Sprouting Easy or Complicated?

[Tara81]

What is this?
Do you mean, you have the heating on and it dries the air?

I don´t have heating. It never gets seriously cold here. The town never sees snow nor freezes. In my living room is it always warm...
In the summer the shear heat dries the sprouts so quick. Sometimes when I open the kitchen window it is like opening the over door

The other option is putting them in a cupboard with a damp towel draped over the colander (or whatever you use) instead of the fridge overnight.

Yeah the heat drys out the air, it’s one of the coldest winters this year too since the 1980s in my area. Storms, windchill of -20 to -31 Celsius every day !

 

[Zara]

someone posted that refrigerating the seeds can cause them to die.

See, I thought it was when the seeds dry out, they die...

 

[Tara81]

Never dumb. We can only learn by asking.
If your seed mix is good and not treated and nothing added, in any way it should sprout.
If you use a bag then be careful never seal it and make sure you drain well. And I would not try sprouting in the fridge. Too cold and stops growth.
But what to have said should work as soak seed.
I do know one guy that does use a plastic bag on a window sill to soak a soak and sprout mix for his 50 odd birds. and he does well. It is not something I would go with though.

Here’s the quote . Too cold stops growth :] maybe I misread

 

[Fuzzy]

Have I been doing it wrong ? Lol. I’ve been sprouting for three years, but every night I put the sprouts in the fridge to slow the growth. I don’t dry my sprouts out, I just keep growing them for 4-5 days then their all used up. They have tails about 1 cm after four days. I feed them after the first soak and rinse, as I’ve read the germination process has already started. I find if I don’t put them in the fridge at night they dry out overnight and don’t grow anymore.

Methinks whatever works for you.

Do you rinse them twice a day? Are they covered? Just wondering why they dry out? Mine are in containers so they don't dry out:

 

[Tara81]

Methinks whatever works for you.

Do you rinse them twice a day? Are they covered? Just wondering why they dry out? Mine are in containers so they don't dry out:

I have to rinse them every five hours or they dry out, rinsing 3-4 times a day. Where do you get that sprout tray? I use a stainless steel strainer from Walmart, but after a few months the strainer has small rust stains on the top near the plastic so I buy new ones. Hopefully metal mesh is ok for the sprouts I read somewhere it oxidizes the sprouts or something ?

 

[Fuzzy]

I'm in the UK, but just found one on the US Amazon :

Amazon.com : EASY SEED SPROUTER BRAND NEW SEEDLING PRODUCER GERMINATION 3 LEVEL, FREE SEEDS : Garden & Outdoor

Even though water runs through the whole lot, I prefer to rinse the contents of each tray well in a seive and just use the trays as a holding recepticle.

 

[Tara81]

I'm in the UK, but just found one on the US Amazon :

Amazon.com : EASY SEED SPROUTER BRAND NEW SEEDLING PRODUCER GERMINATION 3 LEVEL, FREE SEEDS : Garden & Outdoor

Even though water runs through the whole lot, I prefer to rinse the contents of each tray well in a seive and just use the trays as a holding recepticle.

Cool thank you! Does small seeds like millet go through the sieve?

 

[Fuzzy]

Cool thank you! Does small seeds like millet go through the sieve?

There is no sieve in the layers. They are just plastic grooved trays with a raised hole in one end of each tray. The holes are covered with a little red cap (see pic on Amazon) which stops any seed, however small, going down it. I have used it to sprout seed as small as red clover. But I don't use the drain hole as a draining system, and prefer to tip each layer into a large sieve for better rinsing. Or use the layers to house little plastic sieves of things like corn or sunflowers and pumpkin that sprout at different times to the rest of my sprout mix. I just find the layers keep the sprouts moist even in the heat of a hot summer.

I don't see any problem with you putting your sprouts in the fridge... it just slows the sprouting process right down. I have a system going where one lot is soaking, the next lot is sprouting whilst a further lot is ready for eating. Puting any in the fridge would slow my system down too much.

 

[clawnz]

Here’s the quote . Too cold stops growth :] maybe I misread

I wonder how old that comment of mine is?
At 2c in the fridge, they do not stop growing. Just very slow to develop.
So I am sorry to have mislead anybody.

Things have certainly changed. This is what I am now doing.
As I now sprout around 4kg in each batch. And it is summer here. I do keep them in the fridge, after the soaking period.

Last winter.
In winter I leave half out on the bench and use them first. And other half go in the fridge.
This gives me around 5days of sprouts.
I get away with rinsing all of them just once a day.
But to be sure twice is safer, for most.

