Re: Sprouting Update

[Guest guest]

How are you sprouting enough seed for all of the chickens?  What do you sprout

the seed in?

Donna

________________________________

To: 'Jean'

Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 7:53 PM

Subject: Sprouting Update

 

I switched my 'flock' to an all-sprout diet recently. (They are still

getting fruits, veggies, etc, but their grains/seeds are sprouted.)

The change is going well. It has been well-received, and everyone looks

GREAT! The eggs/shells look great. My pullets have taken off

growing/developing like I can't believe! (No idea if that is the new diet

or coincidence since I didn't separate the flock to have a control group.)

So far, the sprouting has gone well. We had a slight bump one day when I

poured the remaining contents of a box of almond milk on top of everything.

The box had been pushed into the back of the fridge, no idea how old it was.

The last bit to come out of the box was a glob that included mold so of

course, I did not want to feed anything in the pan. Since sprouts have to

be planned in advance that left things a bit tight but not really too much

of a problem - I substituted what had been planned for the NEXT meal and

immediately started sprouting a new batch with an emphasis on things that

sprout quickly (like lentils!) and we soon caught up (lesson learned - in

the future, I will pour something like that into clear glass first so I can

have a good look at it - not that I have leftover almond milk that often!).

I had planned to switch to using sprouting bags this weekend but am still

using half-gallon jars. (I'm still figuring out which grains do well

sprouted together and which don't so want the better visibility of the jars

for now). I do plan to switch to using bags soon.

and the Happy Hens

[Guest guest]

I am so sorry to hear your frustrations! Besides the heat, are you having

more humidity than usual? Did you reduce the quantity of peas you started

with? (Like us, they need more individual space when it is hot.)

Those are my only ideas. I deal with heat all summer but it is dry heat so

I do more soaking/rinsing (every 6 to 8 hrs instead of every 12 hours and I

soak most things for a good 20 mins or so each time I rinse). I hope

someone has a good suggestion for you!

I am so glad you are not giving up!

Jean

-----Original Message-----

From: sproutpeople [mailto:sproutpeople ] On

Behalf Of Melody

Hi and the Happy Hens.

Glad your flock is doing so good. My sprouts are NOT doing good. I have lost

more sprouts this week than I ever did in my 5 years of sprouting. We are

having SUCH a heat wave, maybe I did not rinse and drain well enough? Don't

know. Trying to salvage what I can.

But what really got to me is that my PEAS didn't shoot at all.

I've been doing pea shoots for a long time now. I have NEVER had a problem.

I had two Sure to Grow Mats left over and I took them and after soaking

overnight, I spread the peas on the mat, wet the mat, let it all drain in

the sink (I thought I drained it well, perhaps not well enough??).

Then I did EXACTLY what I've been doing since i began shooting peas and

sunnies. I placed a clear container pressed into the top of the peas, put

cans on them, covered the whole thing and put it on my shelf.

Usually in 3 days (that's what the instructions call for), I remover

everything, I see that the peas have taken root, I uncover everything and

they SHOOT UP. Takes over a week but they shoot up beautifully.

Well!!!! last night, to my amazement (and thank god I didn't wait the 3

days), I said to myself 'Let's see what they look like " .

What did they look like? Well the mat was completely drenched. The peas

were completely drenched, they were mushy, they never took root etc. I have

no idea what happened. i've used these peas before. These were not organic

but I've been doing these peas for quite a while.

Maybe it was a bad bag of peas, or I didn't drain the water enough?

I mean the mat was drenched and the peas never took root and they had these

white dots on them.

I have no idea what happened. I'm throwing out the rest of the bag of peas

and in the future I'll use organic peas.

That's all I can think of.

My poor sprouts and pea shoots.

I'm not putting up any more shoots of any kind until the heat wave passes.

Probably in September.

But I am NOT giving up on my sprouts.

Melody

[Guest guest]

Humidity? You ask about humidity?

All we have in Brooklyn NY in my neck of the woods is HUMIDITY.

This morning the temp was 70 and the humidity was 88%

This is not only killing my sprouts, it's killing my arthritis!!

lol

I'm glad I can laugh. I can't even move!!

lol, Melody