MicroMicroGreens 1

MicroGreens
Thalia Tiburcio -Others Members of the group:Yeudi and Sthersy

Micro Greens

Thalia Tiburcio

Background Doulos is a Christian, expeditionary school that seeks to help the community in all possible ways. Some students noticed that farmers around town, and even around the country, dont have a wide variety of plants species to plant. Most of them end up planting the same crops over and over again, in every single season, which allows lots of bacterias to attack the substrate and the crops. As you can imagine, this puts at risk a familys income, as well as the vegetables that restaurants and supermarkets buy to sell and complement their different plates. Then it was thought that whole different plant species was needed to kind purify and take some bacterias away from the substrate, and thats when MicroGreens became an important aspect. MicroGreens are small edible plants, harvested before maturity is reached, produced from the seeds of vegetables, herbs, or other plants. As a possible solution, was thought that different investigations in how to grow MicroGreens would provide really helpful and productive data/information for the farmers to start planting something different, nutritious, and profitable.

MicroGreens were originally grown in the American state of California, where they can be grown outdoors in warm seasons, or indoors all year long, depending on the location. Some of the benefits of growing MicroGreens are that they are fast growing, inexpensive, and easy to grow. MicroGreens are ready to harvest in about 10 days after the seeds are sown. The seeds cost round between $9 and $18 U.S dollars (depending on the type) per pound. Then, with little work, you can grow them and sell them up to $25 or $30 per pound. They dont require a lot of space nor care, some sunlight and maintaining the soil moist is enough.

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Meanwhile, as you can imagine, even though MicroGreens are easy and fast growing, there are many aspects that can be investigated and evaluated in a MicroGreens plantation. This is why the decision of running an experiment to investigate different ways of growing MicroGreens was made. After the experiment is done, the data, observations, and all possible informations, will be provided to different farmers for possible business plans. By doing this, the opportunity of starting an innovative, health promoting, disease preventing, and profitable business would be given to our farmer community. Purpose This specific experiment will be focusing on finding the ideal level of fertilizer for MicroGreens to grow well. To make sure that the results are accurate and actually caused by the level of fertilizer, the same soil, container, location, amount and type of seeds, and brand of fertilizer, will not change. Also, a control (no fertilizer) box is included in the experiment so we can have something accurate to compare to. Here its a picture showing how similar the boxes are and the different divisions made in the boxes.

This experiment was run in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, where the sun and

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Thalia Tiburcio

breeze of the mountains create together an average temperature of 29 oC. At school, a homemade greenhouse was built in the roof of the sound-booth. By a homemade greenhouse, referring to a corner of a sound-booth roof, covered with plastic to weaken the sun and protect from the rain.

Hypothesis The initial thought was that If growing MicroGreens with fertilizer is effective, then the box with a higher level of fertilizer will contain a higher mass of MicroGreens. In other words, if growing MicroGreens with fertilizer is a better idea than growing them without fertilizer, then the plants that contain the higher level of fertilizer will grow more, therefore, their mass will be higher.

Material List
-China Rose Raddish seeds (100g) -4 wooden trays (25x25) 4

MicroGreens

- CaNO3 Fertilizer (8.61g) -2 Graduated Cylinders -Digital Grams Scale -Ruler -4 Plastic Bags 12x12 inches -Spray Bottle - One-piece Fine Gage Metal Fence (25x100) -Stapler -Coco Fiber (2,000L) -Fine Coco Fiber (4,000L)

Safety
Before the MicroGreens are eaten or sold, make sure that they are putted through a washing or disinfecting process.

Calculations
Here are the calculations to get to the amount of fertilizer per liter of water. Calcium Nitrate is 15.5% Test: 0, 50ppm, 100ppm, 200ppm N 50ppm=50mg N/liter of water

Ca(NO3)2 1.23grams/gallon=50ppm 2.46grams/gallon=100ppm 4.92grams/gallon=200ppm Procedure

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Day 1 1. -Buy or build 4 wooden trays (25x25 cm) each with black fabric/net on the bottom.

