- If you're looking to grow perfect trays of sunflower,
you are definitely in the right place.
I'm about to give you a full walkthrough,
along with tips and tricks
on how to grow high quality sunflower microgreens
every time, with no mold and high yields.
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and microgreens business.
To be honest, sunflower microgreens
are not my favorite to grow,
and they've given me plenty of problems over the years.
They require more effort than most other varieties,
and if I could do without them in my business,
I probably wouldn't grow them.
Sunflowers are very popular in the health niche,
and because that's what my business service is,
I have to grow them.
There's high demand,
and I do sell a lot of sunflower microgreens,
so I've had to force myself
to really master the process of growing them.
I'm sure you want to improve your sunflower microgreens,
so let me take you step by step
to show you exactly how I grow mine.
It all starts with high quality seed,
and the seed variety to use is called black oil.
I'm not going to go super deep into the seeds in this video,
because I actually made a whole separate video
just on this topic.
This being said, it is much easier
to grow high quality sunflower microgreens,
if you're using high quality seeds in the first place.
Aside from the seeds, and your grow room environment,
after that, it's all about your process.
Before I jump into my procedure,
I just wanna mention
that sunflower microgreens may grow better
in a grow room that has a higher temperature,
so that's something to consider.
Nevertheless, I've had no problem growing them
in temperatures as low as 68 degrees Fahrenheit,
and also in temperatures as high as 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
All right, the first step
in growing your sunflower microgreens is soaking the seeds.
This helps to fully activate the seeds
resulting in thorough germination,
as well as a high germination rate.
My trick here is to soak them for only four hours.
This is extremely important,
and this was a huge game changer
when I reduced my soak time down to four hours,
it made a world of a difference.
Keep in mind that sunflower seeds do float,
so you will need some sort of system in place
to keep those seeds under the water.
If they end up floating to the top,
they won't get the full soak effect.
I use strainer bags
to soak all of the microgreen seed varieties that I do soak.
And for the sunflowers,
I simply put a brick on top of the bag,
that way they don't float up to the surface.
Your seeding rate is something
that you're gonna have to play around with
to really figure out what works best for you.
Every seed lot will perform slightly differently,
so you might have to change your seeding rate
based on your lot of seeds that you're currently using.
And don't forget that every farmer has a different grow room
and different procedures,
so that's why you're gonna have to kinda mess around
with your seeding rate a little bit,
to really dial it in for what works best for you.
With this being said,
the seeding rate that I've been using
is five ounces of dry seeds for each 10 by 20 tray.
After soaking your seeds for exactly four hours,
you're then gonna drain the water.
You can seed them into trays right after draining the water,
or you can let the seeds dry off for a few hours,
which makes it easy to seed them
because they're not wet and won't stick to your container.
Now that your seeds are soaked,
it's time to start prepping your tray.
Each tray is actually two trays,
one tray with holes that sits inside a tray without holes.
Next you're gonna add your growing medium.
I highly recommend using a potting mix
similar to the one that I use,
which is called PRO-MIX MP ORGANIK.
Make sure to spread your growing medium out
evenly across this tray,
and be especially careful to get it into all the corners.
If you don't, your potting mix won't be able to hold
as much moisture in those areas
and your sunflowers will actually get dehydrated
and fall over in those spots.
Next, you're gonna press the soil down
with either a soil press or another tray,
that way you have a nice even surface,
a flat surface to spread your seeds over.
Spread your seeds out as evenly as possible across the tray,
and if you're making multiple trays at a time,
make sure to try and get the same amount of seeds
in each tray that you're making.
Next, you're gonna give your trays and nice watering.
I used to use the mist setting,
but now I actually just use the shower setting.
I find that it's faster,
more thorough, and more efficient too,
because less of that moisture is just evaporating
and going into the air.
When you're doing this,
so you want them to get enough water
to last them through the whole germination process,
but don't oversaturate the soil
where you would create an anaerobic environment.
Once your trays have gotten that initial watering,
you're gonna stack them and then put a weighted tray on top.
