I recently bought a packet of mixed sproutseeds from a health food shop.
I have no idea how to start them off & they came with useless instructions (sprout in jam jar!)
Can anyone elaborate on this & point me in the right direction?

many thanks...

Between layers of wet warm paper towels is a good way.

I used to sprout lentils for fun as a kid. We used a cup, place cotton balls in them and wet them down and threw the lentils on top.

What I find works for me (for mung beans and alfalfa anyway) is to soak in water overnight, then drain, rinse with fresh water and leave in the jam jar on a windowsill (not too sunny) or countertop. I don't screw the lid back on the jar, just place it on top to stop dust etc getting in, though you probably don't even need to do that.

Rinse and drain once or twice a day until the beans are eatable (will depend on your preference I think) - usually like 3 to 5 days I think.

Try not to leave too much water in the jar - drain as much off as you can to stop them rotting.

If you google 'sprouting' or 'sprouts' you will probably find loads more information.

You can also buy 'sprouters' but I've always found jam jars to work fine!

Good luck :)

Thanks for the info, will get sprouting...

I have had no luck with anything except alfalfa sprouts. I do it the way madder describes.

What I find works for me (for mung beans and alfalfa anyway) is to soak in water overnight

Do you mean soak the dry beans? I just saw mung beans (dried) at Mrs. Greens and was wondering about that. I LOVE mung bean sprouts :bobo:

Yikes - I'm terrible at keeping up with threads...

Meatless - what happens to everything else except alfalfa?

ilovemydragon - yep, dried mung beans. Most dried beans actually, I think.

Happy sprouting!!

Ooh, found the site I looked at before, lots of helpful information - www.sproutpeople.com

I'd recommend having a look around here and picking out the useful bits, trying it out and seeing what you come up with.

I'm not an expert by any means, but mung beans and alfalfa seem to be the easiest to grow, with just a jam jar (you don't need to buy expensive equipment) so it's a cheap experiment to see if you can do it :)

We used to do this with mung beans, and we used madder's method, except my mom stretched a piece of stocking over the top of the jar and screwed it in place with a lidless canning ring, so it's easy to rinse and drain the beans ever day and it always gets plenty of air.

Meatless - what happens to everything else except alfalfa?



They just don't look right... after a few days of growth the mung sprouts look rotty and knarled... maybe I'm just comparing them to how nice the ones at the store look, but they don't look like they're edible (although they may be). Also, anything other than alfalfa gets what looks like white mold on them... my dad said it might be little roots, and they seem to go away when washed (although maybe just flattened) but it's still enough to make me question if I should eat them or not.

We follow the instructions to a T so I'm not sure what the problem is, or if there even is a problem.

A small amount of mold won't hurt you. 3 things to try: 1. rinse twice a day. I use the 2-quart canning jars with rings and a piece of aluminum screen inside instead of a lid, or cheese cloth, or whatever. Or 3 times a day.

Also, rinse thoroghly, at least 3 times, before you soak. This will wash off many mold spores. Also, put a few drops of bleach in the water, during the 3rd rinse. Fill up a pot with water, put a few drops of bleach in it, place the beans in it, let sit for about a minute, drain the water out. Bleach kills mold wonderfully. If you have chlorinated water, you may not need to do this!

Also, when you rinse twice a day, add a drop or 2 of bleach to the rinse water, then drain as usual. Before eating, rinse again with bleachless water, tho if you at the sprouts after being freshly bleach-rinsed, you won't be harmed -- there is not enough bleach to harm you. Just make sure you use just a few drops.