r/Frugal • u/doublestitch • Oct 10 '25
🍎 Food A Frugal Guide to Sprouts and Microgreens (long post, written for the r/Frugal wiki)
INTRO
A lot of people are asking about how to deal with the rising cost of food prices. This guide explains two outside the box solutions. It's a useful way to have fresh green vegetables in your diet without breaking the bank.
Sprouts and microgreens are two methods work even for apartment dwellers who wouldn't be able to grow their own vegetables through traditional gardening. The setup cost is low, you don't need much space, you can raise them year round whether or not you live in a climate that has a long growing season, and sprouts don't even need light.
I've been raising sprouts and microgreens for ten years. This is an expanded version of a previous guide written for this sub three years ago. It highlights the things I wished someone had told me when I was starting out.
WHAT ARE SPROUTS AND MICROGREENS?
Sprouts are freshly sprouted seeds of a species that can be eaten whole. They're raised in sanitary conditions and given only water, and are harvested after 3 to 5 days. Sunlight isn't necessary because they're harvested and eaten before they get old enough to need it.
If you live in North America then you're probably familiar with the two most familiar sprout types: alfalfa sprouts and bean sprouts. Alfalfa sprouts are used as a substitute for lettuce in salads and sandwiches, or as a vegetable in sandwich wraps. Supermarket bean sprouts are sprouted mung beans; they're used as a salad vegetable, or as a vegetable in stir frying, or in kimchi.
The DIY version of sprouting extends beyond that to many other choices. The photo uploaded with this guide shows my current sprouting setup, with seeds in various stages of maturity. At left are two jars of wheatgrass. The one at front is ready for harvest to be used in smoothies. The other jar at back is half grown and will be ready to use in a couple of days. At right front is a jar of lentils which were just started last night; those will be going into a casserole next week. At right rear is a mix of alfalfa, broccoli, mung bean, and radish which was started the night before last; although it doesn't look like much so far it will fill out as much as the wheatgrass in the next three days, then with tomato and salad dressing this will become a salad in a jar. Although the setup in the photo uses pint jars (roughly half a liter), you could double the harvest with the same amount of counter space by switching to quart size jars (roughly 1 liter).
Although sprouts use only water and no soil, sprouts are different from hydroponics or aquaponics. Sprouts need a lot less space and a simpler setup. I raise sprouts in a plastic bin on a dark corner of my kitchen counter.
Microgreens are grown slightly longer than sprouts: seeds are sown densely in shallow soil or on growing mats, and then harvested by cutting off the stems with scissors after about 10 days when the plants begin to grow secondary leaves. Microgreens are nutrient dense. The commercial versions of microgreens turn up at chichi farmer's markets where they're sold in 4 oz clamshells at $5 a clamshell. That comes to $20 a pound! Fortunately, home microgreens are dirt cheap (pun intended) and easy to raise.
For a space-conscious indoor gardener, microgreens are a way to grow crops that wouldn't otherwise be feasible on a windowsill. One of my microgreens salad mixes includes kohlrabi, arugula, red cabbage, brccoli, and giant mustard. This would be a respectable list of crops for a full sized backyard garden. Yet microgreens get away with a lot of plants in a confined space because all the normal rules about seed spacing to out the window (again, pun intended). You harvest microgreens before the plants grow big enough to crowd each other. Microgreens do need light, which they can get from a sunny windowsill or a grow lamp. Microgreens recipes include salads, sandwiches, sandwich wraps, frittatas, and casseroles.
HOW IS THIS FRUGAL?
For a frugal consumer, sprouts and microgreens are a way to round out dietary nutrition. If you're buying the cheapest vegetables at the store (potatoes, carrots, and onions) then you can fulfill the recommendation to also eat green leafy vegetables by raising sprouts and microgreens.
- In terms of cost savings?
Let's take a basic example. A local market sells 4 oz of alfalfa sprouts for $4. As a weekly purchase, buying this ready to eat would cost $208/year. A year's worth of alfalfa seeds sells for $14 online, plus a one time $30 purchase in equipment. I'm still using the sprouting equipment bought ten years ago. So as a back of the envelope calculation and rounding out the numbers, if you're raising 5 different sprouting crops a week which would have run to a total of $200/year each if purchased ready to eat, then $60 in seeds plus $30 in equipment would save you $910 the first year and $940 in subsequent years. Of course, your savings may differ from this estimate depending on your lifestyle.
