My simple microgreens grow rack set up - UK specific
As I share in many of my blog posts, I like to keep my microgreens business as simple as possible. That goes for everything, from the overall business model, to the growing, planting, harvesting, distribution and all the other tasks that are involved in making it a success. I don’t want to take up extra brain space and time with over complex systems.
Today, I’m going to focus on the organisation of your growing trays which will help you to work out the capacity of your growing space.
I’ll be sharing with you the exact system that I teach in my online UK Microgreens Business Course - my Simple One-Rack System, which is specific to microgreens farming in the UK.
You can make around £200 / week profit on just one of these racking systems (and that’s a conservative figure! - I want to keep these revenue projections as realistic as possible for you). Read on to get excited about how this works.
Choosing your growing rack
Growing your microgreens vertically, ie on shelving , makes the most efficient use of your growing space. Any sturdy shelving will do the job, but if you’re buying new, I recommend using the ‘kitchen wire’ type shelving racks. These are - easy to clean, allow airflow between shelves, enable grow lights to be easily cable tied onto them and are relatively inexpensive and hard wearing.
I recommend buying the largest sized rack you can for your grow space. I love the 6-shelf Trinity Eco-storage unit from Costco. The sturdy casters on these are also a great bonus for moving them around easily in your grow space (if it’s big enough and you have a smooth floor!). Side note - these go in and out of stock pretty frequently online and in store. If they’re ever out of stock online, give a branch a ring and they’ll have a date for new stock arrival. Smaller and more cost effective options can be found at Hartleys Direct. This is where I got my first racks from.
As well as your rack needing to fit in your grow space, it also makes sense to buy the size that your trays fit the neatest into - again this will maximise your growing space.
UK Microgreens Trays
Once you start scaling up your operation (from say, a small seed tray on your window sill), then I highly recommend using the purpose made Garland Microgreens Trays (made in the UK). These can be purchased from Grown Local Scotland - a great little company with excellent customer service! They measure 56cm x 28cm and 4 can fit comfortably on each shelf of the Trinity Eco-storage shelving I mentioned earlier. It was a pretty great day in my grow room when these trays hit the market in December 2020!
LED Lighting
I don’t want to over complicate this. For a cost effective lighting option, I recommend these LED lights for your shelving. 2 per shelf, evenly spaced apart. Shelves spaced equally apart. I’ve been using these lights for my own set up for the past 2 years and they’ve been brilliant.
MY SIMPLE ONE-RACK MICROGREENS SYSTEM
Per shelf - 4 X Microgreens Trays
That’s 20 trays in total under lights at capacity.
If you divide your number of tray spaces (in this case 20) by 1.3, then that's the number of trays you can harvest a week. The other spaces are needed for trays still growing.
So in this example, you'll be able to harvest 15 trays of microgreens a week.
This one rack set up currently costs (as of writing - Jan 2023):
1. £340 in total (including 1x rack, 2x lights on each shelf and 40 grow trays)
2. 79p a day in electricity (up to date as of January 2023 - @33p/kWh) to run the lights for 12 hours/day.
It’s simple, inexpensive and completely doable at home.
Your revenue and profit margins from your microgreens on this set up will mostly depend on what variety of microgreens you are growing and selling. Chances are you’ll want to grow a selection of different ones to offer your customers but as an example, let’s start with radish shoots – one of the easiest and quickest to grow and most profitable to sell!
You can sell one Microgreens Tray of radish shoots (that have been harvested and packaged) for £20 to chefs and home customers in the UK, around £18 of which is tray profit (around £15 full business profit). That’s a fantastic return on a crop that takes only 8 days to grow and only needs one grow tray's worth of space at home.
If you sell 15 trays worth of radish microgreens a week, that’s £225/week PROFIT per rack using this set up.
Then just multiply this revenue by how many racks you want to farm and have space for, then that’s your weekly profit projection for your business. It's simple and it works.
If you’re keen to put this system into practice, start your first grows at home and learn how this business works in the UK, then my 14-page Mini UK Microgreens Business Guide is a great starting point
Download now to get it sent straight to your inbox!
In your guide, you’ll get:
5 great reasons for starting a microgreens business in the UK right now
A basic equipment list
A step-by-step guide to growing and harvesting radish shoots and pea shoots, including UK pricing suggestions and profit margins.
A how-to guide to selling your microgreens to chefs, restaurants and your local community.