to have! Yeah, the Mumm's (sprouting.com) seeds worked really well for us and should be quick to ship to Maine!
@@OnTheGrow These companies seem expensive.Is there a reason to pay this much for seeds, sincere question
I really enjoyed this test but I have a quick question! For the potting mix test did you use PH balanced water or just purified water? Our water source is from a well and its about at a 7 ph.
Just water it bro
Nice videos folks! Would you care to share where to get the trays?
Thank you so much for the support! Here is a link to some of the trays we use and a lot of the other supplies we use as well: www.amazon.com/shop/onthegrowfarms?listId=DTGPX0RYY5R3
Hi Bro! could you pls clarify some questions about sunflower microgreen : 1. why seed's roots are black during germination? i use nutrition water in bottom apprx 0.5-1 cm and spray by it before 2. what is a temperature in room during germination and how lond sanflower stay at dark? 3. what is a temperature in room when the sanflower goes to ligth? 4. are you change temperature at the night and day? tnaks for yr help!
Hello! Apologies for the delayed response. So sunflowers roots can become black/brown during germination if they are unable to reach water or moisture quick enough. Usually providing the sunflowers with a little weight will allow them to push down into the reservoir and get the moisture they need. The temperature of our room stays between 23 and 26 Celsius and the humidity is 45% or above. We keep our sunflowers in the dark for around 4 days. 3 days with weight (~ 6kg) and then 1-2 days no weight. The temperature in the room stays the same as described before. The temperature will lower a little bit at night because it is winter here, but it stays above 21 at night. Hope this helps!! Let us know if you have any other questions and we'd love to help!
On The Grow thanks a lot, it’s very important for me.
Hey CJ! I don't know if anyone mentioned it already, but I think there's an R missing in your "hydroponics" headline. Keep up the good vids 👍
💚Thank you so much for the support K M!! We are going to be making new content soon! 😄
Awesome test! Could you please tell me the name of the material you used at the hydroponic trays?
And also, the humidity and temperature level you are working in/with :D
Keep up the good work
Thank you so much for the support! We use a medium called Biostrate to grow with hydroponically... We also have a lot of other videos showing other good options like Hemp, Jute, Bamboo and other growing medium options! You can see everything we've ever used in our description in the amazon storefront.
Our climate stays at an average of room temperature (72-77F) and our humidity is set to stay at 45%. We don't want too low of humidity or we will get lower germination and weaker plant growth.
Thank you again for the support! Let us know if we can help any further!
Thank you for a most informative video. Greg. South Africa.
Thank you for the support Greg!! It really means a lot to us!
Fabulous job! Thanks for the great info. Where do you source those "Help the Earth" bags. They look wonderful.
We found those on Amazon! They are technically compost bags, so we stopped using them because they weren’t labeled as food safe ☹️ we are still looking for a compostable clean bag that is food safe so we can use it for our sales! They do work fine for personal use though!
And thank you so much for the support! It means a lot to us!
Good vid.....do you have to use a base for the hydroponic or can just put right on plastic tray and spray twice a day? TY
I'm trying to see if you have a link to the trays that you purchase anywhere. They look much stronger than the crap I have found. Thanks for these experiments!!
Thank you so much for the support! We have only had one of these trays crack in over 7 months of heavy-use... So they are definitely sturdy. We've had a few arrive damaged from shipping, but the company will make it right. www.amazon.com/shop/onthegrowfarms?listId=DTGPX0RYY5R3
Hey C.J. this is a great video! Thanks for making and sharing this great content :-) I'd like to know the following: What sort of biostrae medium polymer blend are you using. Do you perhaps have a maker's name? Is the substrate reusable? Thanks
Hey great test, do you have the costings per tray for each of the types? I think that would add an interesting spin to the comparisons :)
Great Question! For this test, I don't know the exacts cost of the soils but generally the prices are fairly similar sitting between the $1.00-$4.00 per tray cost in materials. We will be doing that in future comparisons so that there is more data for everyone! Thanks for the suggestion!
What kind of mix did you do with the fox farms nutrients? Trace amount or heavy feed?
Nice operation you got going! Would love to see you keep it all organic
We keep it mostly organic! However we do a lot of experiments so we share a lot of those and venture outside of just purely organic… thanks for the support! 🤗🌱🌱
How do you water the soil? Can you show that, please? Thank you
It's so crazy that there is a 50% difference between your smallest and largest. In terms of profit margins at scale that's massive
🙂Thank you so much for the Feedback purplemonkeyelephant! We appreciate your support! 😉purplemonkeyelephant Would you Be~Leaf we're actively working on tasty recipes that will highlight the various flavors of your favorite microgreens in surprising ways...Not just a garnish...yum!!
