Microgreens World
Verdánt Organics Breaks Ground on a $13.6 Million Microgreens and Mushroom Farm in Mankato, With a City Tax Break and Loan Behind It
Last week this page reported that Verdánt Organics planned a public groundbreaking in Mankato, Minnesota, and that no investment figure had been published. The groundbreaking happened on Tuesday, November 10, in front of more than 100 people, and the figure is now public. The Mankato Free Press puts the project at $13.6 million for a 63,000-square-foot indoor farm on the city’s east side, at 1761 Energy Drive. It will grow microgreens and culinary mushrooms year-round and double as the company’s corporate headquarters. A subsidiary of APX Construction will build and own the building.
The city is putting money in. Shortly before the ceremony, the Mankato City Council approved a $192,000 tax abatement for construction and a $300,000 low-interest loan toward $2.6 million in equipment, the Free Press reports. The plan calls for more than 50 employees working in 60 grow rooms, plus 25 corporate staff in adjoining offices. Target buyers are fine-dining restaurants, hotels, caterers and specialty food buyers, across a region the company describes as running from Chicago to the Dakotas.
Both local reports put production roughly a year out. The Free Press says the facility is expected to be complete in late 2027, when it will begin producing microgreens and oyster mushrooms. KEYC, reporting the same day, says Verdánt expects the site to be operating within a year. Neither report gives a month, a first-harvest date or the volume the 60 rooms are meant to produce once they are running.
The people around the project are worth knowing. CEO Mike Borman told the crowd, “Our vision is to be the greatest high-value produce company on the planet,” and said the company plans to “build four more” farms. Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern sits on Verdánt’s advisory board and spoke at the event. KEYC adds that culinary arts students from South Central College cooked dishes with Verdánt’s microgreens for the kickoff, and that their instructor, Kevin Peterson, said students rarely get access to produce of that quality.
What has not changed since last week is the evidence on growing. Verdánt calls its system Closed-Loop Indoor Precision Agriculture, or CIPA, and says it uses far less water and no chemicals. Those are the company’s descriptions. Neither report gives yields, prices, energy use or the unit economics Borman has praised. My read, and it is only a read: for a small grower already selling microgreens to chefs between Chicago and the Dakotas, this is a well-connected competitor arriving in about a year, and that year is the useful part.
Mankato Free Press · mankatofreepress.com · Nov 10, 2026 | KEYC News Now · keyc.com · Nov 10, 2026
Moringa Seedlings Grew Heavier Under Dim White LEDs Than Bright Ones, and the Authors Picked 5 Micromoles as Best
A team at Yunnan Agricultural University, publishing in Foods on November 4, 2026, grew moringa (cultivar PKM-1) under white LEDs from 0 to 360 µmol/m²/s for 8 hours a day, then tested photoperiods from 0 to 24 hours at 5 µmol. On day 20, seedlings at 5 µmol weighed 2.01 g fresh against 1.04 g at 360, with hypocotyls of 20.92 cm against 11.43. Light around the clock cut fresh weight to 1.20 g and pushed electrolyte leakage, a stress marker, to 71.68 percent.
Against darkness, lit seedlings scored 127.32 against 78.63 mmol Trolox/g in a DPPH antioxidant test on day 20, while phenolics peaked only about 5 percent higher. The authors name 5 µmol for 8 hours as optimal, and they ran harvests on days 6, 10, 15 and 20. The limits are real: one white spectrum, one cultivar, lab assays that say nothing about health, and some units that disagree between sections. The paper never compares 5 µmol with commercial microgreen lighting or states a harvest age.
Foods · mdpi.com · Nov 4, 2026
Selenium Helped Mung Bean Microgreens at 0.5 mg/L. At 10 mg/L They Held 22 Times the Selenium and Grew Less
A four-page paper from the University of Belgrade, published October 23, 2026 in the proceedings of the 9th Workshop on Food and Drug Safety and Quality, grew mung bean microgreens for 8 days in Hoagland solution with sodium selenite added. VerticalFarmDaily summarized it on November 9. The tests ran at 24°C and 45 percent humidity, with doses of 0.1, 0.5, 1 and 10 mg/L named in the abstract. The authors report that 0.5 mg/L lengthened roots and shoots and raised NDVI, a leaf greenness index, and antioxidant activity. Higher doses held growth back, roots more than shoots.
