Linseed Brown - Flaxseed for Microgreens (NOT to WA & TAS)
Untreated brown linseed, also called flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum), for growing microgreens on a tray, from 400 g to 2 kg. This product cannot be shipped to Western Australia or Tasmania.
Wet linseed turns to a thick gel, so it cannot be sprouted in a jar, rinsed or drained. It is soaked briefly, spread thinly on a damp tray and misted, and the green shoots are cut 10 to 14 days from the start of the soak.
How to grow linseed microgreens on a tray
- Line a shallow tray with no drainage holes with a coir mat or a few layers of paper towel. Allow about 40 g of seed for a 25 x 50 cm tray, or about 7 g for a 13 x 13 cm tray.
- Cover the seed with about one and a half times its volume of cool drinking water and leave it 2 to 4 hours, until it sets into one jelly mass. Do not drain or rinse it.
- Wet the lining through, tip off any pooling water, then spread the gel thinly and evenly. Mist it, cover the tray and keep it somewhere still and dim.
- Mist 2 to 4 times a day, lifting the cover each time to let fresh air in. Never let water pool in the tray, because standing water is where mould starts.
- Once the shoots stand and shed their hulls, uncover the tray and grow it in bright, indirect light, watering the lining from one corner.
- Cut the shoots with clean scissors just above the lining when the seed leaves have opened green, usually at 2.5 to 7.5 cm tall. The tray gives one cut.
Keep water off the shoots for their last 8 to 12 hours, seal them in a clean container and store them in the fridge at 5°C or colder. Eat them within a few days.
Use them as a garnish
Raw linseed naturally contains cyanogenic glycosides, which release hydrogen cyanide when the seed is chewed, crushed or ground, and young flax shoots make these compounds too. No source gives a safe amount for the shoots, so use them as a garnish for salads and sandwiches rather than a bowlful.
Food safety
Shoots grown from seed in warm, damp conditions can carry Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria, even when grown with care at home. People who are pregnant, aged 70 or over, children under 5 and anyone with a weakened immune system should not eat raw or lightly cooked sprouts. Wash and sanitise the tray, cover, bowl and scissors before the first batch and between batches, use only water fit to drink, and use a fresh lining for every tray. Mould, slimy gel or a sour smell end a tray.
The full method is in our guide to growing linseed microgreens.