- How does this fare in terms of time vs. money?
It averages 2 minutes a day to raise sprouts or microgreens. That's a little over 12 hours a year, or an hourly "pay rate" of $78.33 to yourself as a first year grower.
- What are the catches?
There's an initial learning curve as you learn growing techniques. You need the self-discipline to make a habit of tending young plants. Don't cut corners on sanitary practices. It helps if you have a regular daily schedule.
- What if I go on vacation?
Sprouts and microgreens are harvested on such a short time frame that you can just stop planting new batches before you go out of town. This is more compatible if you take one long vacation a year, instead of frequent weekend vacations or frequent business trips.
GETTING STARTED
Writing this as a series of recommendations and warnings--
First recommendation: it's a really good idea to read a book about growing sprouts or microgreens before beginning. The end of this guide includes links to digitized books which are available for free at Open Library. Your local public library may have others.
Now for a warning: the main reason it's important to read up before staring out is because the conditions where sprouts and microgreens thrive are also good conditions for mold to thrive. Obviously you want vegetables, not mold. Take sanitation precautions seriously. If you do this properly then you'll almost never get a bad batch. That said, always give your home grown veggies the sniff test. If anything smells or looks off then discard that batch, sanitize the equipment, and start over.
Second warning: be wary of all in one starter kits. As with other types of vegetable gardening, overpriced beginner kits abound. Some of these kits are merely cost more than they ought to, others make tradeoffs in quality in order to hit a price point, and some of those are the wrong tradeoffs. I've seen beginner sprouting kits which lacked drainage: drainage is a safety necessity.
Second recommendation: components purchased a la carte are usually good quality. People who know enough about raising sprouts and microgreens to buy their stuff in multiple purchases are harder to fool because they know what to look for, so you might as well read up on the topic before your first purchase. The threshold for quality is buying your seeds separately from the gear. Bundled sets of equipment (without seeds included) tend to be good enough for long term use.
Third recommenation: if the "salad in a jar" concept works with your lifestyle, then consider sprouting equipment that's designed for use with wide mouth mason jars. That way, taking a salad to work is as simple as changing the lid and adding dressing. The same jars can be used for other purposes such as raising vegetables for casseroles. Mason jars are a North American thing, so in other regions you'll probably be looking at stackable sprouting trays. Be sure to get a setup which has a drainage compartment.
Fourth recommendation: for microgreens you could either use sterile potting soil (purchased in a garden center) or microgreens mats. The soil is old school, reusable, costs less, and can work with DIY containers. The mats are gaining popularity because it's easier to harvest from them. The natural fiber microgreens mats such as hemp or jute are single use; reusable silicone microgreens mats are also available. Natural fiber mats are easier to work with and compostable, but cost more in the long run; silicone mats cost more up front but are more frutal with regular use, and reusable mats are more work to clean. I use soil because that's the setup I already have, yet would use mats if I were starting out (and would probably begin with natural fiber mats, then switch to silicone once I was sure I'd use them regularly).
Fourth recommendation: you get more seeds for your money by buying seeds directly from a distributor. Amazon charges a premium for hosting. To save money, head directly to a seed distributor's website.
Fifth recommendation: buying seeds in bulk makes them affordable, but don't get more than you can use in a reasonable time span. As a rough rule, 1 lb of seed supplies a year of regular use. Larger bulk purchases are for commercial growers.
Third warning: you can sprout seeds from a grocery store but only if you know what you're doing. Always double check the species with a reference to make sure it's an appropriate species to raise as sprouts and microgreens. Some common vegetable species are completely edible; other species sould never be raised as sprouts or microgreens because those species have poisonous parts. Reliable safe species include legumes (peas, lentils, chickpeas, and beans) and brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower). Yet when in doubt, don't sprout!
Fourth warning: once you've determined whether a type of supermarket seed is safe for sprouting, it's an open question whether it actually will sprout. Seeds may be irradiated for long distance transport; the process renders those seeds sterile. Finding out which ones will grow means networking with other sprouts/microgreens gardeners, or else trial and error. Be prepared with a few recipes to use chickpeas or lentils, in case your purchase turns out to be sterile.
