Sprouting seeds

[sparrowsong98]

Ok all I want to know is how in the world do you get the seeds sprouted. I know my seeds sprout (the birds spill them in their bath, and by the next night the are staring to sprout) but when I try to grow them, they do not. So how do I do it?

[Rob]

I've tried twice now, using different methods, with no luck. I'm definitely not doing something right.

[Dave]

This has always worked for me:

1. Put your seeds in a kitchen sieve.
2. Rinse them well.
3. Set the sieve into a bowl of water, so the seeds are all the way covered in water. Match the sieve and bowl size, so the sieve rim rests on the bowl but the water reaches into the sieve from underneath.

4. A few hours later (8 worked for me) take them out of the water and rinse them well under the faucet.
5. Dump the water from the bowl, set the sieve with seeds over the bowl. Cover the bowl with a cloth. The idea here is for the seeds to stay wet but not too wet--the cloth seems to allow that.

6. Every few hours, rinse the seeds again. You're rinsing off any mold or fungus that started, plus re-oxygenating the seed mass. I rinse them in the morning, after work, and before bed. You can't rinse too often. If you can't rinse them at least that often, put them into the fridge so that mold and fungus won't grow on them.

In a day or two, you should see the roots just starting to come out of the seeds. That is the best time to use them for bird food. Keep them in the fridge after that, and keep rinsing them at least once a day.

[Rob]

Thanks Dave

The first time I tried, I didn't soak them first and the second time I only soaked them ha. I'll start a new batch tonight.

Do they need to be in sunlight at all?

[kyle]

Rob
No sunlight the seeds are more nutritious before they sprout green. I do them the same as Dave and it has always worked for me. You can also soak them overnight and serve them as soaked seed. Or soak them and then let them sit for a day till they begin to sprout.

[Rob]

Thanks kyle

[kyle]

Rob
Another thing I should mention is I rinse my seeds often as they soak. And always make sure to smell them. When sprouted properly they smell sweet and fresh. If you smell anything off don't serve them.

[Rob]

kyle
Yep. I've read about anti-bacteria products that you can add to the water to help with that. The soaked seeds smelt fine when I gave them, and I only left them out for a couple hours (wasted a lot of seed, but better safe than sorry).

[sparrowsong98]

Dave weird question, but would it work if I farmed the seeds, and the collected the heads later when they were at that point?

[Dave]

sparrowsong98, I don't see why not.

You might collect seed heads when you think they're ripe, and put them into a paper bag. When they fall off the head, they're in the bag and easy to collect.

An old trick: float seeds in water. Viable seed sinks due to the density, and non-viable seed floats. This isn't scientific but seems to work for sprouting purposes.

[sparrowsong98]

Dave same applies for hazelnuts as far as the last part goes. Never knew it worked for seeds though.

[Rob]

Dave

Proud to report I had success sprouting seeds

[Dave]

Rob, glad to hear it.

The only thing that can go wrong is if they aren't rinsed often enough. You can just put them in the fridge if you are away and have to miss the rinsing.

[Celeris]

I've been using this contraption for sprouting seeds for both me and the birds. It comes with directions that do advise dumping the bottom tray and adding fresh water 3-4 times daily (rinsing). Haven't had any trouble with it and have been playing with it since May.

Deluxe Kitchen Crop 4-Tray Seed Sprouter by Victorio