Its awesome, that you reply every comment 👍👍 .
Can we plant microgreens outdoor,not indoor ?
Thank you so much for the support! We do our best to help everyone out!
Yeah absolutely! If the weather in your area is nice, they can be planted outside and do very well!
@@OnTheGrow can we use reguler vegetable seed for microgreens? or there is special seed for microgreens? because in my area reguler seed is much more cheaper (almost half) than seed labeled for microgren .
@@ilhamr99 Make sure that the regular seed is untreated... Generally it is cheaper because it is treated with some kind of poison for field farming. As long as it is untreated and clean seed, you should be able to use it!
can i please get a direct link to the specific farmers pride hydro mix??
Süper test, Thanks from İstanbul Türkiye.
Interesting and good to see the pros/cons between grow medium methods. Always enjoy the videos and info y’all provide... well not so my that 8 bit synthesizer outtake music. 👎🏻 Lol
Lol, yeah we were in an 80’s phase when we started our UA-cam channel 😆 we’ve moved away from the 8bit for now 🤗🌱🌱
What were the depth of the trays you used for the hydroponics? Top and bottom trays please?
Great video, helpful in so many ways!! Family of 7 from Nova Scotia
Thank you so much for the support Heidi! If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
Look at those seed husks. Bet it's iffy when deciding to capture an image?
Ummm... im using a soil less potting mix to my hydroponic lettuce. Can i just use regular water for the lettuce or do i really need to use hydroponic nutrients???? >~
You can use regular water! We just notice that if there is no form of nutrients for the plants, such as a nutrient rich soil or nutrients added to the water, then they will grow a little slower.
@@OnTheGrow thanks~
do you have any tips so they don't grow radical upward?if they grow upward can we just flip it and put it back?
During germination use 15lbs of weight on top and that should help them drive that radical down into the medium.
Here's are full walk through grow of sunflower microgreens that might interest you:
ua-cam.com/video/kS_Zmu5E7VY/v-deo.html
1:50. Peat hummus!!! My favorite flavor
What is your seeding density like? Growth looks great!
Thank you so much! For sunflower we now seed at 125g/tray (1020 tray)! This gets us the best growth in our space and allows more airflow through the crop reducing chance of mold or disease. Thanks again for the support!
On The Grow is that dry or soaked? And if soaked, how long? And could I also ask how fence do you seed your peas?Thank you so much ur videos they have really helped me out keep up the hard work👍🏽 could
That is the dry weight per tray that we measure our before the soak! Currently we seed between 250g-300g per tray for peas. Thanks for the support!
I am super new viewer- wanting to set up. Do you use a soil heater also? or is it room temp and Lights ? Thanks
Thanks for the support!! We are just now beginning experiments with heat mats and they are working really, really well! Most of our videos are with the room temperature being 75-80F in Summer and 67-73F in Winter. We got the best growth in summer with the warmer temperatures.
Slow release fertilizer means it only releases a small amount of the food to the plant when water touches the fertilizer
What Temperature and humidity do you try to keep in the grow room??
In the Texas Summer we try to keep our space between 75F to 80F and humidity at 50% or lower all the time.
When and how do you sell them?
We have local customers that we do drop off too using mason jars, Farmers markets and also friends and family.
Really enjoyed this thanks, I would have liked to have seen the results visually in a graph. Also, it would have been interesting to know the cost differentials.
Thank you so much for the support! In our newer videos we started showing some graphs and comparing the costs... generally, hydroponics is about $0.50 or so cheaper than using soils. The average cost per tray is about $1.20 for seed and soil, but it depends on what you use.
@@OnTheGrow Brilliant! Thanks so much for the timely response! I'm a teacher, so always looking at ways to bring food, planting and science into our classroom (and my home.)
Have you seen the explain everything app, or whiteboardfox.com which could be fantastic for illustrating info and graphics to your viewers.
OK, ill be the guy to ask about the trays, i see Q's about trailer. But im very interested in your opinions of those colorful trays. Ive seen them once online, and wondering if they are good? Do you have a preference too either kind, i see some are two part, so as to bottom water, and some taller ones. Do they stand up to heavy use, do they fade quickly, price, or any other thoughts you may have on them trays.... Thx in advance.
Great questions! So these are Bootstrap Farmer trays and honestly they are the most rugged trays that we have used. We do prefer the shallow 1" trays because we find the taller trays to be too much... They are way too deep to comfortably harvest greens grown on a hydroponic medium. If you use a soil, we just find them to be wasteful because we can get the same results with the shallow trays. The deep trays do hold water better, so you water them less frequently (with soil-like mediums only) but we prefer to water twice a day so we can check on the crops more.