Tissue selenium went from 0.45 mg/kg dry weight in the control to 9.80 at 10 mg/L. The 0.5 and 1 mg/L levels are described only as a slight increase. That is most of the hard data. The text gives no per-dose figures for length, NDVI or antioxidant activity, no seed source and no full statistics, and the abstract and methods list different dose sets. It is a short workshop paper with one species and one 8-day run, so read it as a lead on dosing, not a recipe.
Proceedings, 9th Workshop FDSQ · doi.org · Oct 23, 2026
Four LED Mixes Changed Stem and Root Length in Cabbage and Lettuce Microgreens, but None Changed Shoot Weight
A team at Mariano Marcos State University in the Philippines, publishing November 4, 2026 in the International Journal of Education, Research, and Innovation Perspectives, grew amaranth, cabbage and lettuce microgreens under four LED mixes: red-blue, white-red, white-blue and white-red-blue. Each tray held 4 g of seed on 500 g of cocopeat under 16 hours of light a day, with lamps 1.5 feet above, at about 28°C and 65 percent humidity. Harvest was at 14 days. No mix changed shoot fresh weight in any of the three crops. Cabbage grew longer shoots under red-blue, white-red or white-blue, and white-red-blue gave heavier fresh roots in cabbage and lettuce.
The gaps matter. The paper gives no light intensity or lamp wattage, so the mixes may not have delivered equal light, and there is no white-only control. Results appear only as bar charts. The abstract says four replications and the statistics section says three, and the abstract, results and conclusion describe the hypocotyl findings differently.
IJERIP · doi.org · Nov 4, 2026
One Seaweed Spray Raised Phenolics in Broccoli, Beet and Red Amaranth Microgreens With No Change in Yield
A team at SRM College of Agricultural Sciences in Tamil Nadu sprayed broccoli, beetroot and red amaranth microgreens once, on day 5, with 0.5 percent extracts of two red seaweeds, Acanthophora spicifera and Gracilaria edulis, against a water spray. The paper is in the Journal of Applied and Natural Science, Vol. 18, Issue 3, and reached us through a November 8 Scholar alert. Fresh yield did not differ: broccoli gave 72.3 g per tray on water and 75.5 g with Acanthophora. Phenolics in broccoli rose from 277.41 to 333.75 mg GAE per 100 g, about 20 percent, and in red amaranth from 130.09 to 161.53. Antioxidant scores and vitamin C rose in all three crops.
The authors list the limits themselves. The sprays carried about 1.25 percent ethanol with no ethanol-only control, and the trays grew under 346 to 421 lux, far below commercial light. Beetroot and amaranth do not make glucosinolates, so those readings likely reflect the assay, not the compound.
Journal of Applied and Natural Science · doi.org · Vol. 18, Issue 3, 2026
FDA Lists a Class I Recall of Broccoli Seed Sold for Sprouting and Microgreens, With No Lot Code to Check
FDA’s Enforcement Report dated November 4, 2026 lists recall H-0176-2027 by Fortuna Marketing, Inc. of Poway, California. The product is ZestiGreens Broccoli Seeds for Sprouting & Microgreens, heirloom broccoli seed in 8-ounce bags (SKU X004IOM4AJ) and 16-ounce bags (SKU B0D5289F94). The stated reason is that the seeds were potentially contaminated with Salmonella. The firm began the recall September 29, FDA classified it Class I, its most serious category, on October 23, and the record lists 600 pounds and an ongoing status.
