Next: Introduction to Products
Crops, in many ways, are the foundation of your microgreens business. SeedLeaf comes pre-loaded with over 40 Crops which are all totally editable.
Crops have nine elements you can edit:
Crop Name
Seed Type (drawn from Seeds page)
Seeding Rate (g or oz per tray)
Seed Soak time (optional, for reference only)
Days to Germinate (DTG)
Days in Blackout (DBO)
Days to Maturity (DTM)
Expected Yield
Overnight Soak (optional)
You will use your Crops later to create Products. Keep in mind:
You grow a Crop and you sell a Product
Elements, Tasks, and Crop Growth Stages
SeedLeaf make some assumptions on your crop growing cycle and considers three stages of growth once your seed has been sowed, where Tasks represent the transition between stages:
Stage 1: Germination. This is the initial growth stage, following the Sow and Cover Task, when the crop is covered, usually with weight on top, and left to germinate for a specific period (this is your DTG).
Stage 2: Blackout. This is an optional stage after the germination stage, following the Move to Blackout Task, where the weight is removed but the germinating seeds are kept in the dark (often with an upside down tray set over top of the growing tray).
Stage 3: Light. This is when the crop is uncovered from either the germination stage or the blackout stage (following the Uncover to Light Task) and allowed to photosynthesize.
Here is a visualization that breaks the crop cycle down into Elements (Seed, Crop, Product), Tasks, and Crop Growth Stages. As you can see, the DTG and DBO are included in the DTM.
To ADD a new Crop to SeedLeaf:
STEP 1: Navigate to the Crops page and click on the "Add" button at the top of the page
STEP 2: Enter a unique Crop name
If you want to identify the tray size the crop is growing in for easy differentiation (if you are using multiple tray sizes), you can add the tray size to the name, such as: "Sunflower - 1020"
STEP 3: Select the Seed to be used to grow the Crop
STEP 4: Enter the Crop seeding rate in grams or ounces (depending on whether you are working in metric or imperial) per your selected tray
STEP 5: Enter the Crop soak time in minutes
This is optional as soak time is not used in calculations; but is handy for reference as it appears when sowing Tasks are generated
STEP 6: Enter Days to Germinate (DTG)
This is the number of days the Crop will spend in the germination or covered stage
STEP 7: Enter Days in Blackout (DBO) - OPTIONAL
This is the number of days the Crop will spend in the blackout stage following the germination stage
STEP 8: Enter Days to Maturity (DTM)
This is the total lifespan of the crop from soaking or sowing to Harvest day
STEP 9: Enter the expected cut yield in grams or ounces
STEP 10: Check the "Overnight Soak" button if the Crop needs to soak overnight
This ensures the Crop's soaking and sowing take place one day after the other (e.g., for peas)
STEP 11: Click the "Add" button to save your crop!
To EDIT a Crop in SeedLeaf:
STEP 1: Click on the name of the Crop you want to edit
STEP 2: Change the field(s) you want to edit
STEP 3: Click the Save button to save your Crop
NOTE: Editing a Crop can affect Crop cycles already in progress. This is likely to be inconsequential as the Crops already in progress were accurately sowed with previously-current Crop information, but be mindful it can impact things elsewhere!
Duplicating Crops
You can duplicate a Crop by clicking on the "Duplicate" button at the top of each individual Crop page. Doing so creates an exact duplicate of you Crop, so you need to create a new name for your duplicate Crop so as not to confuse it with your previous version. You will also want to change at least one aspect of the Crop to differentiate it from the previous version (otherwise, why duplicate it?!).
If you are going to keep both Crops active, you will want to name them in a way that they don't get confused. For example, maybe you name them based on different sowing rates:
Sunflower, 175 g
Sunflower, 125 g