Hands down the best video I've seen about broccoli sprouts !!! Thank you very much, very factual and scientific, no useless unnecessary things in this video !!!
Nicely done for the control and the experimental methods. Your results speak for themselves, and thank you! Please continue with more substrate experiments! How about foam, rockwool, coco coir, newsprint layers, hydro-only, sphagnum moss....
good video. Thanks. If you use hydropnic solution containing nutrients instead of pure water, the paper towel methind might produce comparable results. Just a thought.
Nutrients required for germinating and sprouting are contained in the seed itself, which is why you don't want to upset things by using fertilizer at that stage.
I grow my microgreens in an aquaponic environment. The are spread over rocks. Once crop is cut I wash the rocks and reuse. They are a pain to wash all the roots out of the rocks. Did the roots came through the paper towels? I could not tell by the video.
This is THE best video on growing broccoli micro sprouts. It is concise, full of information😢 and accurate it is everything I want in an instructional video, it is perfect Thank you so much. ❤🇦🇺 Carol
To be fair, grow both flats with fertilizer the soil has fertilizer mixed in & the paper towel substrate does not. A true comparison would both with fertilizer, the paper towel can have liquid organic fertilizer in a tray beneath it. The advantage of the paper towel method is lack of dirt, the whole micro green can be eaten, where as to do the same with dirt requires extra labor of washing the dirt out or harvest above it loosing some edible parts.
I was thinking the same thing. It is very encouraging non the less that the results were as good as they were on the paper towels without any nutrients added!
@@TechnophilicProductions yes, I think this experiment was flawed in that regard. Someone else pointed out that since the soil raises the plants about an inch, the soil plants were closer to the lights and that could make a difference as well. In either case its nice to know that you can grow on paper towels if you don't want to use soil, but perhaps raise the paper towel seeds closer to the lights and add nutrients to the water feeding them. Thanks for the comment!
@@TikkiOOO I saw a video where he grew flax microgreens placing paper towels on top of earth. That way it's clean and you have the nutrients from earth.
I grow my micro greens in organic soil on paper towel. Place paper towel on soil, seeds on paper towel. This gives the seeds the soil benefit and me clean cuts. Love the shaker idea!
Thank you for all of the information you share. I'm new to gardening and have never grown microgreens. Now I will give it a try. Loved the spice shaker idea!
Nice comparison Video. -Great controls for the experiment -Salt shaker is genius (i'm stealing that) lol -Most of us that are new to this appreciate this info because, lets face it, most new comers are looking for the easiest/cleanest way to grow these. -I'm OK with having slightly smaller micro broccoli for an easier/cleaner harvest as a trade off Q1: I had trouble peeling the veg off of the paper towel (1st batch) They seem to have deeply woven between the paper towel. Any suggestions or tips to look out for? Q2: My next question is, is it even easier to grow them in jars & how do those stack up against the Paper Towel Method? *Next Video maybe??? Keep up the good work!
Hi Chris, thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it! I use a scissor to cut the microgreens just above the paper towel or soil level, I don't peel them off. Some people use a knife. Growing them in jars works very well up to the sprout level, but they don't grow nicely as microgreens in the jars, they need room to grow. But you should try different methods and experiment, and see what works for you. And thank you for the nice comment!
Nice work Tikki O. Great to you sharing your experience. It would be good to try the same experiment, but with liquid fertilizer for the paper towel sample.
Hi Tikki: I think that if you had added some hydroponic nutrients to the broccoli grown on paper towels, the result would have been different. Of course, the prepared earth you used has nutrient elements in its composition.
@@TikkiOOO I'd be so curious to see this follow up experiment! Both paper towels one with nutrients :) I'll be doing this at home when I'm back from my vacation, but you set up a good experiment.
@@midnight121190 thanks Midnight1211. I did a side by side followup of water vs. nutrients using cheesecloth instead of paper towels. You might want to see that ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fNq7Rm9QVWk.html the cheesecloth is better than the paper towels in my opinion. Thanks for the comment!
What soil did you use? I see others discussing fertilizer vs not, but unclear if you used something like miracle grow potting soil. Trying my first paper towel flat crop vs mason jar crop right now. Day 2 starting and not much action in the paper towel group ust.
Love your Video's. I wonder if there would be the difference, if you water the paper towel seeds with a liquid fertilizer? Maybe that would be another good video.
This was awesome, exactly what I needed and was looking for! I’ve been sprouting in jars and needed an alternative because I’ve moved and my jars aren’t with me yet. Thanks so much!
Thanks Anna...I'm doing a better experiment now....3 trays, all with paper towels, one with plain water, one with Grow Big Hydroponic solution, and one with Masterblend formula. Will there be a difference in the grow rates???? Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching!
