How To Sprout in a Tray Sprouter

Now that we’ve discussed why you would want to sprout and the basics you’ll need for sprouting, we’ll start the detailed look at the different types of sprouters with sprouting a “zesty sprout mix” in a tray sprouter. Any green leafy type sprout will work the same as the zesty mix I grew (alfalfa, fenugreek, clover, radish, broccoli, etc). My sprouter is a Sprout Master, but the process is the same for any sprout tray whether the tray is round, square, rectangle, large, small, etc.  Ready?  Let’s get sprouting.

Step 1: Soak your sprout seeds. I usually do 6-8 hours or overnight.  You can do this in a jar or bowl or something similar.  You want your seeds to be covered with at least 3 times the volume of water as seeds.  This is a zesty sprout mix that has radish, fenugreek, clover, and alfalfa mixed together.

Step 2: Drain the seeds, and put them in the sprouter tray. The trays  have drain holes at the bottom, so you can just pour the whole bowl of soaking seeds and water into the tray and let the water run through into your sink.  Try to get the seeds fairly even across the bottom, but don’t stress about it too much.  They won’t stay where you put them anyway once you start rinsing them.  The Sprout Master trays have dividers so you can grow more than one variety at a time and/or stagger plantings and for this batch I’m only using the one side.

Step 3: Rinse the seeds and let them drain. I’ve found my kitchen faucet sprayer works well for keeping a fairly even distribution of seeds across the bottom of the tray.  Larger seeds like wheat and mung beans don’t have as much tendency to bunch up.  But really, don’t worry too much about making them even, you just don’t want them all piled on each other in one corner of the sprout tray–they’ll be happier with a little space.  When you’re done rinsing them off, put the sprouter together (they usually have a drip catcher tray underneath and a lid for the top of the sprout tray).

Step 4: Find a dark place to put your sprout tray where you won’t forget about it. I like a cupboard that has products I use frequently.  This one holds the baby food.  You want a dark place because it encourages the seeds to sprout and grow looking for the light.  We’ll green them up later.

Step 5: Rinse and drain your seeds 2-4 times a day.  You don’t want them to dry out, and you in humid areas don’t want them growing mold, so rinse them to keep them clean and moist.  I’ve found that twice a day works fine for me in the tray sprouter.  Usually breakfast and dinner time when I’m in the kitchen anyway.

You’ll notice your seeds sprouting within a day or maybe two depending on the variety.  The rate of growth depends on temperature and whether they are kept moist or not.  I’ve found sprouts mature more quickly in the summer when my house is warmer than they do in winter.  Just keep on rinsing, draining, and stashing them in the cupboard until they have little leaves on them.  Most leafy sprouts this takes from 5 to 8 days, so plan accordingly.

Feel free to test a few along the way.

Step 6: Add the Green. Once your sprouts have little leaves forming and are as long as you’d like them to be, bring them out into the sunshine for a few hours and let the leaves green up.  You can eat them any time.  Just a warning, though–if you set them out around lunch time to green, they may not live to get all the way green!

Step 7: Storage. If you don’t eat them all at once, you can store them in your refrigerator, usually right in the sprout tray you grew them in.  They’ll last refrigerated for about a week.  This batch didn’t make it to the refrigerator, the sprout munchers ate them all.

For reference, I started with 2 TB of sprout mix and ended up with that 1/2 tray full of sprouts.  I didn’t measure the final product, but I’d guess 3-4 cups of sprouts counting all the ones that got eaten along the way.

Keep preparing!
Angela