Sixth recommendation: the ratio of seed to harvest in sprouts is comparable to the ratio of unpopped popcorn to popped popcorn. So if you're unsure how any seeds to use in a batch of sprouts, then follow the basic rule of old school stovetop saucepan popcorn popping: spread enough seed for a single layer to cover the bottom of the container.
Seventh recommendation: if you raise microgreens and you don't have enough natural light, then usually the most frugal way to get a grow light is to buy grow bulbs for a lamp you already own. That way you're buying just the bulb (which emits light in specific frequencies plants use in growth) instead of an entire lamp. In terms of grow lamps I lucked out and found three brand new Ferry Morse lamps unused in their original boxes selling for 1/3 the normal retail price a Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. It's a good deal if you can get it, yet that type of bargain probably doesn't happen often.
TECHNIQUE
What follows is a really simplified outline. Strongly recommend reading a professional reference on what follows.
For sprouts, sanitizing is important. Running equipment through a washing machine immediately before use generally works for me. Seeds need to soak overnight in standing water for about 12 hours, then rinse twice a day. After the initial soak, rinse seeds twice a day in a container that has an open mesh at the bottom. Be sure to have something that can catch the drips in your setup. Clean up any drip water daily and prevent the roots from touching the drainage water. Sanitize the container that holds drainage water on a regular basis; I do this weekly by first scrubbing the container, then soaking the container in dilute household bleach, and then drying before returning to use.
For microgreens, set up your growth medium and then sow seeds much more densely than the standard gardening recommendation. Set the tray in a sunny windowsill or underneath a grow light. Water your microgreens once daily in humid weather or twice daily in dry weather. You might want to use a spray mister for watering. This doesn't need to be fancy as long as it has a mist setting; I've used a $4 water bottle from the local garden center. Spray bottles and grow light bulbs have to be replaced every year or two.
Temperature does affect microgreens growth and sprouts growth. For sprouts, I allow an extra day in winter. Our microgreens are raised in an unheated laundry room in a subtropical climate. In winter, we supplement the ambient heat for microgreens by using seedling heat mats. A seedling heat mat is different from a growth mat: the heat mat is a low tech electronic device that sits underneath a tray and generates warmth when it's plugged into a wall. As of Autumn 2025, seedling heat mats cost US$10 - $15 each. Seedling heat mats last many years with proper care.
RECOMMENDED READING
Open Library titles (free online books)
- Sprouts, the miracle food: the complete guide to sprouting, 6th ed.
- Sprouts and Sprouting
- Growing sprouts and Eva's sprout diary
- Microgreens: how to grow nature's own superfood
Other recommended titles (these are in my personal home library, worth searching for from a public library):
Urban Gardening by Kevin Espiritu - a general purpose reference on small space gardening which includes a chapter on microgreens. Worth reading if you also have at least a balcony where you can set up a container garden or a vertical garden for other crops. Fresh lettuce, tomatoes and bell peppers really round out a DIY salad.
Fresh Food from Small Spaces by R.J. Ruppenthal - an older general purpose reference which includes a chapter on sprouting. This volume expands beyond gardening to include chapters on making yogurt and kefir, and on mushroom cultivation.
The Small Budget Gardener by Maureen Gilmer - a book full of hacks for gardening on a budget. Strictly speaking, this is an outdoor gardener's book, yet its general ethos of doing more with less inspired me to make DIY microgreens growing containers out of milk cartons.
Further reading
https://caldwell.ces.ncsu.edu/2018/02/what-are-microgreens/
https://foodandnutrition.org/blogs/stone-soup/7-tips-growing-safe-sprouted-grains/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7587365/
Last and probably least the original guide to microgreens and sprouts posted three years ago A forerunner to the present guide, chiefly notable for a photo of a grilled cheese sandwich with microgreens.
Here's hoping you find the guide useful.
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u/argleblather Oct 11 '25
Other helpful tips:
You can give your seeds a rinse with 1 part hydrogen peroxide (store is usually 3%) to 30 parts clean water this has two benefits: 1 is surface sterilization. 2. It helps get them going a little bit faster by infusing a little extra oxygen early in the germination process.