The code field reads “no lot code.” Most of the seed went to an Amazon fulfillment center. The firm notified customers directly and Amazon stopped the SKU, and seed shipped to a co-packer was destroyed without being repackaged. The record does not say how the contamination was found, and it does not tie this seed to the broccoli sprout outbreak covered here last week. I have not seen any agency make that link.
FDA Enforcement Report · api.fda.gov · Nov 4, 2026
Massachusetts Opens Its Healthy Incentives Program to New Farm Vendors, With Applications Due December 10
Two weeks ago this page reported that Massachusetts would reopen its Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) to new vendors but had given no start date. On November 10, 2026 the state gave one. Applications are open from November 10 through December 10. Farms, farm stands, CSA programs, mobile markets and nonprofit food access groups can apply, and application materials are at mass.gov/hipnoo. Selected vendors will join in phases. The release does not say how many will be added.
Priority goes to applicants serving communities with few HIP vendors, especially low-income and historically underserved areas, with preference for culturally relevant produce and new delivery models. HIP puts money back on a SNAP shopper’s EBT card when they buy eligible fruits and vegetables from a participating vendor. The state says the program passed $100 million in incentives in July, which it counts as $100 million in direct sales to Massachusetts farmers. The release does not say whether microgreens count as eligible, so check the materials first.
Mass.gov · mass.gov · Nov 10, 2026
A Pennsylvania Market Hall Waives Three Months of Rent for New Vendors, and Says It Has Lost Its Produce Sellers
The Lebanon Farmers Market in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a public market from 1892 into the 1960s and a retail hall again since 2003, is offering three months of rent at no charge to new businesses that sign at least a one-year lease by November 15, WITF reported November 10, 2026. Owner Jared Mizrahi, who bought the market in December 2024, had four new vendors signed as of the week before, with about 10 booths still open. Current tenants include a coffee shop, smoked meats and cheeses, candy and baked goods. Monthly rent runs about $200 for the smallest spaces and about $1,000 for the largest, which come with equipment.
The market says it wants produce, poultry, raw meat and seafood vendors, categories it once had and lost through turnover. Mizrahi says vendors left because of life or business changes, or because their stands could not support themselves on sales. It is open Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The article gives no foot traffic or sales figures, which is the number a grower would need before signing a year.
WITF · witf.org · Nov 10, 2026
Florida Keys Master Gardeners Will Teach Sprouts and Microgreens at Two Drop-In Workshops This Month
Master Gardener volunteers with the University of Florida/IFAS Monroe County Extension will run sprouts and microgreens workshops during their regular plant clinics, the Florida Keys Free Press reported November 12, 2026. The sessions are at the Islamorada-Helen Wadley Branch Library on November 19 from 9:30 a.m. to noon, and at the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden on November 21 from 10 a.m. to noon. There is no charge, and no sign-up is mentioned.
The workshops cover growing sprouts and microgreens at home, the difference between the two and their nutrition. In the hands-on part, people bring their own jar to make a sprouting container, and no lid is needed. Visitors can drop in at any point and stay to ask the volunteers about plants, pests, landscaping and other garden problems. The article does not say what seed is used or whether seed sanitation is covered. Given this autumn’s broccoli seed recalls, that is a fair question to bring along.
Florida Keys Free Press · keysnews.com · Nov 12, 2026
Lebanon market lease deadline. Sign a one-year lease by this date for three months without rent.
Planted Detroit sealed bids due. 5 p.m. Eastern, with the award expected November 20.
Islamorada sprouts and microgreens workshop. Helen Wadley Branch Library, 9:30 a.m. to noon.
Key West sprouts and microgreens workshop. Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, 10 a.m. to noon.
Microgreens Grower Day. Jiffy’s virtual event, at no charge. Andrew speaks at 10:40 AM Eastern.
Massachusetts HIP applications close. New farm vendors join in phases.
On Wednesday, December 2, I get 20 minutes at Jiffy’s Microgreens Grower Day, right after Dr. Francesco Di Gioia of Penn State.
I’ll go through what the research says about microgreens, and what you can put on your sign.
One question first. What do your customers ask you most? Send me a note and tell me.
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