Max Power Microgreens transitioned from coco coir to a more streamlined production system built around Jiffy Gel. Today, 95% of production is in Jiffy Gel, harvests are about two days faster on average, and medium preparation and sowing save 4–5 labor hours per week.
Jiffy Gel is a plant-based growing media developed for Controlled Environment Agriculture, designed to simplify production while supporting consistent crop growth.
Founded in 2022, Max Power Microgreens is a commercial urban farm serving restaurants and chefs across the Greater Seattle area. Built around the idea of growing high-quality products close to the customers they serve, the farm focuses on freshness, consistency and local production.
Max Power Microgreens grows a wide variety of microgreens, along with petite greens, edible flowers and herbs, with most products harvested within 24 hours of delivery. This close connection between production and the kitchens they supply is an important part of the business—but as demand grew, so did the need for a production model that could support that same level of quality at a larger scale.
For founder Sergey Dunayev and business partner Clemens Butz, growth could not simply mean adding more trays and racks. Within the limited footprint of an urban farm, they needed a system that was more efficient, consistent and scalable, while making better use of the space and time already available to them. Standardizing production as much as possible was also becoming increasingly important as the operation grew.
That search eventually led them to Jiffy Gel.
Simplifying the production system
Before Gel, Max Power Microgreens primarily relied on coco coir as its growing media. As production increased, so did the time spent preparing media, filling trays, watering crops, cleaning trays and disposing of used substrate.
For Sergey and Clemens, finding a coco coir alternative was not simply about replacing one type of growing media with another. They needed a system that could simplify daily production, improve consistency and make better use of the farm’s limited space.
“We realized that if we wanted to continue growing the business, simply doing more of the same wasn't the answer,” Sergey explains. “We needed to simplify the production system itself.”
That led the team to begin testing Jiffy Gel across a range of microgreen crops. As a 100% soilless growing media, Jiffy Gel offered a different approach to production, particularly around watering, media preparation and day-to-day handling.
After extensive side-by-side trials, Gel moved beyond the testing stage.
Today, virtually all—approximately 99%—of Max Power Microgreens’ production is grown in Jiffy Gel. Of more than 400 trays currently in production, only six to eight remain in coco coir.
“At this point, Gel isn't an experiment for us anymore—it's our primary production system.”
Measurable gains in production
One of the most noticeable changes has been the reduction in crop time. Across production, the team is seeing many crops become ready for harvest two to three days faster, although results vary by crop.
For example, arugula is now ready in approximately five days instead of the usual seven, while broccoli is ready in approximately six days instead of eight.
In a fast-cycle crop like microgreens, even a single day can make a meaningful difference. Shorter production cycles allow the team to move trays through the growing space more quickly, increasing the productivity of the farm’s existing footprint.
The transition has also resulted in several other operational improvements:
- 4–5 labor hours saved each week from medium preparation and sowing alone
- Harvests occurring up to 15–25% sooner on several crops
- Higher yields per tray on many crops
- Watering has also been reduced from approximately 3-4 hours to about one hour per week
- Approximately 50% reduction in compost volume
- Faster harvesting and tray cleaning, saving approximately four to six hours of hired labor each week
- More consistent production from crop to crop
- Production capacity increased from approximately 360 to 480 trays within one month, without expanding the farm’s footprint
- Early indications of significant energy savings
That consistency is especially important as Max Power Microgreens continues to grow. Creating repeatable processes across different crops makes production easier to manage, easier to train and ultimately more scalable.
The ability to make better use of the existing space has also been particularly valuable. By reducing both the watering infrastructure required and the need for daily physical access to every tray for watering, Max Power Microgreens can use its growing area more efficiently and fit more racks and trays into the same footprint.
The transition is also coinciding with a sustained decline in energy costs. The farm’s electricity bill decreased by 14.8% from July to August and then by a further 19.1% in September. Overall, the September bill was 31.1% lower than the July bill. Although weather, production volume, and other factors can also affect monthly electricity use, this continuing trend is consistent with lower humidity, shorter dehumidifier and cooling-system runtimes, and reduced pump use following the transition to Gel.
For Sergey and Clemens, however, efficiency has meant more than increasing output.
With fewer repetitive production tasks demanding attention each day, they have been able to delegate more responsibilities to their team and have more time to work with chefs, develop new products, improve their systems, and focus on growing the business. It has also helped give them something that can be difficult for small business owners to find: actual time away from the farm.
“Efficiency isn't only about reducing costs or producing more,” Sergey says. “It also means building a business that we can enjoy running for the long term.”
Looking at the entire growing system
For other microgreens growers considering changes to their production systems, Sergey recommends looking beyond the cost of the growing media itself.
“Calculate the time you and your team spend preparing substrate, filling trays, watering, harvesting, cleaning, disposing of used media, managing waste, and maintaining watering equipment. Then consider the energy use and the production space occupied by that infrastructure. That is where the real cost is.”
For Max Power Microgreens, Jiffy Gel became more than an alternative substrate.
“It changed the workflow around the crop and brought us closer to becoming a truly resource-efficient and environmentally sustainable operation.”
Designed for Controlled Environment Agriculture, Jiffy Gel, developed in partnership with Veritas Substrates, is a plant-based growing media that can support crops including microgreens, leafy greens and herbs while offering a different approach to watering, automation, waste management and food safety.
Max Power Microgreens continues to refine and standardize its growing protocols, but the transition has already helped the farm build a simpler and more scalable production model as it prepares for its next stage of growth.
A space for the microgreens community
Microgreens growers operate differently from many other horticultural producers, with production systems and challenges that don't always translate one-to-one from other areas of growing.
To help bring this specialized community together, Jiffy will host Microgreens Grower Day – Microgreens, Macro Impact on December 2, 2026. The digital event will bring together growers, suppliers and industry speakers to share practical knowledge, discuss challenges and explore solutions specifically for microgreens production.
Join us on December 2 for Microgreens Grower Day – Microgreens, Macro Impact.
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