Meet the Microgreen Tracker: The App We Built to Track Our Grows

August 8, 2026

If you grow microgreens, you already know the hardest part is not the growing. It is keeping track of everything. Which tray needs water today, which one is due to come out of blackout, when the broccoli will be ready, and what it all actually cost you. We spent years answering those questions with whiteboards, spreadsheets, phone notes, and a lot of guessing. So we built something better.

The Microgreen Tracker is grow-management software for microgreens. It tracks every tray through its real growing stages, turns the whole grow room into one short daily task list, projects harvest dates, costs each tray out down to the electricity, and plans your plantings against the orders you actually have. It works in any phone or desktop browser, installs to your home screen, and you can start free at www.microgreentracker.com.

Microgreen Tracker app dashboard on a phone showing tray tasks in front of On The Grow microgreens

What is the Microgreen Tracker?

At its simplest, it is a tool that always knows where every one of your trays is and what it needs today. Open it in the morning and your active trays are already sorted into clear groups: what to pre-soak, what to plant, what to water, what to transition, and what to harvest. Instead of trying to remember it all, you just work the list.

A few things to clear up right away, because we want this to be honest from the start:

It is a responsive web app that installs to your home screen, not something you download from an app store. It works in any browser on your phone, tablet, or computer.
It sends push notifications for watering and task reminders, free on every plan, at a morning and/or evening time you choose. Web push only, so no email or text, just a reminder on your phone, if you enable it.
It scales with you. The same interface handles two trays on a kitchen shelf or 2,500 active trays against customer orders.

If you are brand new to all of this, our beginner's guide to growing microgreens and our complete step-by-step grow guide are the best places to start learning how to grow first. The app is built to sit right alongside that knowledge.

It comes loaded with our microgreen data

This is the part we are proudest of. You do not have to know how much seed to weigh out, how long to keep a crop in blackout, or how many days until harvest, because the app already does. We poured years of first-hand growing into the crop library, so every one of the 80 crops and 284 varieties comes with a suggested sow weight, presoak time, weighted and blackout timing, and days to harvest built right in.

Pick a crop and a tray size and the app fills in the numbers for you. Better yet, sow density is stored per square inch, so a suggested 30 grams on a 10x20 automatically becomes 15 grams on a 10x10, or scales to a 7x14, a 5x5, or a custom tray without you doing any math. When you are growing several crops on different tray sizes at once, that alone saves a lot of second-guessing.

None of it is locked in. Every value is a starting point you can override, per crop, per variety, or for a single tray, because your seed, your water, and your grow space are not identical to ours. But you are never staring at an empty box wondering what to type. This is what we mean when we say it was built by microgreen growers, for microgreen growers. You are getting a tracking tool and our growing data in the same place.

Microgreen Tracker Add Tray screen showing a broccoli tray batch preview with sow weight and estimated harvest window

As simple or as detailed as you want

Growing is already complex enough. Hand-written notes take real time to keep up, and if you ever want to actually learn something from them, you have to sit down later and turn all that scribbling into usable data. The Microgreen Tracker skips that step. You log as you go, and the data is already data.

How much detail you track is entirely your call. Prefer to water once a day instead of twice? Set that. Like to leave a crop in blackout an extra day or two? Adjust the timing. Want to run a tray in guided mode with full daily tasks, or just quietly log what you did without any prompts? Both are there. You shape the app around how you grow, not the other way around.

And if you would rather keep things dead simple, flip on Simple Mode. It strips the screen down to the essentials: the crop, the stage it is in, and when to harvest. No grams, no costs, no yield ratios, just a clean task list that tells you what to do next. It is a per-person setting, so on a shared account one grower can run the full toolkit while another keeps it simple, looking at the very same trays.

Why we built it (a long time coming)

We have wanted this app since 2019. If you have watched much of our YouTube channel, you already know why. We are the growers who run the experiments, the side-by-side tray tests, and the endless how-tos, and every one of those depended on keeping good grow data. We loved recording it. We just hated how we had to do it.