2. Label each box: control, 50ppm, 100ppm, and 200ppm, in the front part with a permanent marker. 3. Use the 4 plastic bags to cover the bottom part of each box and make about 20 small holes with a pen or pencil. 4.-Cover all tray bottoms with the Fine Gage Metal Fence (25x100) 5. -Measure 1,000L of Fine Coco Fiber, and 500L of Rough Coco Fiber for each tray. 6.- Spread the coco fibers in each box making sure that there are not big pieces of coco fiber left in the substrate. 7. - Weigh 25g of radish seeds for each tray. 8.-Use your hands to spread the 25g of seeds in each tray, evenly apart. 9.-Once the seeds are in each box, use your fingers to scatter and mix them with the substrate. Press it down very gently. 10.-Use the water/fertilizer solution (50ppm, 100ppm, 200ppm) to irrigate according to the labels. Make sure that only clean water with no fertilizer is used to irrigate the control box. 6

MicroGreens

11. -Place all 4 trays in the designated greenhouse space. Day 2 1. - Measure 50mL of each solution (50ppm, 100ppm, 200ppm, water).. 2. -Irrigate each box with its corresponding solution. Day 4 1. - Measure 500mL of each solution (50ppm, 100ppm, 200ppm, water). Day 5 1.-Use your ruler to measure the height of the plants in each box and record. Day 6 1.-Measure 500mL of each solution (50ppm, 100ppm, 200ppm, water). 2.-Irrigate each box with its corresponding solution. Day 7 1.-Use your ruler to measure the height of the plants in each box and record. Day 8 1.-Measure 500mL of each solution (50ppm, 100ppm, 200ppm, water). 2.-Irrigate each box with its corresponding solution. Day 10 1. -Use your ruler to measure the height of the plants in each box and record. 2. -Take out they square of substrate from each box. (Its supposed to stick together because of the roots.

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Thalia Tiburcio

4. Using a paper-cutting scissors, start cutting/harvesting small groups of MicroGreens at about 3 cm from their root. (Make sure none of the root is cutted).

5. -Place them its a corresponding plate or tray, labeled with its original name.

MicroGreens

Data
Day 5 Tray 1 2 3 4 Fertilizer level 0 50ppm 100ppm 200ppm Rate/Length of growth 1.8 inches 2.0 inches 2.0 inches 1.0 inches

Day 7 Tray 1 2 3 4 Fertilizer level 0 50ppm 100ppm 200ppm Rate/Length of growth 2.50 inches 2.75 inches 2.25 inches 2.60

Day 10 Tray 1 2 3 4 Fertilizer level 0 50ppm 100ppm 200ppm Rate/Length of growth 3.0inches 3.5inches 3.2inches 3.25inches

Results

Micro Greens

Thalia Tiburcio Mass per tray/box 176.9g-10.7g=166.2g 158.9g-10.7g=148.2g 141.0g-10.7g=130.3g 168.3g-10.7g=157.6g Plate= 10.7g

Tray 1 2 3 4

Data Analysis As you can see in the data shown above, since the beginning, the plants containing 50ppm of fertilizer were the tallest ones. They started at 2.0 inches tall, and ended at 3.50 inches tall. Basically, they always surpassed all the others. However, the ones that seemed to be growing the second least (control), starting at 1.8 inches and ending at 3.0 inches, surpassed all the others in mass, with a weigh of 166.2g. As the second part of the data section shows, the control box, with no fertilizer at all, ended up having a higher mass of MicroGreens than the ones with fertilizer. A really interesting part of these results is that the MicroGreens of the 50 ppm box were actually the tallest ones. However, they weigh less than the MicroGreens of the control box. In other words, according to our data, the MicroGreens with little fertilizer were taller than all the others, but the control MicroGreens plantation surpassed all of them in its mass.

