Calcium Hypochlorite for Seeds Disinfection and Watter Irrigation Testing

[Guest guest]

Dear sprout growers friends,

My name is Anca and I have just join the group.

We started growing wheatgrass & sprouts for our use, but soon more people wanted

to buy from us. We have just started a small business of growing whaetgrass and

sprouts, all organic, as trained by Bergonzi.

Now, the MDA (Michigan Department of Agriculture) approached us and asked us to

stop growing and selling until we will comply with the FDA regulations. Two of

them are the most challenging:

1.) Disinfecting the seeds with Calcium Hypochlorite Solution of 20,000 ppm.

We do not know what to expect if we do this.

Does anyone of you have experience with this process? Are the seeds still

germinating after that? Are the sprouts still be organic (our seeds are

organic).

2.) Water dripping & testing.

We have the trays on a rack, therefore when we water them the water drips from

top to bottom. Well, this is not acceptable, causing contamination and they want

us to use closed trays or some other tray underneath to catch the water. But we

know how important the dripping is and circulation.

If we are still going to test the irrigation water coming out of the tray, why

they can not drip?

Does anyone know about these two requirements? We really want to continue to

grow organic sprouts and supply people here locally, but these requirement seem

to make it very difficult.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thank you all in advance,

Anca