When trying new things, be prepared to do it wrong and learn to adjust. I recently started to grow my own microgreens and my latest batch isn't going so well at the moment.
This morning when I woke up and looked at my sunflower microgreens that I’m growing I was shocked to see that it appeared that they had been matted down over night, like a cat had crawled inside to lay down for a nap on top of them. They were standing up straight for the germination process, and seemed to be loving the light yesterday before I went to bed, so I’m not sure what the cause of this was. I will have to keep a close eye on them as this is my first time growing sunflower greens. Yesterday was also the first day I put them under a light and I am thinking maybe they were just reacting to the lack of light since when I came home most appear to be standing up again, except for near the front edge of my growing container, which wasn’t getting as much light as the rest of my tray due to my light being crooked. I don’t think it has anything to do with airflow seeing as there doesn’t appear to be any rotting or mold, and I have been careful not to over or under water them, although when I feel the ones that are still laying down a they do feel dry, so I gave them some extra water. The only other thing I can think of has to do with me not growing them in soil. I grow them on a hemp fiber, which is pretty thin. I had tried coconut fiber before when I was growing kale but it didn’t seem to absorb water was easily as the hemp does. When I switched from coconut to hemp fiber my kale microgreens came out so much better, but I am wondering if these much larger sunflower greens are too heavy to be held up by the hemp fibers.
I’m still hopeful that my greens will end up growing strong, I am very excited about this batch. The kale is pretty good, much better than full grown kale btw. It tastes more like broccoli to me, but I’ve heard that the sunflowers can have a nutty taste to them that I am really looking forward to.
Wish me luck and if you have any suggestions please feel free to give any advice!