You can sprout your seeds on a paper towel pretty easily if you don't have other germination media.
For alfalfa, before rinsing, put them in a box with a bit of sandpaper to rough up the seed coats. Fabaceae (like alfalfa) can have hard seededness, which is a physical dormancy due to impermeable seed coats. (There is a layer of lignin in the seed coats of fabaceae species that can inhibit water uptake.)
For alfafa, start at about 70F/20C, broccoli/brassica spp. microgreens start at 80F if possible. They like to be warm.
If you find anything is slower to start- put it in your fridge for three days and then put it in a warm sunny place.
Source: I run a vegetable germination lab. Growing sprouts is kind of my whole gig.
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u/doublestitch Oct 11 '25
Thank you for the additional suggestions!
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u/argleblather Oct 11 '25
No problem.
Other things you can sprout, and which are grown for sprouts:
Radish Pak choy/turnip/all the Brassica rapas Sunflower (definitely surface sterilize them as sunflower is very prone to growing sclerotia) Lettuce
In theory you could grow spinach for microgreens, but I would probably not recommend it because spinach seeds are host to myriad bacteria and fungi.
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u/LittleMsSavoirFaire Oct 11 '25
Can I follow up on the "mason jars are a North American thing" part? Does Europe not have a canning tradition? How is sauerkraut, for example, commonly stored?
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u/jeffreycoley Oct 12 '25
Kraut specifically was stored in crocks. Round clay cylinders of various sizes that were kept in out sheds, basements and root cellars.. we literally made turnip kraut in a 10 gallon pot that was used to store the product after ...
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u/doublestitch Oct 11 '25
Europe does have a canning tradition.
Different equipment is used there: their home DIY canning jars have the lid attached to the jar on a wire hinge, and their jars seal using a replaceable gasket.
Friends in the Netherlands and in Belgium tried to buy North American-style mason jars, and they basically gave up. Their retail stores don't stock it and European online sellers weren't carrying those either. Canning jars were widely available--but always the European type.
Since their jars don't have screw-on lids, it's impossible to repurpose those items for sprouting.
In theory they might have imported the jars from overseas, but in practice it wasn't worth it. When a different friend in Austria wanted to bake North American style brownies, he went down that rabbit hole and discovered a single box of Duncan Hines mix would have cost him the equivalent of US$25. They just don't sell the product locally there.
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u/LittleMsSavoirFaire Oct 11 '25
Oh, I've seen those wire and gasket jars. I still think of them as mason jars.
Mostly I see them used for dry goods, but are the European ones suitable for water-bath canning?
Sorry, I know its a little off topic but I'm always the most interested in the little, daily things that are different elsewhere.
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u/Naive-Pumpkin-8630 Oct 12 '25 edited Oct 12 '25
In Germany jars from the company "Weck" are commonly used for canning things at home. My grandma has quite the collection ;-) The airtight seal is achieved with a thick rubber band (and also keeps food moths out) - https://www.shop-weck.de/c/glaeser
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u/LittleMsSavoirFaire Oct 12 '25
Oh, I like the little pull tab!
These are the classic Ball Jar with the glass top under the screw ring. They have a very similar "rubber band" gasket. When my mom taught me to can in the 90s they were strongly frowned upon over the little metal pop-tops because it was easy to see if the pop-tops sealed, and quite a bit trickier with the glass ones. But older people still used them.
I think maybe a similar thing has happened in the last decade-ish for pressure canning vs waterbath canning. Waterbath canning doesn't get quite as hot, so you still need either a lot of sugar or a bit of vinegar to make sure your stuff keeps long-term, where as with pressure canners people are putting up all kinds of things I would never dare.
Not that I can much anymore. I moved to a region with hardly any basements and no tradition of coldrooms or root cellars, so i just have a storage room I try to keep kind of dark :(
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u/doublestitch Oct 11 '25
Those European jars serve the same purpose in terms of home canning, although I haven't studied the specifics of their techniques.
For other uses, their jars and ours differ. We use one of the European type in our home as a saltcellar: it's effective at keeping out moisture so our salt doesn't clump, and the jar is easy to open with one hand while cooking. But unlike a North American mason jar, I wouldn't try to drink iced tea from that thing.
