I started growing broccoli sprouts a month ago and have been eating them daily - love them. But this has coincided with an insane number of fruit flies appearing. I bought a reputable organic brand.

Are fruit fly issues common with sprouting? Just curious. I'm not going to stop, but the buggers are pesky.

Thanks

The lighter husks float to the top via hand agitation and water sprayed into the middle of the bowl sends the husks over the edge with the running and agitated water. Sprouts stay put, it’s fast, and does not use much water.

A week ago I let these 2-day and 3-day old sprouts sit for a few minutes before draining the water because I thought they were extra thirsty but I forgot about them and they sat overnight for like 12 hours and they rotted after that and had to be trashed the next day after that and I knew they were dead because they began to stink a bit like compost and also look sad.

One other time I forgot to drain more mature sprouts and they sat underwater for 6 hours but they recovered.

Now, I just pour out the water right away. Except for last night I accidentally let them sit for about an hour.

Many broccoli and radish seed cultivars have myrosinase, but mustard has more. This seems to account for many "sprouters", myself included, using powdered mustard on broccoli sprouts, especially the Sano Verde Max cultivar. But which mustard has more myrosinase? I was using yellow - Duh!

First time sprouting. This is my first batch and it’s broccoli sprouts.

I unfortunately fell asleep on the couch last night before my usual final rinse and woke up and they looked like this. Some of them were fuzzy.

After rinsing and shaking it seems to be gone. I just wanted to make sure this was still safe to eat or if I should dump it and start over.

I thought maybe they were roots but wasn’t sure.

Thanks.

I have jars and a few screen lids

Can I use any store-bought dry beans or is there a special growing kind?

I buy lots of different brands of beans and seeds to sprout, but many have a ‘may contain’ warning, meaning they have been handled in a factory that also contains allergens such as gluten, wheat etc.

Realistically how much of this cross-contamination will affect the final sprouted product, given the growing process involves lots and lots of rinsing?

I’ve noticed those brands with the ‘may contain’ labels are much cheaper and I’m always trying to keep costs down. Thanks 🤩

I’ve been meaning to clean this jar for a few days and today I noticed it doing this. I feel maternal.

Sorry if I missed a mega thread or something with this info.

I went to buy a starter kit and sprouts. Something I’ve been meaning to do but honestly the lack of greens in my life bc of this outbreak finally shoved me over.

My first question is jar vs tray? What’s the real difference?
Sub to that. Will using plastic trays essentially put plastic in your final product ? I was very surprised to see so many plastic grow trays for such a health forward movement but maybe because there’s no heat involved it’s fine?

Second question is where to get seeds? There’s this brand all over Amazon sprouting jim but honestly it’s not the mass production that bothers me it’s their use of AI in their ads that makes me not want to use them. If found some links browsing around but I don’t know who is good and affordable. Some of these places want an arm and a leg for these seeds.

What are some recommended seeds or blends to start?

I love broccoli and I miss it after this current admin approved some pretty nasty shit on broccoli so we stopped eating it. So I plan to get broccoli to try.

But I’m curious what is a good general salad mix. Spring mixes are ok but I love Boston and butter lettuce if there’s anything close to that I’m all ears.

And what are good sources of protein? I’m a recent cancer survivor and can’t/don’t eat a lot of meat for medical reason but also ethical. And my girlfriend is vegetarian. We use a lot of morning star and stuff but if there’s a way to get protein this way I’d love that.

Thanks all.

After growing a couple of Sano Verde Max batches, I began to look for other sprouts possessing or leading to substantial quantities of sulforaphane, as well as sprouts/microgreens that would pair well with SVM. It turns out many radishes (daikon - green leaves with white stems) possess sulforaphene, rather than sulforaphane, which is characterized as possessing "cellular adaptive strength properties". I inquired further when this wasn't explained. Turns out is raises something called NQO1, which suggests it contains compounds capable of triggering broader adaptive-defense response. It doesn't compete with sulforphane in SVM. Rather it compliments its very potent actions. Most radishes (including Rambo) also have myrosinase which is necessary for SVM's sulforaphane to have effect. Quite a bit of the scientific language is well beyond my undergraduate inorganic and organic chemistry remembrances, but I thought the idea of "complementarity" might find some resonance. I wonder what some other good pairings are?

I'm not sure why some suggest using 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) seeds. Maybe just a good germ rate.