 

[Tara81]

Thank you for clarifying clawnz and thanks for explaining your sprouter fuzzy !

 

[RachelB]

Hi everyone I have a question. I have recently bought Safflower seeds and oat groats. These are to hard for my birds to eat as they are. I have been looking on the internet to see feeding options for these seeds and I read about sprouting them. I already buy a specific sprouting mix for birds so am used to sprouting so I thought I would try to sprout these. I am 3 days in and nothing. Can anyone tell me the options for feeding these seeds can they just be sprouted, soaked, cooked or what????

 

[clawnz]

Hi everyone I have a question. I have recently bought Safflower seeds and oat groats. These are to hard for my birds to eat as they are. I have been looking on the internet to see feeding options for these seeds and I read about sprouting them. I already buy a specific sprouting mix for birds so am used to sprouting so I thought I would try to sprout these. I am 3 days in and nothing. Can anyone tell me the options for feeding these seeds can they just be sprouted, soaked, cooked or what????

Break a few open and check they have nice fleshy kernels. The other issue is if they are imported, where they have been treated to stop them sprouting
You can just soak them. That will do.
As to where they may sprout or not would depend on if they are viable or not.
I would just try sprouting them on their own, just to be sure. And that way they will not turn your other sprouts, if they are not good.
Depending on how many days you are keeping your normal sprouts. You could soak Safflower and oats, and then add them to your normal mix.

The only worry would be if you are keeping for more than a few days if, they are not good.

 

[Tara81]

I’m not sure oat groats sprout really well, I thought I read somewhere they don’t. I had no trouble sprouting safflower from hagens original seed mix maybe it’s the quality of the seed, organic seeds spout well.

@clawnz hey do you agree with this article? Little Feathered Buddies Health & Nutrition - Sprouting
I was hoping it wasn’t entirely true, as I really thought sprouting lowered fat from seeds substainally. I did a quick lookup on google of millet sprouts and couldn’t find the type of fats it had, just that it has no saturated, whereas millet dry seed does have some saturated fat.

 

[clawnz]

The fats available drop dramatically as they are used up in the germination process.
My understanding!

Little Feathered Buddies site maybe Carolyn Tielfan. I forget her real name. Harden or something like that.
If it is her page then you will find she rubbish's all real foods. And promotes pellets.
I have had many run ins with her over diets.
She also used to contradict Jason Crean.
So would not take too much advice from her as factual.
Though she does like to quote science at you.

 

[clawnz]

Quote
"Sprout nutrition differences - for nutrition geeks only!

Does sprouting improve the nutritional value of seeds and grains? The answer is that there are a lot of changes that look good on paper. But sprouting hasn’t actually been shown to make a difference in anyone's nutritional status, and in most respects the nutritional/chemical content of a soaked or lightly sprouted seed seems to be pretty similar to that of the dry seed. But maybe you can get a real improvement sometimes, if you get exactly the right seed at exactly the right moment in the sprouting process."

This sounds very much like her. She also had someone else. They claimed that some Asians only sprouted, as they had no real nutritional foods available.
It was a long time ago. And on a group by Scot Ecolls, who I have good respect for.
She talks rubbish. Proven time and time again in the real world feeding real birds.
So much so it is now being said that sprouts can be up to 45% of diet for some birds.

 

[Tara81]

Yeah I was under that understanding as well, then saw this site she quoted in another bird forum. Read it then felt kind of disappointed, my tiel is kind of fussy and loves sprouts but won’t eat the veges nearly as much. Not due to my lack of trying she still gets veges every single day

 

[clawnz]

Yep confirmed it is Her.
Best ignore her.
Jason Crean Avian Raw Whole food Nutrition.
Far better advice.

 

[Tara81]

At the bottom u can see :

Copyright 2014-2018 Carolyn Tielfan all rights reserved

 

[clawnz]

Yeah I was under that understanding as well, then saw this site she quoted in another bird forum. Read it then felt kind of disappointed, my tiel is kind of fussy and loves sprouts but won’t eat the veges nearly as much. Not due to my lack of trying she still gets veges every single day

Cockatiels are not into fruit too much.
Try apple.
Veges. kale, silverbeet, dandelion, sowthistle, fresh grass in seed. and things like Bottlebrush. they should like.

 

[clawnz]

At the bottom u can see :

Copyright 2014-2018 Carolyn Tielfan all rights reserved

I never got to the bottom of the page.
I stopped as soon as a got a wiff of the witches brew.

We are very old foe.
She has called me out for photoshoping or not even posting the same birds. When showing how much they can improve on real food, sprout based diets.
My pic of Sophie speaks volumes, for how they are on decent diets.