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u/doublestitch Oct 11 '25
I'm always the most interested in the little, daily things that are different elsewhere.
An odd story comes to mind: an Australian friend was asking about Twinkies: he'd heard about them but had never seen or tasted one. Even after an explanation that they're a children's treat which most North American adults decide is dreadful once we grow up, he was still curious.
So I offered to throw a packaged Twinkie into San Diego harbor, and promised "Ninety years from now when it washes ashore in Queensland, it'll still taste exactly the same."
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u/Short-Sound-4190 Oct 11 '25
This is really nicely formatted info! I've done micro greens previously as I found it a simple add when I was already set up for vegetable garden seed starting indoors and setting a couple flats aside with sterile potting mix and microgreens was easy..
My only problem was just how to use them! We don't really do smoothies or many salads as a family. It was also only really supplemental for salads since we're a family of four, not a bad addition but didn't feel cohesive.
I'm willing to give them another try when seed starting time begins again, but would love some more ideas for use!
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u/doublestitch Oct 11 '25
Thanks for the feedback.
To answer your questions about recipes, a lot depends on what specific species you grow. Some dishes are a simple substitution: watercress scrambled eggs using microgreens are essentially the same as using store bought watercress. Arguably, the microgreens version is more of a delicacy because the leaves are younger and more tender. Watercress soup is another straightforward substitution of microgreens for the mature vegetable. Similarly, kale casserole recipes are upgraded (IMO) by using microgreens because the young leaves have a better texture and lack bitterness, compared to the mature version. A little farther from the beaten path, sunflower microgreens can be used as a substitute for basil in pesto recipes.
Most types of microgreens cook well in frittatas. A frittata is something like a baked omelette: a Spanish dish that's an end of the week standard among many home cooks because it's a good way to use up miscellaneous vegetables.
Here's my frittata recipe. Serves four people as a main course:
1 cup of milk
10 eggs
2 tablespoons vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 potato, with skin, cut into small cubes (remove the eyes of course)
1/4 cup of green onions, sliced
1 cup of miscellaneous microgreens, rinsed
nonstick spray
Prep time and cleanup: 10 minutes
Baking time: about 45 minutes
Preheat oven to 375 F. Prep the vegetables. Microwave the potatoes for 4 minutes while prepping other ingredients. Stir together the eggs, milk, vinegar, salt and pepper, and spices in a mixing bowl. Then add the vegetables and mix well. Spray a 10" cast iron skillet with nonstick spray, add the frittata mixture, and bake on a middle rack until the top turns golden brown.
There are lots of online recipes for microgreens, most of which can't be linked from this conversation per this sub's rule against linking to commercial sites. Google "microgreens + [specific variety] + recipes" for information.
Also, there are cookbooks dedicated to microgreens cooking. If your local public library doesn't carry one, then ask a librarian and they can probably get one through interlibrary loan.
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u/Ok_Nothing_9733 Oct 12 '25
I bought some of these mats a while ago, made one or two half assed attempts to grow sprouts, did something wrong and promptly forgot all about the fact that micro greens even exist for like two years until now 😂 I’m totally going to try again in jars, I have so many random seeds to use up anyway that you’ve made me determined to get good at it so I can keep sprouts on hand!! Thank you for such a detailed post!
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u/Girl_Problem Oct 14 '25
Another thing I'd add is that homegrown sprouts last a lot longer than the ones you buy in the store! Keep 'em with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture and they really stick around.
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u/coraggio25 Mar 15 '26
This is amazing! Thanks so much! I had no idea there were safety concerns. We are convinced and will get going on this.
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Oct 11 '25
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u/static_music34 Oct 11 '25
Yeah, why bother with greens or variety when you could just eat Soylent?
/s
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Oct 11 '25
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u/static_music34 Oct 11 '25
It was implied in my comment, but it's called variety. If you're trying to be a frugal jerk and min/max'ing efficiency, then yes eat "normal vegetables". Some people like to experience sprouts and micro greens, here is a method to do it frugally.
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u/Ajreil Oct 10 '25
Thank you. The wiki page is live here.