Some of them have faded from being in the sun, but when we keep them in the grow space, they keep their color quite well. We have been growing with them for several months and I can't notice any losing color that has been indoors only. The sun will lighten them if you leave them outside though.
The price is quite high but if you consider that you're not going to need to replace it for years, it is totally worth the investment. We slowly kept buying more as we grew instead of just buying a lot of them at once.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
@@OnTheGrow Thank-You sir for your response, good luck and merry christmas
@@pseudoscientist4585 Thank you and Merry Christmas to you!
Each time you add fertilizer to the 2 hydroponic trays, do you empty the existing water and add fresh water?
Have you guys tried dutch science nutrients? They have full organic hydroponics nutrients. Not sure if they apply to microgreens application.
🙂Thank you so much for the Feedback Brandon Guttmann! We appreciate your support! 🙂No we have not brought that into our operation!!!
Suggestion: if you want to make it more systematic you can increase your sample size. Maybe have 3 trays per group and then get the average of the three trays. And then you can even blind the study by having the cutter not know what he is cutting.
Great suggestion! We’ve started upping our groups to two trays per group on our more recent tests and we’re doing blind taste testing! As for cutting, we do our best to keep it even and it’s hard to hide what tray it’s is because we spend so much time with the trays, we become so familiar with each crop. Thanks for the support and suggestion Hans!
what was cost of each of these trials for the substrate per tray - how does the this hydroponic test compare to the paper towel experiment??
We were not actually comparing cost in this test, but will look at that in a future test! Also, two similar but💚 different subjects when you compare paper towels to this! Thankyou for your support!
Great test CJ, thank you! Well done!
Thank you so much for the support!! It really means a lot to us!
Thank you for sharing ...if you’re growing hydroponically why can’t you leave the roots on the greens? I would think there’s valuable nutrition in the whole plant.
I guess you could if you wanted to, but some of them are just weird!😊 The flavor of the root is different as well! Cj Lively 😀We are so excited to announce that both our Microgreens Master Book and our first Microgreens Cookbook will be available very soon!
😃Please visit our new website at 0nthegrow.net for info and early sign up!!!
Maybe the dome-ing is because the seedlings in the middle get stronger pressure from the bricks. Maybe use more bricks all over the whole tray on top. Seems like sunflowers really like the weight, eh?
What do you do with all the finished product? Is there a market for it? I’m a commercial blueberry farmer, interested in this...
Great question! Currently we only do a few sales, we focus mainly educating and sharing information through our videos as our revenue stream. We do some farmers markets and home deliveries but the majority of the produce is given to friends and family and eaten by us! Whenever we do sales, we always do really well. We only sell in large quantities so that it is less work packaging the product.
There are a ton of people doing very well with microgreens. They are incredibly profitable and they are easy to grow once you get it down... A lot of people are doing this as side businesses and making an extra $1,000-$10,000 per month from the sales. The trays sell for between $10-$50 with the average being about $25.00/tray. The trays cost between $1.00-$5.00 per tray to grow depending on a ton of different factors like medium, nutrients, labor, etc.
There are a lot of other UA-camrs who focus on the business aspect, but it is honestly quite easy... If you are already an established farmer, these should be easy to incorporate and manage.
On The Grow thanks, so where would I start in the selling process, like who should I approach to sell to, on a large scale, I assume friends, family, associates would be easy, but for volume who would be the interested parties? Yes, this would be a great non season (for me) extra type of income... thanks in advance
On The Grow would definitely help in keeping help around full time during the off-season, be a good source of income for them
@@leebraddock9789 On a large scale, I'd look for local distributors that you can sell your product in bulk to.. Usually they will take a certain percentage of the sell then give you the rest. Also some chefs buy in bulk and grocery stores. So I'd suggest doing some research and ask questions! We mostly sell to family, friends and some people in our local neighborhood. Plus we do farmers markets whenever they're in season!
About $700-$1,000 per month with ad revenue.
I am missing a not organic hydroponic solution as maxigrow or similar (what material are the hydro mates?)
The mats are made from a medium called Biostrate... We moved away from that growing medium because it wasn't as compostable as they claimed it to be.
Probably not the end all for tests, each medium needs to be perfected, then measure the results after some consistency is achieved. But the video was honest and gave me some good ideas, thank you for making it and sharing!
I'd try to find a Vegan nutrient. Farmer's pride, for example, has animal products in it. There is no way a vegan would be happy to know that their food comes from animal bodies.