Because of short turn-around for microgreens (less than 2 weeks) they don't require nutrients from soil because seed has enough to power the crop. If these crops were more than just two baby leaves (definition of microgreen) then you would need soil.
Unfair experiment, the soil had fertilizer, the ones on the paper towel no fertilizer. If you repeat the experiment, water the paper towel with water and fertilizer and the soil don't use anything but water, I'll bet the results would be the same. Plus the soil seemed to be wetter where the paper tower seemed a little dry. But, it was a great experiment.
The best way to reuse the soil is a worm bin if you have one. The soil after growing is going to be really matted with roots and the more you use soil the more likely the soil will get pests and such. Plus worm composting is fun and cheap if you build the bin yourself
I’m wondering if the difference could simply be depth? An inch of soil has more room for roots to establish than 3 layers of paper towel. Maybe a few paper towels elevated on a cooling rack would allow roots to go further and plants be larger like in soil.
Don’t buy soil at Home Depot/ Lowe’s for food... the big box store soil brands (Kellogg’s, miracle grow, etc) get biosolids aka sewage solids from the county for organic garden soil. Buy coco coir from your local hydrostore it’s clean and cheap.
What a terrific video! I’m new to sprouting and there are so many methods to choose from that I was t sure which way to go. Thank you! New subscriber 🙂
The video will remain INCOMPLETE till the watering details are mentioned AND did the roots penetrate the paper towels to reach the water? If yes! When did it happen? Will this give the reason for delayed growth.
Hi, will you please explain why you don't have to rinse and repeat when growing sprouts in soil or paper towel like you do in a mason jar? I am getting ready to do my very first sprouts and am opting to grow them in jars.
Can I add a little chemical fertiliser (for "coco and soil" supstrats) in coconat supstrat before start growing microplants (than it grow much better),is it safe? 🙂
Two chemicals found in most paper towels are Chlorine and Formaldehyde. Chlorine is quite commonly used to bleach the wood pulp white in color. The by-products of using Chlorine for bleaching are dioxin and furans, both of which are toxic to humans. Paper towels are not designed as a growing or filtering media for consumables.
This was good. I think soil is best- even if it were slower. It just makes sense that a nutrient rich source would do a better job. We raised hydroponic tomatoes once. and had a huge crop. Tasteless. Completely tasteless. I'll not do hydroponic again. I want all the available nutrients from clean, organic soil to feed our plants.
Hi moeder, thanks for the comment! I have a variety of lights in different growing locations, but they are all daylight/bright lights and 6500 Kelvin if I can find. Some of my plants end up at a sunny window when I run out of growing space. The lights that I have are on 16 hours a day, and off 8 hours at night. The more light, and the closer the light is to the plant, the happier the plants are. Hope that helps!
Did I miss something? She compared soil with nutrients to paper towels with just water? How about soil vs paper towels plus nutrients? This is one of the worst experiments I have ever seen.
I believe that if you placed a nutrient in the paper towel like hydroponic Epson salt chromium nitrate it may catch up and have batter quality. Only thinking out loud. Pls try do experiment like that . Thanks
Hello, Tikki. I hope you are doing well. ❤️ As I watched your experiment and listened to your explanations I wondered if the lack of nutritions in the paper towel can be compensated if we water them with light mixture of hydrophilic nutrients. After all, as you said, the difference is probably in the fact that the soil has nutritions in it, but towel paper don’t. 🌷
You gave me a great idea....next experiment should be two paper towel trays, one gets watered only with plain water, the other with a hydroponic solution....and compare the two side by side....I will set it up when I get a chance, maybe next week. Thank you Briyah for that insight! I hope you are growing/creating as well!
Yeah, actually I just brought a lot of seeds from Lithuania, where I was visiting my mother and few of them even germinated in our Israeli hysterically hot weather 😂😂😂. Tikki, about the solutions in the paper towel system: if I understood it right, the young plants don’t bare strong nutritions, so when you are going to try it, make the solution really really light. So they won’t burn. 🌸🌷🌼
You have good advice, thank you! BTW I have been pruning my Kratky Basil more carefully as per your advice, and it has been growing bushier! Good luck with your planting, I would love to see a video of your garden. If you post it on RU-vid please share the link here.