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MicroGreens

Observations Running a lab experiment isnt always easy. There are so many things happening at the same time. However, the human eye is capable of noticing and actually observing all those different events and reactions. Some of the things observed by the fertilizer investigators were: The 2nd day after the seeds were sown (Friday), from around 2-5 pm, the sun was shining on all the boxes, therefore the substrate was really dry. This could have dramatically changed the results since, the MicroGreens arent supposed to receive direct sunlight. They are supposed to be always moist. The 4th day after the seeds were sown, the MicroGreens started growing fast and evenly. This was something pretty interesting to the fertilizer investigators since the hadnt grown until the 3rd day, but the next day, they grew a lot. In other words, they grew almost two inches in one day. The 5th day after the seeds were sown (Tuesday), it was a rainy day and the roof was leaking water into box 200ppm. This box was the one containing

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the higher level of fertilizer, but by pure water (water without fertilizer) leaking into it, its fertilizer level probably decreased. Before this happened they werent growing well at all, they were growing slow and spread apart but, after the normal water leaked into the box, they started to grow faster. Probably the fertilizer level was to high and by receiving some pure water, its fertilizer level decreased. All MicroGreens taste the same way. A MicroGreens from each box was tasted and their flavor was pretty similar. They all tasted similar to grass but with a distinctive spicy flavor seconds after you start chewing them. Conclusion This experiment presented the answers to several questions that initially had no answer. As servant leaders, the decision of investigating a topic that could benefit local farmers and help them improve their growing methods and knowledge about different crops species, was the main purpose. However, the investigators also got to learn a lot in the topic and basically became experts in MicroGreens plantations.

Growing MicroGreens isnt something difficult at all, however, lots of things are happening at the same time and everything needs to be done carefully. By doing this experiment, different interesting facts and details were exposed, for example: Details of how to carefully plant MicroGreens and other crops, how to kind of manipulate all the possible variables in a experiment to focus only in one, how to record and analyze accurate data information, and even how to think of possible solutions when something goes wrong during a experiment.

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MicroGreens

Initially, the thought was that if growing MicroGreens with fertilizer was effective, then the box with a higher level of fertilizer must have contained a higher mass of MicroGreens. Guided by data recorded every other day since the day that the Raddish MicroGreens seeds were sown, this statement was proven to be false. Since the 5th day, when the MicroGreens started growing, the box containing the MicroGreens with 200ppm of fertilizer was behind. It only grew about 1 inch, when all the others grew more than 1.7 inches. In the other hand, the one containing the lowest level of fertilizer always had the tallest plants. Observing this was assumed that evidently the box containing 50ppm of fertilizer was going to have a higher mass of MicroGreens, since its plants were taller than all the others. However, that was also a false assumption. The day that the MicroGreens were harvest, the containing of each one of the boxes was carefully weighed. Surprisingly, the one containing the higher mass of MicroGreens was the one with no fertilizer at all. Yes, the fact that the box containing the tallest plants isnt the box containing the higher amount of MicroGreens is kind of contradictory. But something that has to be considered is that, even though the MicroGreens containing 50ppm of fertilizer were the tallest ones, they did not surpass the control (no fertilizer MicroGreens) in number/amount. In other words, by planting MicroGreens containing 50ppm of fertilizer, they are going to be taller but there wont be as many MicroGreens as if they are planted without fertilizer.

Another aspect that must be mentioned is that, the people running the experiment arent perfect and are liable to make mistakes. At the time of harvesting the MicroGreens, they should have all been harvested at the same length from the

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roots. In this experiment, they were supposed to be harvested at least 2 cm from the root however; two different members of the group harvested the MicroGreens of two different boxes. This is why the thought of a slight error in the weigh of the different MicroGreens plantations may exist. This is the only possible source of error that was found, which kind of reinforces the credibility and accuracy of this experiment. In conclusion, from a professional perspective, growing MicroGreens seems to be a better idea with no use of fertilizer.

Sources of information
1)Garcia, Jocelyn. "Interview With Jocelyn." Personal interview. 27 Mar. 2013

2)Fresh Microgreens.Microgreens factsApril 9th.2013 (http://www.freshorigins.com/microgreens.html ) 3)Sunset.Easy-grow-Microgreens.April9th.2013 (http://www.sunset.com/garden/fruits-veggies/easy-grow-micro-greens00400000016081/) 4)Johnnyseeds.Microgreens.April10th.2013 http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-48-micro-greens.aspx

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