Sprouting Seeds with NO Mold

[gtaus]

This summer I've been having a problem with mold growth on my Wheat Grass sprouts. After some conversation with @gtaus in this long thread about my sprout experiments I came to the conclusion that the mold was actually on the seed shell. After some searching I found that some universities use a 5% Sodium Hypochlorite (household bleach) and water to sterilize seeds before germinating them. So I thought it was worth a try as I was just having a terrible time with mold... well it did look rather cool under the microscope but I didn't want to feed my hens mold.

I thought this needed a new thread so it's not lost in my experiments thread.

The method I use to eliminate mold from the seeds prior to sprouting them is to soak them for ~30 or so minutes in one cup of water with 1 tablespoon of bleach.
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Then I use a small strainer to rinse the seeds off well. I like the small strainer as it's easier to use under the faucet.
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Then I put them in my usual container and soak them overnight in a solution of Hydrogen Peroxide ( 1 ounce) and water (about 3/4 gallon).
I soak the rest of the containers for ~1 hour or so each morning.
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This is day 8 and 9 on the left. The blue sticker shows me which one I started with the sterilization process.
These also get soaked for ~1 hour or so each morning in the Hydrogen Peroxide solution.
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And the money shot! NO MOLD!
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JT

Excellent outcome!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

WOW thanks for this thread!! I sprout my home grown black beans and had some mold on them. It didn't occur to me this was likely on the bean itself. I did have to toss some pods due to mold when shelling them, and it's likely some pods had mold that wasn't as visible to the human eye. I just rinsed them and cooked them anyways since I always cook them in a pressure cooker twice (double cooking helps with gas issues ) I'll try your quick bleach water soak.

 

[gtaus]

And then you get a bag of wheat grass seeds that grows mold no matter what you do.

Pretty much what I discovered in growing barley fodder. My first 50# bag of barley seed had almost no mold growth at all. So I was convinced that I had dialed in everything perfect for growing fodder. I never even used bleach on that supply.

My second bag of fodder was a total disaster and all my fodder bins were full of mold. Same procedures to grow fodder as the first bag, but the second bag only grew mold. So those fodder bins full of mold ended up in the pallet compost bins as I did not want to feed that stuff to my chickens. I used the rest of that 50# bag of barley seed as dry seed and mixed it in with my chicken scratch. So, no waste.

I talked to my feed company and waited until they got a new supply of barley seed from a different source. My third 50# bag of barley seed was almost as good as my first bag, but I did have to do an initial soak with bleach. However, I ended up with great fodder from that third bag.

IMHO, the mold issue is mostly caused by mold on the seed to start. If your seed is growing mold, and lots of it, then you are probably better off writing off that supply of seed and mixing it into your chicken scratch. The chickens will still love to eat the dry seeds. But I will no longer waste my time and effort on mold covered seed that only needs water to go bad. Just mix it into my chicken scratch and get a different batch/bag/supply for growing fodder.

My third bag of barley seed grew a small amount of mold, so I was able to correct that with an initial soaking with bleach and then maybe a bleach treatment every few days to kill any growth. So my third bag was fine with some treatment, but my second bag was hopeless.

What I learned from my bad second bag of barley is that my feed mill company buys seeds from local farmers, and they might be buying this year's crop, or maybe getting a discount price for buying someone's old stock in a storage silo that they need to get rid of. Probably does not make much of a difference for selling it as dry feed, but if you intend to grow fodder with it, then mold becomes an issue. My local mill only sells barley as dry feed quality, so no guarantees on sprouting percentage and/or mold free growth for fodder. Again, if I get a bad bag of seed that grows mold instead of fodder, my lesson was to give up on that seed and use it my chicken scratch. Then I need to find/wait for a new supply from a different source and hope that the next batch is better.

 

[jthornton]

I was still having random issues with mold and after some searching came across the True Leaf Market and after reading some growing instructions on their web site I decided to try it their way sorta. So I ordered some wheat grass seeds and their PH test kit. They said micro greens like a PH of 5.5 and wheat grass sprouts are micro greens so why not.

I tested my water and it's PH is 7.5, so I used 3cc of their PH Down in my almost gallon container to get the PH down to 5.5 or so. I also started adding a pinch of Azomite to the water. I stopped using hydrogen peroxide in the soak water as well. I'm still soaking the old seeds in bleach for 30 minutes just to be sure until I run out of them.

What I noticed was by harvest time (7 days) the roots were 2-3 times longer than before and the wheat grass was thicker and greener. I actually had to pull clumps apart while before they would just fall apart. Also before I had a lot more seeds that didn't sprout or only sprouted a tiny bit. Now only a few seeds are on the bottom of the tray at wheat grass rodeo time. And not one moldy seed so far... I'll keep everyone posted.

JT

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

I was still having random issues with mold and after some searching came across the True Leaf Market and after reading some growing instructions on their web site I decided to try it their way sorta. So I ordered some wheat grass seeds and their PH test kit. They said micro greens like a PH of 5.5 and wheat grass sprouts are micro greens so why not.