Thank you, Tikki, for your interest. I will post here, of course. And I’m glad to hear about your basil. Myself straggling with my green basil. I have green, purple and African basils, the green is the European so it has a hard time to grow in hot climate. We have a lot of light but our light comes with a lot of direct (and dangerous) sun. It seems that there is not only “not enough light”, but “too much light” as well. And basil doesn’t like them both 😂😂😂.
maybe you can try to put soil on the bottum...then cover it with paper towel...then you get the "clean" microgreens..but also all the good the soil will provide...ohh i see someone allready said this....hahaha
Hi Tikki O: thank you very much for this very interesting experiment. You have assisted me with my learning (very much an apprentice in this field right now) . may the force be with you. :)
It would have been interesting to know, how the seeds would grow on a paper towel soaked in nutrient water, in order to replicate the nutrients in the soil.
try another paper towel test, but pH your water and add some nutrients to the water. there are no nutrients in bleached paper towels, while there is in organic soil.
For both questions it depends on what you are growing, fruits or leafy greens. Microgreens don't need so much light, and also less nutrients. If you want a faster grow then give them light and nutrients, your choice. They like something close to daylight, 6500 Kelvin is good. You will still get a harvest with less light and nutrients, but a smaller one. BTW the coco coir has no nutrients that I know of, so you might want to add nutrients there.
Awesome experiment. You got straight to it and explained everything thoroughly! I loved the closeups and I was REALLY hoping that that camera would back up just a bit, at least once, to get a good look at them side-by-side for just a moment. That would have been perfect! Thanks!
I'm a new subscriber to your channel. I'm getting more excited about using hydroponics because of what I'm learning from you. Great info! Thanks Tikki!
Lubna, that will work, I have done that as well. The roots will find their way down through the paper towels and into the soil. If soil really bothers you, then try coconut coir. Works very well too, but has no nutrients, so you have to feed it.
Elisa, thanks for the comment! I am planning do a paper vs. paper experiment, one with regular water and one with hydroponic nutrient solution. I was also considering the coconut coir, one with nutrient solution the other without....and of course, there is your suggestion....so many experiments! Thanks for watching!
the towel is lower then the soil (from the light),,, and the soil gives more darkness to the seeds no germinated as well as obvious nutrients from NEW Dirt,, wished you tried with extremely overused dirt lol huge thx for the experiment tho,, love a reminder of what i might alredy know MIGht forget tho now i wont xD (i also did this experiment) (tho i used nothing,, just tried to keep the seed spreaded in a glass container without dirt or anything ) same result as you i got, witch i felt obvious cause dirt provides darkness for the unseeded,, but picking them off WITHOUT THE FKIN DIRT IS SO MUCH Nicer,, tho you cant keep them as long as the dirt ones,, so you gotta eat fast if no dirt i feel (more risks of over watering (meaning intoxication and moss) since no dirt i cant see if being more dry or moist,, the water wasnt spread as evenly without the dirt i feel) thats why i bought hemp mats gona try that,, see if they can be kept longer and if water can go better,, just need bamboo sticks to put under the hemp map so only theroots will touch water
ahh HAH!! obviously the soil has something that paper towels do not. However, that seems a cleaner process and soil COULD possibly be more expensive. SOLUTION: I have a worm bin and collect leachate from them to use on my garden. The Miracle Gro soil does have fertilizer in it as someone pointed out, giving the soil side a bit of an advantage. I'm going to make a guess that watering with a weak solution of leachate and water will greatly improve the results from the paper towel method. I really like the idea of no soil. On the other hand... the root/soil layer feeds my worms !
Soak paper towels in water with dirt, put in tray and seed. Will the paper towels pick up enough soil nutrients? Or else, soak paper towels in MaxiGrow and then plant. I just planted a 10 x 10 tray using coffee filters with some used coffee grounds. We'll see what happens.
Hi HitchHikersBlues, I have not noticed a difference in tasted between the soil and paper towel version for microgreens, but they do grow bigger/quicker in soil, and have broader leaves.
@@TikkiOOO Shoots already! They whiff a bit, don't they :D?? How long do reckon i leave them before i can eat them? i don't have any fancy equipment or anything.
Hi HitchHikersBlues...I'm not sure what you mean "they whiff a bit"...if they smell bad I wouldn't eat them. They should look nice and clean, no mold and no bad smell. Enjoy!
I kind of do both. I have soil in my trays, then I put a paper towel over the soil. I use a spatula to tuck in the paper towel on all 4 sides. This helps the paper towel draw moisture from the soil. The seeds will send roots through the paper towel into the soil. Since I have worms in my trays, the paper towel will usually completely disappear before harvest. But the microgreens are then tall enough so they stay clean. This method seems to work well for brassica seeds that are round. For those who want to try the paper towel method, be advised that all paper towels are not the same. I tired Dollartree paper towels and had less success., even the worms did not like it. I went back to great value extra strength from Walmart which seems to work well for me.
