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Clean Equipment is a Very Good Idea!
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Sprout School & Shop Sprouting Seed Info Center
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Clean is Good
All that you really need to know is noted on the Sprouter information pages, but we will put it here too.
Basically you should sterilize your Sprouter as often as you can. We do this every 3-4 crops in our home Sprouter, but when we grew professionally we sterilized in between EVERY CROP (and we used a lot higher bleach concentration). It is always best to have a clean Sprouter - that way your crop will have a head start. We suggest soaking your Sprouter for 10-20 minutes in bleach water (1 Tbs. of bleach per pint of water is good and strong according to the FDA and local Health Department.) and then scrubbing thoroughly.
You can also use food-grade Hydrogen Peroxide, and some folks like Grapefruit Seed Extract. Whatever works for you is fine - we do not like bleach, we hate it, but we know it to work and we use so little now.....
With a few of our Sprouters you may need to poke some seeds out of some tight places. We use a paper clip or toothpick for this task.
Be sure to rinse all of that bleach out - you don't want it on your seeds!
And - be careful not to burn yourself - bleach is caustic after all.
The Basics of Sprouting:
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- Seed Storage: Keeping your dormant seeds happy.
- Soaking: Turning a dormant seed into a nutritional powerhouse.
- Rinsing: Water is the key ingredient in sprouts. Use it liberally.
- Draining: It is essential that sprouts be drained thoroughly after rinsing. Sitting in a puddle is the most common cause of crop failure.
- Air Circulation: If your sprouts can’t breathe while growing - they can die. Don’t put them in a closed cabinet.
- Greening: Photosynthesis is cool, and so is Chlorophyll, but not all sprouts are into it, nor is it necessary. Sprouts of all colors are packed with flavor and nutrition!
- Cleanliness: Your seed should be clean and your sprouting device should be sterile. Wash your sprouter well between crops with dilute bleach (1 Tbs. of bleach per pint of water is plenty).
- Storage: Properly stored, fresh sprouts will keep for up to 6 weeks in your refrigerator but fresher is better. Never refrigerate wet sprouts.
- Eat More Sprouts! Grow More Often!
- Seed Storage: Keeping your dormant seeds happy.
SPROUTPEOPLE®
170 Mendell St.
San Francisco, CA 94124
Toll Free:
877/777-6887
(877/SPROUTS)
We only use the phone for emergencies.
Back in 2001 we were still using the phone. One day I was talking to a long-time customer while pushing my (then 4 year old) daughter on the swing in our backyard (this is what a mom n' pop business is like on the internet). It dawned on me that my priorities were severely messed up, so I stopped using the phone. I love to talk and I love to help, but my family would never see me if I picked up the phone again, and that's just wrong don't you think?!
The very best way to contact us is through E-mail =:-)
We are quite fast and VERY thorough. We love to help.
We have been an internet only business since 2001. We are not a big corporation. We are but 2 people, Mom n' Pop Sprout. We decided after years of juggling our family's (kids, dogs, cats and even our own) needs, and the needs of Sproutpeople, that we had to make more time for our kids, so we stopped talking on the phone. All calls go to voice mail and have since 2001.
We are very fast to fill orders and answer e-mail, and though we wish we could make the time to talk, we just can't seem to get more minutes into a each hour. We are many years older than when we started and our days are too short and made up of too few hours to do everything. This limitation in our business has not kept us from pleasing our customers, nor from growing (as we have every year since 1993). We do what we do as well as we can, and we think we do it very well indeed.
We appreciate your patronage more than we can say. We ask that you use the phone for emergencies only and that you search our site for answers before e-mailing us. This site is bigger than any 4 sprout books put together, it is always available and it is free, and we know that almost all questions are answered here.
Thanks again for your support and your many kind words.
Sproutpeople