Measure 125 grams (a little less than ¼ cup) of sunflower seeds into a bowl

Soak seeds in water overnight.  Sunflower seeds like to float in water, so It’s best if you put them in a mesh bag so you can easily put something on top of them so they stay under the water.

Place the microgreen tray with drainage holes inside the tray without drainage holes.

Add soil to the microgreen tray until your soil line is even with the edge of the tray.  I use about 14 cups of soil per tray.  Use another tray to press the soil down, which will help them to grow evenly.

Sprinkle the soaked seeds evenly over the soil surface in the tray.

Water evenly.  I used the spray nozzle on my sink faucet.  

Place another empty tray on top of the seeded tray and place a 15 lb. weight on it.  I use a 5 gallon bucket, but a paving stone works well also.

Leave it alone until you see the sunflower shoots starting to push up on the weight.  This is the germination phase.  If you leave it too long it will actually push up on the weighted tray until it falls off the top.  This usually takes about 2-3 days.  You do not need to water them or do anything with them while they are sitting under the weighted tray in germination.

Take the weighted tray off the top and sprinkle them with water.  Again, I just use the spray function on the faucet in my sink.

Place them under the LED lights on your plant rack.  Leave the lights on during the day, and turn them off at night.  It’s best if they get 12-16 hours of daylight per day.  If you need them to grow faster you can leave the lights on 24 hours a day, but typically I shut them off at night.

Water once per day by spraying the top of the greens with water from your faucet.  Sunflower microgreens are the only variety I grow that needs to be top watered, instead of bottom watered.

Immediately after watering, brush your hand back and forth gently across the greens to loosen the sunflower hulls from the greens.  You can do this more vigorously the closer you get to harvest as the greens will be bigger.  You might want to take the tray outside to do this, otherwise there will be a lot of little sunflower hulls all over the floor.

On day 9 or 10, the first true leaves should be almost ready to emerge.  This is when you want to harvest.  To harvest, grab a handful of greens with one hand, and cut them off close to the soil with a sharp knife in your other hand.  I do not recommend cutting them with scissors as it can crimp the stem of the greens which will shorten their shelf life.

Sunflower microgreens will keep in the refrigerator for 2-4 weeks if kept in an airtight container.  The smaller the container the better, as the extra air in the container can tend to dry them out.

Enjoy in salads, wraps, on egg dishes, on top of soup or anywhere you can add them to a meal.  Your body will thank you for the extra nutrition and boost to your immune system, especially in the winter.