Good questions to ponder:
Why does rounding happen?
Why didn't the shells come off?
Is there a way to test the healthiness of the end results?
Definitely not the end all, which is why we have performed so many test since this one... this was our first video, so we’ve come a long with with the growing practices.
We have a vegan nutrient now that is organic called Ocean Solution.
We have also got our process down where we don’t get seed hulls anymore and the rounding is no longer an issue!
Thanks for the support!
@@OnTheGrow Thank you for the fast reply! You guys rock :)
Gah! I need to watch more videos then. I did see the Ocean Solution being used on another video.
@@matthew13579 Thank you so much!! We have a full walkthrough of sunflowers being posting in the next 7 days or so! We will also see if we can get some more nutrient tests going with sunflowers to see what works best!
@@OnTheGrow I used to do hydroponics for cannabis. I was wondering if helped doing some sort of nutrient cleans (water only) the last day or 2 before harvest.
@@matthew13579 hmmm not really sure! Will have to give that a try some time and see what happens. Thank you for the suggestion 😁
Hi there. I'm thoroughly enjoying all your video's having become a subscriber from here in the UK. I would like to ask what do you use to heat your growing space? I intend to grow microgreens for my own use having just purchased 2 led 6000k white lights, a pair of ac usb fans and I have coco coir and an earth seedling compost mix at the ready to try out along with a bottle of seaweed liquid feed. However, it's rather cold here in the UK and I don't wish to put on the heating in my home, so advice about your heating system would be much appreciated. Regards Mark.
Very well done, have you ever think of using Pi Water instead ?
Thank you Pierre! I actually had never heard of Pi water till you mentioned it. I just did some research and it seems like a great concept, curious to see how it would work with these plants. I will see if I can put together a test to try out some. Thanks for the suggestion!
Great video! What growing medium did you use for the two hydro trays?
Joe Lloyd thank you! We used a medium called Biostrate. We’ve had great results with it so far!
do you guys still do microgrees? wanting to know NPK Ratio you guys used for nutrients ..
Thank you, really enjoy these comparison videos 💚. Can't find pro mix locally anywhere or for a reasonable price online either tho any suggestions?
You should do a Brix test on them.
We can absolutely do that, but from what I understand of a Brix test is that it only measures the sugar content and doesn't accurately reflect nutrition... We will start doing some Brix analysis though just to see!
Very nice video! Who is the artist that did the music at the end?
Thank you so much!! I am not sure and I got rid of all my super early music files :( Recently moved to a new computer so I purged a lot of old files... Sorry! I do know it was from the site we use for music (Epidemic Sound)
That is a good yield in 7 days. Is that a 10inch * 20inch plate.
Thank you! 🥳 Yes we use 10 x 20 trays
What kind of nutrients do you add to soil to make sprouts taste better?
Hi, the reason the micrograms round out is the nutrients are not mixed evenly, you should mix all your soils before you plant ok have a great day
Sorry if you already answered this but I didn't see your light schedule, 18 hours on and 6 hours off?
hi
great info .we are just looking at additional micro.s to are veggie boxes. we would like to know about the shelf live hydro versus soil. keep up the great work.
Wayne
springhill farms
Hey Wayne!
We actually watch y'alls videos too! Honestly, the shelf life is fairly similar, with the exception of having to wash the soil ones. If you wash the soil, and they don't dry completely (hard to do on the delicate crop varieties) then they will rot a lot quicker. So that is why we prefer hydroponics... You could always sell the soil ones unwashed and let the customers know they need to wash. On average though, most of our greens last about 3 weeks to 6 weeks after harvest. We always suggest they people eat them within a week though.
-CJ
thanks keep up the great work.we run our veggie boxes year round and thi k microgreens would be a great addition. and for use hydrophonic is the way would like to go. I.ll let you know how we make out.
Wayne
springhill farms
@@elvismom1 Microgreens are a super easy addition! If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
I'm curious, what ambient temperature do you have in the trailer?
Depends on the season. Through the winter, we have been around 67-72F for our average ambient temp and in summer it is closer to 75-81F average. We got the best growth in the summertime when the temperatures were higher.
Do you run a heater inside to maintain 72-81f?
Geff Croteau yes, we use a heater in winter and an A/C unit in summer. We also have a dehumidifier to keep the humidity at 55% or below.
I am having a SEVERE PROBLEM with 95% of my Sunflower Seed Radicals avoiding the soil and growing UP. Also, the roots have 20+ tiny roots growing off the main root. What is going on here?? Does anyone have any suggestions! I live in Las Vegas NV., and it is March 10th.
