Sometimes called “vegetable confetti”, microgreens are greens that are harvested when they are still very young. They are the first green shoots of germinated seeds with only two leaves on top; they are neither sprouts nor greens with true leaves of the plant. These tiny attractive looking greens are loaded with nutrition and pack a flavourful punch.

Microgreens come loaded with nutrition and have about 40 times more nutrition than the fully grown greens or veggies.

Why bother growing them when I can buy them?

Ever since they have become a household name they are increasingly available at most supermarkets. Yet, I urge you to grow them so that you know the source of seeds and get them without the chemicals or growth boosters that commercially grown microgreens contain. Besides, they are easy and quick to grow—a perfect way to get your children started into gardening.

You can grow them in almost anything from coconut shells to cardboard boxes and broken ceramic mugs which can be placed on a window sill, a warm kitchen counter-top or a small balcony.

Which seeds can be used to grow microgreens?

Almost any seed can be used to grow microgreens, be it salad varieties, edible flowers, greens or vegetables.

The common ones are

1. Radish
2. Mustard [from your kitchen spice box]
3. Red amaranthus
4. Fenugreek
5. Fennel
6. Beetroot
7. Alfa alfa
8. Garden cress

How to grow?

Method 1

The easiest way to grow them is to fill your pot/ growing container with loose soil mixed with vermicompost and moist cocopeat. Sprinkle the seeds on top of this mix and press them down. [Do not forget to press them down while sowing otherwise when they germinate you will see tiny shoots and the heads still covered with seed.] Cover the seeds with one inch layer of moist cocopeat or half an inch of the same potting mix used in the container. Water generously and then wait. Mustards, radishes, fenugreek greens will shoot out of the soil within two days. Place them on a window that is in partial shade—avoid full sun, as microgreens are delicate. Wait for the plant to grow to 2-3 inches height with two leaves on top. This should take about 7-10 days.

Snip away with kitchen scissors and use them promptly.

Method 2

Another way to grow them is to just dig some top soil on your already existing pots with plants and scatter the seeds, press them down and spread some soil on top. Water well and then wait. This way you don’t need to fill a new pot and can have an endless supply of microgreens with successive sowing.

How to use them?

• Microgreens can be added to smoothies and salads as they are best consumed raw
• Radish microgreens taste great in parathas
• Alfa alfa/red amaranthus/beets are delicious when sprinkled over salads
• Mustard microgreens pair well with fish. Just scatter them on steamed fish for a pungent and crunchy contrasting flavour and texture to the palate



• Methi microgreens have been used traditionally in the Indian kitchen since a long time. They work very well with avacodo, cherry tomatoes, black olives, grated carrots with a squeeze of lime juice.

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I started with growing simple herbs and slowly moved towards growing fruits and vegetables. I have learned to use whatever little harvest I get from my garden to make food. The flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs from our window garden have cheered and comforted us. Kitchen gardening in small spaces may have its own challenges but the joy and thrill of plucking a part of your meal from your own garden and knowing that it has zero chemicals makes it worthwhile. If I can do it successfully from my apartment in Mumbai, I think anyone can.

Once the gardening bug catches you, there is no turning back. Suddenly, your weekend outings may revolve around trips to the local plant nursery to buy seeds for your kitchen garden and your vacations will involve asking the customs officers to allow you to carry a Meyer lemon tree back home.

What can you grow in a balcony garden?

Consider growing only those plants that you will use, take into account the space that you have, while making sure it adds aesthetic appeal to the place. Here are some examples.

Leafy vegetables: Palak, methi, amaranthus [green and red], Ceylon spinach, Malabar spinach, purslane, gongura, lettuce, kale, drumstick leaves, onion greens [excellent for omelettes], Colacassia [Patra].

Micro-greens: These are a balcony gardener’s delight. You can try mustard, saunf, radish or methi.

Spices: You can grow allspice [an aromatic plant which smells like a combination of spices—and use the leaves for an aromatic blend in stews], tej patta, peppercorns, turmeric, ginger.

Herbs: Mint, thyme, parsley, celery, garlic chives, cuban borage [commonly known as Ajwain patta] green chillies, basil.

Vegetables: Try growing the bush/dwarf varieties in small spaces. Tomatoes, broad beans, double beans, french beans, cluster beans, brinjals, capsicums and all gourds grow well.

Root Vegetables: Potatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes, turnips, carrots and taro roots [arbi] can be grown at home.

Fruits: Strawberries, mandarins, kumquats, star fruits, passion fruits and musk melons. The yield may not be large but again even a few home-grown fruits have a pleasure of their own. If you own a large terrace, you could even grow mangoes, bananas, papayas in drums!

Edible Flowers: Red gongura flowers, pansy, butterfly pea flower [shankapushpa], rose, nasturtiums and hibiscus [petal colours are water soluble—do use the five petal varieties only].

The yield of each plant varies, for example a chilly plant will grow for 2 – 4 years and yield plenty of chillies. You could let them ripen on the plant and dry the red chillies. These can be ground to give you home-made red chilli powder from your kitchen garden.

