Horticultural Strategies for Enhancing Yield and Quality in Hydroponic Microgreens: A Comprehensive Review

Microgreens have emerged as a nutrient-dense specialty crop with great potential to address global nutritional challenges through urban farming and controlled-environment agriculture. While interest in enhancing both the yield and nutritional quality of hydroponic microgreens is growing, a comprehensive synthesis of horticultural strategies is still lacking. This gap hinders the development of integrated approaches needed for efficient and targeted quality improvement. This review systematically examines the current literature on horticultural interventions for improving hydroponic microgreen production, focusing on nutrient solution management, light environmental manipulation, substrate selection, genetic potential, and emerging synergistic approaches. Nutrient solution optimization, including appropriate concentration, timing, and targeted biofortification with essential elements, enhances both productivity and nutritional density. Light spectral manipulation, particularly through red-to-far-red ratios or blue-light supplementation, enables precise control of morphology and the accumulation of bioactive compounds. Substrate physicochemical properties influence nutrient availability and uptake, while genetic variability among species and cultivars provides the foundation for biofortification efforts. Emerging approaches including biostimulant application, integrated pre- and post-harvest practices, and phenotyping and artificial intelligence integration offer additional avenues for sustainable quality enhancement. This review provides a framework for optimizing hydroponic microgreen production systems to simultaneously achieve high yield and enhanced nutritional quality.