The real nightmare was the number of variables. Different crops, different mediums, different fertilizers, different seeding densities, all going at once. Trying to keep that straight on a whiteboard or a spreadsheet falls apart fast. Which trays got watered today and which did not? What went into that batch three weeks ago? What did the whole thing actually cost? By the time you reconstruct it, the grow is long gone.

After eight years of growing and over 10,000 hours in our grow space and at home, we kept hitting that same wall, and it has nothing to do with seed or light. Even keeping two or three full grow racks going at different stages, the tracking becomes the bottleneck. We tried whiteboards. We tried spreadsheets. We tried phone notes and even fancy digital writing pads. All of which we had to fill out every single time, for every single tray, all throughout the grow process.

It got even more real when we moved commercial production into our mobile grow trailer, keeping a couple of grow racks going at a time in a small footprint through Texas summers. And we know plenty of growers running hundreds of trays who hit the same wall, just sooner. We needed something that thought about a grow the way we actually grow, not a generic to-do app bent to fit.

So we tried to have it built. Over the years we approached firm after firm to design it, and they all came back with outlandish quotes and no straight answer on whether the thing would even function the way a real grower needs it to. Eventually CJ stopped waiting and learned to build it himself. After more than a year of work, it is finally here. This is the app we always wished existed, made by the people who actually needed it.

Here's a look at the kind of grow space this app was built around.

It understands how a grow actually works

This is the part that makes the whole thing tick. Every tray moves through the real growing stages the software understands, from planned and pre-soaking through planted, the germination phase (weighted, germinating, or blackout), in light, ready, and harvested, plus a failed state for the grows that do not make it. You start a tray at whatever stage matches your process, and the app records the full timeline for you.

Because it knows each crop's timing, it can do two things a generic app cannot. It generates accurate daily tasks, and it predicts when each tray will be ready. That second one matters a lot if you sell, because you can give customers a realistic harvest date instead of a guess. If you want a refresher on why that weighted germination phase even exists, we break it down in our weight during germination experiment.

Microgreen Tracker tray detail page showing Radish Rambo grow stage, sow date, weight, and tray settings

Watch: getting started with the Microgreen Tracker

The fastest way to see how it all fits together is to watch it happen. In this first tutorial, CJ walks through the whole getting-started flow from an empty account: adding a seed to your catalog with its supplier, cost, and inventory tracking, adding your grow medium, building a reusable tray setup, planting your first tray, logging that first watering, and adding a tray clip color so you can spot the tray at a glance. It is the quickest way to understand how the app turns a real planting into tracked data.

Once your seed and medium are in, planting is just a couple of taps, and the app immediately starts deducting your inventory and building an estimated tray cost from the very first watering. From there it tells you when to change stages and prompts every watering for the rest of the grow.

What you can do with it

Here is the part worth repeating: the free tier is the full app on two active trays. Not a locked-down demo. You get almost everything, and the only two features that ever cost money are cost analytics and data export. Everything below is on the free plan:

Full tray lifecycle tracking. A day-by-day timeline of everything that happened to a tray, from sow to harvest.
A task-first daily workflow. Your morning routine becomes a short checklist instead of a memory test, with overdue work flagged first.
A crop library of 80 crops and 284 varieties across 13 botanical families, each with sow weights, days to harvest, and phase timing built in. Override anything or add your own custom crops.
Smart scheduling and harvest projections so you know what to do today and when each tray comes due.
Supplies and inventory tracking for seed, mediums, fertilizer, and equipment, with low-stock alerts and seed-lot traceability.
Barcode labels and scanning, a full calendar view, bulk actions, push reminders, and Grow Stats analytics.

The inventory side is smarter than a simple list. Add your seed to Supplies, and every time you plant a tray the app deducts what you used automatically, so your on-hand estimate stays current without you touching it. Enter what that seed cost and it feeds straight into your cost numbers. It even tells you roughly how many days until a seed lot runs out, and flags low stock before it becomes a problem mid-week.

Add a new tray and the app auto-calculates your sow weight based on the crop and tray size, so there is no math to do. You can also schedule backward from a target harvest date and let the app figure out the sow date for you. That is a real help when you are growing crops with different timelines side by side, like fast radish microgreens, steady broccoli, and sweet pea shoots.

