[image credit: The Daily Gardener ]
(Read instructions on starting an indoor soil sprout garden here.)
Indoor gardening requires expensive equipment
Many people would like an indoor garden that produces a year-round supply of microgreens, sprouts, and salad greens, but it’s usually prohibitively expensive or labor-intensive to do: microgreens require costly grow lights to cultivate, and it may take several weeks for a small crop to mature. After growing microgreens at home, you’ll understand why they are so expensive (or nonexistent) at the market.
Sprouts are extremely healthy, but time-intensive to cultivate. The containers or trays must be watered three times a day, and extra work is required to clean seed hulls and prevent mold from taking over a batch of sprouts. Many people give up after one or two attempts, concluding it’s cheaper to buy sprouts from the store, or give them up entirely.
Solution: Soil sprout gardening is inexpensive alternative to microgreens and sprouts
Soil sprouting is a method of growing indoor greens, by sprouting seeds that have been soaked and placed on top of a layer of soil. The soil provides a better flavor, requires only daily watering, and by placing the seeds on top instead of in the soil, you can speed up the maturation process by over a week.
A steady supply of greens can be produced by germinating a small amount of seeds each day in smaller containers. A soil sprout “garden” occupying a square foot can produce 1.5 – 2 pounds of fresh greens each week.
Common soil sprout crops include sunflower, buckwheat, beets, radishes, mustard, canola, broccoli, and pea shoots.
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