The joy and thrill of plucking a part of your meal from your own garden and knowing that it has zero chemicals is worth the trouble

What you will need

Balcony or kitchen gardening is about growing plants without the use of any chemicals either as pesticides or fertilisers.

For achieving the above we must focus on providing good growing conditions and pay attention to the nutrition of the plant. This naturally ensures that it is not prone to any plant diseases/pest attacks.

• Sunlight – Choose a well lit balcony, for fruiting vegetables like tomatoes 4 – 6 hours of sun is good. Leafy greens do well in 3 – 4 hours of sunlight. If getting sufficient sun light is not easy then go for shade loving plants.
• Containers – You can choose from pots, ceramic containers, terracotta pots, clay pots, grow bags, recycled broken buckets or even 1 – 2 litre soft drink bottles.
  10 inch pots are ideal for vegetables, while a rectangular shallow pot can be used for leafy greens. For fruits like lemons and star fruits, you can use larger pots.
• Potting mix – This should be in the ratio of 1:1:1:1 red soil: vermi compost: coco peat: compost/cow dung manure. When growing vegetables you need to add about 1 tsp of neem cake and 2 tbsp of wood ash to the potting mix. This will give a kick start to our plants and also combat any pest problems.
• Nutrition – In addition to the potting mix/soil, which is the first step to healthy plants, some nutrition should be provided once a week or every 10 days. For this, add a handful of compost/ cow dung manure/ vermi compost once a week/ 10 days. Neem cake should be added once a month, while bone meal and peanut cake dissolved in water can be added once in 15 days. Liquid fertilisers can also be added; I make my own compost tea or use leachate from my compost bin. I also use Panchagavya, which can be made or bought from the store and used after diluting with water.
• Water – I cannot stress enough on how over-watering not only attracts pests but is also more detrimental to plant growth. Some plants love a lot of water but none of them like wet feet. Watering also depends on the season, during the heat in summer your plants may need to be watered twice a day but in monsoon they might not need watering.
• Seeds – If you are new to kitchen gardening, start with seeds from your kitchen cabinet. Some of the easy to start with plants are palak, methi, amaranthus, chillies and tomatoes. Growing as per the season gives maximum yield. For example, sowing watermelon seeds in late February gives you juicy watermelons in the summer months.
• Saplings – You can buy saplings from nurseries, especially for fruit trees like lemon, which are generally the grafted kinds, so fruiting starts faster. When buying saplings of vegetable plants from nurseries, avoid those which are loaded with vegetables… they may not do well in a new environment. When you buy saplings, make sure they are young so they grow under your care and mature to give ample vegetables.
• Tools – You will need to buy a shovel, a spade, a garden fork, a watering can and cutting tools or pruning shears.

 Process

1. Sow the seeds in small containers—even empty yoghurt containers will do. Large seeds like beans need to be buried an inch deep into the soil whereas tiny seeds like lettuce and amaranthus can be loosely scattered on top of the soil and an inch of potting mix/cocopeat can be added on top.
2. Once you sow, sprinkle gently with some water.
3. Keep these containers under indirect sun, preferably on a window sill. Some recommend covering the containers with a cardboard lid.
4. Within a 7 – 15 days you will see your seeds germinating.
5. Shift them out and expose them to a few hours of sunlight daily and then return them to the window sill. After a week you can leave them out for the day and night.  Water gently or only spray when you see the soil a bit dry.

Transfer plants like chillies, tomatoes and brinjals within a month to a larger pot.

Creepers like cucumbers, passion fruit vines and bottle gourds will need a trellis for support. Once you transplant them to a bigger pot, get creative with ropes or bamboo to give them support on the balcony walls and grill.

Lettuce and other leafy greens can be sown directly in big pots.

Ideally you should transplant the plant in the evening so that your plant settles into its new home in the gentle cooler temperature of night. Once transplanted, water quickly with nutrient-enriched water. Water with compost tea once in 10 days.

Over-watering not only attracts pests but is also more detrimental to plant growth

Pest management

If your plant is healthy, pest attacks are minimum. Planting ornamental plants in between edible plants helps curb pest attack. For example, marigold flowers will attract all the pests and your other edible plants will be spared. Planting mint/ basil/ garlic chives alongside tomatoes keeps most pests away. The flowers from your ornamental plants may also attract bees for pollination of your brinjal flowers. Should your plants get infested with pests, you can grind chillies and garlic to make a robust pest control spray. Strain the chilli garlic paste, dilute with water and spray onto plants. Another good organic pest control mix is neem oil mixed with water to which a few drops of liquid soap has been added. Spray it fortnightly.

Growing food is a glorious process. Your kitchen garden will not only enthral you, it will soothe, surprise and comfort you. Join your local community gardeners and meet fellow food growers.

If you live in Mumbai and would want to know more about balcony gardening, join BLOOMS on Facebook. It is a platform for enthusiastic home gardeners and you can be a part of fun-filled and interactive gardening meets.

The post Grow nutritious organic food in your very own kitchen garden appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.