Watering is built in too. You set your schedule, the app surfaces watering tasks when they are due, and it can push a reminder to your phone if you enable it. If you are still dialing in how much and how often, our complete watering guide covers bottom watering, top watering, and volumes from years of testing.

Microgreen Tracker push notification on a phone reminding that 4 trays still need evening watering

Microgreen Tracker My Grows screen showing active trays with estimated harvest dates and cost per tray

You can see all of this for yourself at www.microgreentracker.com. Poke around the free plan first, then upgrade only if and when you need more.

For growers who sell

This is where the Microgreen Tracker goes past a grow log and becomes a way to plan real production. One thing to be clear about: the business side is a production planner, not an invoicing system. It plans exactly what you have to grow, and you invoice however you already invoice. Here is what it does:

Customers with contact details, delivery day, notes, and order history, so you can grow a tray for a specific customer and keep fulfillment traceable from seed to sale.
Orders quoted the way wholesale actually works, in pounds and ounces, moving through a clear status lifecycle from pending to delivered.
Order-driven planting plans. Every crop on an order counts back from one shared harvest date, so a 12-day crop gets sown before an 8-day crop and both are ready the same morning. One button hands the whole staged batch to Add Tray, pre-filled.
Recurring and standing orders on a weekly or every-few-weeks cadence, generated automatically ahead of their sow window so a regular delivery is never a scramble.

There is also true cost-per-tray tracking that almost no grower does by hand. It breaks each tray down into seed, medium, fertilizer, and electricity, and it handles the parts most people skip: energy costing by wattage and runtime, fertilizer costing by concentration, and spreading a reusable silicone grow medium cost across every grow it serves. The cost tools and CSV or Excel export are the paid features, starting on the Starter plan, and your cost data is captured quietly in the background on Free, so nothing is lost if you upgrade later.

If selling is your goal, pair the app with our guide on how to sell microgreens and our breakdown of the best microgreens for restaurants. For a sense of how efficient this crop really is, our microgreens vs. mature vegetables comparison is worth a read.

Microgreen Tracker Grow Stats page showing supply inventory value for seeds, mediums, fertilizers, and equipment

Who it's for

From growing a single tray to thousands, this app was designed for every kind of grower.

Home growers who want to never forget to water and always know exactly when to harvest, without keeping it all in their head.
Side-hustle and market growers ready to track supply costs, plan production from their order book, and set up standing weekly deliveries.
Commercial farms running grow tracking, customers, orders, planting plans, and cost-per-tray in one place, with a team on shared accounts, at up to 2,500 trays.

If you grow at home, do not skip past the tracking and cost tools thinking they are only for sellers. One of the most satisfying things you can do is finally see what a tray of microgreens actually costs you to grow. The app adds up your seed, medium, and even the electricity your lights use, and gives you a real cost per tray. Put that next to the $4 or $5 a grocery store charges for a tiny clamshell of the same greens, and you can see in plain numbers exactly how much you are saving by growing your own. For a lot of home growers, that single number is the moment it clicks.

The data pays off in the grow itself, too. Because every watering, stage change, and harvest weight is logged, you build a personal record of what actually works in your space. You can look back and see that your radish came in heavier the time you sowed a little lighter, or that a crop did better with an extra day in blackout. Simple Mode keeps the daily screen down to just the crop, its stage, and when to harvest if you would rather not see the numbers day to day, while everything is still quietly recorded in the background for when you want it. It turns growing at home from guesswork into something you steadily get better at.

And the bigger you grow, the more the bulk actions earn their keep. Water, plant, harvest, or change the stage of many trays at once, even across different stages, and log a whole shelf in seconds instead of tapping through it tray by tray. Bulk watering and bulk harvests are what make handling hundreds of trays genuinely fast.

Microgreen Tracker dashboard showing weighted and in-light trays with ready to harvest flags beside microgreens

Want to go even deeper on learning how to grow microgreens? Our Microgreen Masterclass walks through every growing method and the business side from A to Z, and it pairs naturally with the Tracker.