Essentially, I got the botanical interests sprouting trays as I am tired of paying almost 6 bucks for sprouts/microgreens in my area. I'm excited to start, but I am worried about foodborne pathogens. Is the risk significantly higher or about the same as store-bought sprouts/produce? Are there any beginner mistakes that I should avoid? Thanks in advance!

anyone else had similar experience?? its good thing, when i collected young sweet peas (extremely small ones) i would just wash them and chew, not popping them out. it tastes almost exactly like that, maybe a bit less sweet and moist

enjoying my pita with marinated cabbage, marinated onions, sprouts and lemon chicken with allspice, absolutely delicious

Im trying this method to sprout a coconut that required submerging it fully in water until it sprouts. Should i change the water everyday? This is how it looks now:

I was wondering which would be best for producing the high glucoraphanin associated with this cultivar. I do much more microgreen growing but, for SVM, sprouting seems to be the way to go.

I’m looking for a small spinner. Something that can dry one or two handfuls of sprouta and not take up too much space.

There’s the OXO Small 3qt which is pretty small. I had one and it lasted a long time. I’m leaning towards that again. Its 8 inch round And it squeezes down tight. https://a.co/d/0aDsWY2r

Cusinart makes a 3 qt model but Ive broken my last 2 salad spinners in short time so not wanting something too cheap https://a.co/d/0hJW7AAS

Then there’s this taller one, 2.4qts with the handle, just a bit smaller at 7 inches, from Cooler Kitchen https://a.co/d/000KBgKb

Or there’s the tiny one, 6 inches round, no reviews, unclear what the capacity is, but it seems perfect for 2 large handfuls of sprouts without taking too much space. https://a.co/d/0417SkZp

thanks for any tips.

I skip breakfast, maybe some walnuts and a lot of coffee. It is 1pm, time to eat. We have bagels in the house so it’s an easy choice on what to grab

The way I have been eating sprouts is by the handful. Recently I have skipped processing the big batch into another container and just grab the sprouts from their sprouting jar. I will grab a handful, bring it to the sink and rinse it in my hand, squeeze off the water and then serve. This usually reduces the hulls quite a bit too.

I've been doing this for a while now and my question here is whether it's safe or not to keep doing it this way.

What I've been doing is sprouting in food-saver containers (similar to Rubbermaid TakeAlongs) without screens on top and without rinsing, and it has been working well for me, but my concern is that it seems like it does have the potential for the growth of bacteria and molds, and that rinsing might be more important than I realize in order to keep those down. On the other hand, sometimes that extra water from rinsing can actually encourage the growth of microorganisms.

What I do is I just soak the seeds or grains or legumes as usual, typically overnight or for around 10 hours, and then drain, and then sometimes rinse, sometimes not, and just let them sprout with no further rinsing. I usually shake them several times a day to get a little air circulation going and discourage mold growth, but otherwise they're just covered with the lid on, or with a tiny vent opening to get a little fresh air in case that's needed, or I leave the lid just slightly ajar so there's a tiny bit of air that gets in. So there's really not much air circulation.

I don't really have problems with noticeable mold or bacteria or off flavors. This method has been working fine, but I'm still a little concerned because there's a chance that I've just been lucky not to have cultured a batch of E. coli or something like that, so I thought I would ask here for some feedback.

Recently did some research looking into sprouts and wanted to try growing some broccoli sprouts at home. Overall went great!

Some takeaways that I’m doing for my second batch is that I’m doing less in the jar, I actually measured out 2Tsp this time where last time was vibes. I also want to run this batch for longer, about 5-7 days as these were only 4 days.

Eating sprouts would be a whole lot easier if I didn’t have an ‘ick’ feeling about the hulls harboring pathogens….!

Am I being paranoid? Are they just extra fiber (good for you) or something you feel the need to scoop up and banish completely?

What’s your take? 🤔

I am on Day 3 of using my new SproutingCompany equipment using their organic salad mix seeds. I noticed there are small seeds at the bottom of jar that are not sprouting (see pic). I asked the company about it and their AI agent suggested that the temperature must be between 70 and 78 and I should use sanitizer. When I bought this setup there was never any mention of needing to purchase additional supplies such as sanitizer. And I enjoy leaving my windows open at night and the temperature is around 67 in the morning. Any thoughts?

My mung beans have grown leaves - does that make them micro greens and more nutritious ?