Great video! Excited to try the hydro with Farmers Pride method
On the hydroponics, are you watering each day? One time soak?
It depends on the crop variety really! Generally we water most everything twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening. Here’s a link to our full walkthrough for growing microgreens: ua-cam.com/video/D3vnBEvYDZo/v-deo.html
So many factors are envolved in growing seeds....air flow, humidity and temp....well interesting results though...I'm very soil vithout added nutrients...but maby I should try
So the objective is to cut them w a sharp knife well above soil/ grow line So they don't get contaminated from the growing medium if you can avoid that then you don't have to wash them my correct? Thank you
Exactly! We like to avoid any extra steps if possible. Just make sure that it is within your local regulations to sell like that if you are looking to sell the produce. We don't sell anymore and grow for ourselves and neighbors and have had no issues not washing our crops over the past 2 years.
Very helpful video, thank you!
Good test mate. Thanks for sharing
Thank you for the support! It means a lot to us!
Have you ever tried to grow in a jelly media (e.g., agar agar)?
Yes! Challenging.
I’ve only given it two test grows and both failed but there was a little promise.
Nope! I presume it would be messy for larger grows! 😀 Marcos V. Dantas-Queiroz Again...we really benefit from your support and nice compliments!!! Have you visited our newest website...
www.onthegrow.net ...we are so proud of the help it provides!!!
i’ve seen people use screens and bottom water. would plant food work?
What's the best organic fertilizer you've used ???
So far, Ocean Solution (2-0-3) or Happy Frogs Jump Start. We cover this on our blog page: www.onthegrow.net/blog
@@OnTheGrow thank you for the info
Do you rinse your coco coir or soak in any nutrients before using?
Where you get your trays from. Any supply store website you recommend for best pricing
Looks like they are from bootstrapfarmer.
Very well done. Thanks, and respect.
Thank you so much Ivan!
Thank you. I want to learn how to grow these.
Awesome test, thank you
Thanks for the support Asher!
Wouldn't it be better to grow the tray using multiple rectangular medium thus eliminating cutting and saving harvest time? Package the medium and product selling a live product.
Great video! Thanks!
Can you tell us in details how you mix Farmers Pride Hydro Mix? 50/50 on grow/micro?
Hello! So we followed the instructions for the lowest dosages on both... I'm pretty sure it is 2.5ml/gallon for both so we did 12.5ml of each into a 5 gallon bucket of filtered water then Ph balanced it down to 5.5-6.0 range. Let us know if you have any other questions and we'd love to help!
Do you find that Iow temps keep sunfIower from sprouting
Yes! Our growspace had an average temperature of 75-80F during summer and now that it is winter, that has dropped to 67-73F... Since we dropped in temperature, we are getting much slower germination from the sunflowers. They take extra care now to germinate correctly. We are looking at possibly using a heat mat to speed up the germination process.
@@OnTheGrow On The Grow Thanks, my wheat and sunflower failed to sprout weII at aII. I wasn't sure if it was the actual product or the temp. My barley was slow but did sprout. From where are you getting your seeds
@@OnTheGrow the heat mat idea sounds good, if not a heated room. I am concerned with cost. I also wonder if the temp of the room where the seeds are stored makes a difference.
@@docvencil2222 We are getting our seeds mainly from Johnnyseeds.com and Trueleafmarket.com. The majority of the seeds we use are coming from Trueleafmarket and we just started experimenting with Johnnyseeds. Another source that is great if you are further north than us is Sprouting.com. Apologies on the delayed response, didn't see this till now. Yeah, anything the temp drops a lot in our grow space, our grows end up taking a few days extra as we have to wait for a longer germination process and slower growth.
@@thelordschurchfarmandranch6694 Our room is temperature controlled and I think the heatmat could be a great option. We also store our seeds in the same room. Supposedly keeping the seeds in a space that is cold is best for the seeds. Good for the seeds but bad for germination :)
Why you keep it covered after germination?
As long as I know, the reason for pressure before the plants get up would be to increase soil and seed contact.
Or is there another reason?
Sorry, I'm not even a newbie yet :)
Lol, that’s a great question actually! So we keep the weight for usually three days, then we flip the tray to stretch them a little bit. Certain crops will stay short for a while if they are introduced to light quickly after germination. So we like to flip the tray to let them stretch a little and it also makes them push up the tray if they reach it, so they grow a bit stronger. The main reason is to make harvesting easier by making the product taller. If they touch the top of the tray, it also helps to give resistance to push the seed hulls off if they are still intact. Sunflowers are an example of a crop that does this with its flipped lid blackout time. Hope that helps!