Microgreen Tracker Grow Stats harvest performance showing radish yield, cost per tray, and A grade quality

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Microgreen Tracker free?

There is a free plan that is the full app on two active trays, including customers, orders, Grow Stats, barcodes, and push notifications. Beyond that it is a monthly subscription. The only two features that cost money are cost analytics and data export. You can start free at www.microgreentracker.com.

How do I get started with the app?

Create a free account, then head to the My Catalog section to add your first seed and grow medium, choosing whether to track just the name, the cost, or full inventory. Build a quick tray setup, plant your first tray, and log your first watering. Our getting-started video above walks through the whole flow from an empty account in a few minutes.

Is it worth using if I only grow for myself at home?

Yes. Beyond never forgetting a watering or a harvest date, the cost tools show you exactly what each tray costs to grow, including electricity, so you can see how much you save versus buying microgreens at the store. Every watering and harvest is also logged, so you build a personal record of what works best in your space and steadily improve your grows.

Do I have to know how much seed to use for each tray?

No. The app comes preloaded with suggested sow weights, phase timing, and days to harvest for all 80 crops and 284 varieties. Sow density is stored per square inch, so it scales the amount automatically to whatever tray size you pick, from a 10x20 down to a 5x5 or a custom size. Every number is a starting point you can override to match your own conditions.

Can I customize the growing stages and watering?

Yes. You can set how many times a day you water, adjust weighted and blackout timing, change days to harvest, and pick whether a tray runs with full guided tasks or just quiet logging. You can change these globally for a crop or just for a single tray, so the app fits the way you already grow.

What if I just want something simple?

Turn on Simple Mode. It reduces everything down to the crop, its current stage, and when to harvest, and hides grams, costs, and ratios. It is a per-person setting, so on a shared account one person can keep it simple while another uses the full toolkit on the same trays.

Does it track my seed and supplies?

Yes. Add your seed, mediums, fertilizer, and equipment to Supplies, and planting a tray automatically deducts the seed you used, so your on-hand estimate stays current. Add costs and it feeds your cost-per-tray numbers, with low-stock alerts and an estimate of how many days until a lot runs out.

Do I need to download anything?

No. It is a responsive web app that works in any phone, tablet, or desktop browser, and you can install it to your home screen for one-tap access. There is no app store involved. Just open it in your browser and sign in.

Does it send me reminders?

Yes. It sends web push notifications for watering and task reminders, free on every plan, at a morning and/or evening time you choose. It is push only, so there are no emails or texts, just a reminder that lands on your phone.

Can I use it to run a microgreen business?

Yes, on every plan. You get customers, orders, and order-driven planting plans that tell you exactly what to sow and when so several crops are ready on the same day. It plans your production. It does not handle invoicing or payments, so you invoice however you already do.

Can I track many trays at once?

Yes. Bulk actions let you water, plant, harvest, or change the stage of many trays at once, even across different stages. You can also print barcode labels and scan trays to build a selection fast, which is what makes scaling past a few dozen trays manageable. Higher plans raise the active tray cap up to 2,500.

Is it available in Spanish?

Yes. The whole app is available in English and Spanish at full parity, as a simple user setting.

Ready to take the guesswork out of your grow?

The Microgreen Tracker is the tool we always wished we had, built from real years in a real grow space. Whether you are growing your first tray or planning a week of deliveries, it keeps every tray on track and tells you exactly what to do today. Best of all, you can start free with no credit card required, and the free tier is the full app on two active trays. Come see it for yourself at www.microgreentracker.com.

Microgreen Tracker dashboard on a phone standing between trays of microgreens showing the day's watering tasks

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This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. We only link to products we use and recommend. See our full affiliate disclosure.

The Microgreen Tracker is a separate product with its own website at www.microgreentracker.com. All accounts, subscriptions, billing, and support for the app are handled there, not through our main store at www.onthegrow.net. You cannot start, change, or cancel a Microgreen Tracker subscription from onthegrow.net.

The information in this blog is based on our personal experience and is for educational purposes only. Local food safety, licensing, and business requirements vary by location. Always verify current rules with your local health department and department of agriculture before selling.

— On The Grow®, LLC

Happy growing!