I use a 14 pound paving stone
to add weight to that top tray, and I bought them at Lowe's.
What this does is it forces the plants to become strong
because they have to push up on all that weight,
and it also gives them something to push up against
so they can push their roots down into the soil.
Otherwise, the seeds can sometimes germinate
and sprout on top of the soil, never get rooted,
and then they kinda just get dehydrated and die.
Stacking trays also helps maintain
a dark and damp environment, which is ideal for germination.
All right, we're halfway through the process,
and your seeds are now germinating,
so take a second right now to comment below
and let me know what's been your biggest issue
with growing sunflower microgreens.
The more I know about your problems,
the better I can help you solve them.
Once you see that your sunflower microgreens
are pushing up on the trays above,
they're ready to be taken out of germination
and go under lights.
Your germination time will vary
based on the temperature in your farm,
your seeds, your procedure, and all that,
but my germination time is between three and four days.
Lately, I've been doing three days in germination
because if I let them go that extra fourth day,
they actually push up so much
that the stack of trays falls over during germination.
When going under lights, they should look young but healthy
and just about every seed should have germinated.
What you really wanna see is that high germination rate
and little to no mold on any of the seeds
or spreading throughout the tray.
If you happen to see a little bit of mold in your tray,
I would just ignore it for now,
it probably won't cause an issue,
because when you do that first watering
along with the fact that they're now in open air
and getting that air flow,
chances are the mold will kinda just disappear.
Since the plants haven't had water in a few days
since you first watered them when you were making the tray,
they're going to be thirsty
when you first put them under lights.
Right after you put them out,
give them their first watering from above.
That's right, you're going to top water
your sunflower microgreens.
This will allow the seed hulls to absorb some of that water
weakening and loosening them for easy removal.
You're actually going to keep top watering
for the first two or three days
that they're under the lights.
I water once per day in the morning,
keeping the soil moist, but not completely drenched.
Starting on day two or three under lights
after the plants have grown a little bit
where they're not too young,
where they'll get damaged doing this,
you're going to start brushing the hulls
off of the trays manually with your hand
after each watering.
This is how you get the hulls off of the plants,
and you're gonna do this everyday after watering
until they're ready for harvest.
Nevertheless, most of the seed hulls will fling off
after the first one to three days of doing this.
I always keep my sunflower trays
on the bottom shelf of my grow racks.
That way, when I'm brushing off these hulls,
they go onto the floor
rather than falling into the trays beneath,
which could potentially cause problems.
Also, if you have multiple stages of sunflower
growing at the same time on your racks,
you're gonna wanna brush off the hulls
of the oldest plants first,
and then make your way towards the youngest plants.
The older trays are gonna be cleaner
because you've been knocking the seeds off.
So you don't wanna start with the younger trays,
get your hands all dirty,
and then go to wipe off the older trays
and then get those microgreens dirty.
Meanwhile, they're gonna be ready for harvest sooner.
Around the third or fourth day
that your sunflower microgreens trays are under the lights,
you're gonna switch from top watering to bottom watering,
that way your plants aren't wet
when it comes time to harvest.
Even though you're gonna be bottom watering now,
keep on brushing the hulls off after each watering.
On the sixth or seventh day
that my sunflower microgreen strays are under lights,
they're ready for harvest.
You should have a similar situation,
but this will be determined by the nuances of your grow room
and your seeds.
At the time I'm shooting this video right now,
I've been averaging a yield of about 23 ounces per tray
for my sunflower microgreens.
Now you know how to grow sunflower microgreens like a pro,
but this was a lot of information.
Be sure to follow me on Instagram,
where I'm able to dive deeper
into some of these individual aspects I just discussed.
Click the video below
to know exactly when to harvest your sunflower microgreens,
or click the other video
if your sunflower microgreens have been falling over.
If you like this video hit that like button below,
subscribe to my YouTube channel,
and share this video with anybody you think it may help.
Thanks again, and I'll see you next time.