I tested my water and it's PH is 7.5, so I used 3cc of their PH Down in my almost gallon container to get the PH down to 5.5 or so. I also started adding a pinch of Azomite to the water. I stopped using hydrogen peroxide in the soak water as well. I'm still soaking the old seeds in bleach for 30 minutes just to be sure until I run out of them.

What I noticed was by harvest time (7 days) the roots were 2-3 times longer than before and the wheat grass was thicker and greener. I actually had to pull clumps apart while before they would just fall apart. Also before I had a lot more seeds that didn't sprout or only sprouted a tiny bit. Now only a few seeds are on the bottom of the tray at wheat grass rodeo time. And not one moldy seed so far... I'll keep everyone posted.

JT

Has your fodder been growing well with no mold? I really like that you are doing these experiments and posting. If you are doing well with the "True Leaf" Method, I may try that. Thanks for doing this.

 

[jthornton]

Has your fodder been growing well with no mold? I really like that you are doing these experiments and posting. If you are doing well with the "True Leaf" Method, I may try that. Thanks for doing this.

Yes, I almost never see any mold maybe a couple of small batches since I started to acidify the water down to 5.5 PH. I harvest the wheat grass on the 6th day.

JT

 

[jthornton]

Interesting turn of events here, spring rains started and it changed the chemistry of the ground water (I'm on well water). Whole trays started having poor germination and slow growth, so bad I was tossing out trays. I reduced the PH Down from 3cc to 1cc per gallon of h2O and like magic the sprouts took off again and started growing nice thick green healthy sprouts for the hens.

JT

 

[RoyalChick]

Interesting turn of events here, spring rains started and it changed the chemistry of the ground water (I'm on well water). Whole trays started having poor germination and slow growth, so bad I was tossing out trays. I reduced the PH Down from 3cc to 1cc per gallon of h2O and like magic the sprouts took off again and started growing nice thick green healthy sprouts for the hens.

JT

I just came across this thread and want to thank you for it. This winter I gave up sprouting because I was so exasperated from all the mold.
I am going to try again using the methods you post about here.

 

[gtaus]

@jthornton , thanks for you updates. Have a few comments/questions for you.

Whole trays started having poor germination and slow growth, so bad I was tossing out trays.

I hope by "tossing out trays" is that you mean the moldy trays go straight to a compost bin, or somewhere the worms can at least eat the fodder not fit for chicken consumption. Since I only grow fodder in our winter months, there is not much I can do if I got a moldy tray of fodder not fit for the chickens. So it would just get tossed into the pallet compost bin, where at least it would eventually be composted. Otherwise, I think I might be able to bury a moldy tray of fodder into the chicken run compost system, where the worms could eat the fodder and at a later time the chickens could dig up the worms and eat them.

I reduced the PH Down from 3cc to 1cc per gallon of h2O and like magic the sprouts took off again and started growing nice thick green healthy sprouts for the hens.

OK. I am trying to follow you here. Did you find that your well water PH level was going too low? I think you stated your goal was to have a PH level of 5.5 for growing fodder, and that you were using some chemical called PH Down to reduce your well water PH level from 7.5 down to 5.5. If I understand you correctly, your well water PH level has gone down from 7.5 due to spring rains so you had to reduce your chemical additives that lowered the PH level.

I am trying to understand exactly what you are doing, first of all because I find it interesting, but secondly, I also have well water and I wonder if my water PH level changes through the seasons. I had not considered water PH level for my fodder system, but you seem to indicate it makes a big difference. I think that is important.

 

[RoyalChick]

@jthornton , thanks for you updates. Have a few comments/questions for you.



I hope by "tossing out trays" is that you mean the moldy trays go straight to a compost bin, or somewhere the worms can at least eat the fodder not fit for chicken consumption. Since I only grow fodder in our winter months, there is not much I can do if I got a moldy tray of fodder not fit for the chickens. So it would just get tossed into the pallet compost bin, where at least it would eventually be composted. Otherwise, I think I might be able to bury a moldy tray of fodder into the chicken run compost system, where the worms could eat the fodder and at a later time the chickens could dig up the worms and eat them.



OK. I am trying to follow you here. Did you find that your well water PH level was going too low? I think you stated your goal was to have a PH level of 5.5 for growing fodder, and that you were using some chemical called PH Down to reduce your well water PH level from 7.5 down to 5.5. If I understand you correctly, your well water PH level has gone down from 7.5 due to spring rains so you had to reduce your chemical additives that lowered the PH level.

I am trying to understand exactly what you are doing, first of all because I find it interesting, but secondly, I also have well water and I wonder if my water PH level changes through the seasons. I had not considered water PH level for my fodder system, but you seem to indicate it makes a big difference. I think that is important.

I also have well water and had never thought about the PH level, so also interested. I won't be sprouting until winter - not much point right now as there are greens in abundence all over the place!