How to Grow Seeds

Growing sprouts from beans (bean sprouts), vegetables, seeds, and grains is a simple way to get a quick boost of nutrients from simple ingredients. By growing seeds from alfalfa or lentils, you can increase the nutritional content and improve the variety of delicious dishes for daily meals. They are so delicious and amazing that you can grow them at home with just ingredients and simple steps. Learn the basic steps and specific instructions on how to grow sprouts from beans, grains, nuts, and even how to grow your own sprouts. See Step 1 for more information.

Table of Contents

Instructions and Basic Ingredients

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Choose a nut to start with. Organic seeds, beans or nuts can all be sprouted, using the same basic method. Make sure you choose organic, or pesticide-free seeds so that the sprouts are edible. Many commercially available seeds are coated with fungicides, pesticides, and other chemicals that you won’t want to eat. Try a variety of seeds and beans to see which sprouts you like best. It only costs a small amount to prepare and buy ingredients. Check out the following options:

Nuts like sesame, sunflower, buckwheat, or pumpkin
Beans like chickpeas, lentils, chickpeas, red beans, or peas
Whole grains such as barley, corn, wheat, quinoa, amaranth or rye
Vegetable seeds such as alfalfa, clover, turnips, kale, cabbage, or fenugreek

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Sow the seeds in a jar filled with filtered water and leave overnight. Add enough water to cover the seeds and let them sink. Cover with cheesecloth, or mesh fabric such as: leather socks, drapes, any fabric that can cover the top of the jar and absorb water perfectly.

Any clean glass jar is ideal for growing seeds. Old glass jars or other types of glass jars can be reused to grow seeds. If your glass jar still has the metal ring around its mouth, you can use it to hold the mesh back, otherwise you can use a hair tie, elastic band, or other rubber band to do this. .
If you want to grow sprouts like wheatgrass or pea shoots, you’ll need a vegetable bed, soil, and time.

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Drain the soaked seeds and wash the sprouts twice daily. Generally, sprouts should be washed every morning and evening, then drained to promote germination, without taking them out of the jar.

When growing sprouts, you need to stir them in water after a few days to separate the shells and help the seeds germinate.

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Maintain a suitable environment for germination. You need to control humidity by washing the sprouts periodically, but you also need to maintain an even temperature to promote germination. Keep the seeds at a temperature of about 10 – 20°C.

If your home is particularly cool during a particular time of year, you may need an extra heater. Place an 8-watt reptile tank heater under the sprouting jar, this will eliminate the need for cooking and prevent damage to seed germination.
Some sprouts like radish sprouts grow better in the dark, but they also need light after germination to be green and grow larger. Generally, most sprouts are well suited to daylight and normal room temperature conditions.

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Use fresh sprouts immediately. Once satisfied with the length of the sprouts, enjoy them with sandwiches, salads, or soups. The sprouts can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, but they will slowly brown and become slightly viscous, which means it’s time to plant more sprouts and throw them away.

Each different type of seed sprout will be slightly different in terms of time and proper care, when soaked and sprouted for several hours. Some may continue to grow in pots for a few days to grow taller and thinner, while others will need to be planted in beds to grow better and tastier. Take a look at the specific options to learn more about the specific seed you want to plant. ^{[1] X Research Source}
Some sprouts need to be peeled a few days after germination. Toss the sprouts under water to separate the shells, then drain.

Sprouts from Nuts

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Start with an optional cup of nuts. Any edible organic seed is perfect for growing seeds. The soaking process helps the seeds peel off to begin to germinate, resulting in a nutritious snack that’s not very different from the original seeds, but packed with nutrients.

Edible seeds such as pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seeds are popular sprouted seeds.
Vegetable seeds such as clover, alfalfa, turnips, cabbage, fenugreek, or kale have spongy and thin sprouts that are packed with trace nutrients. These are the most common sprouts used with sandwiches, small and light vegetable handfuls.

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Soak in cold water for 4-6 hours. Measure the amount of seeds into the pot, then pour in filtered water, cover the seeds about 3 cm. If the seeds are dusty, or soiled, wash them before adding water.

Soak the seeds for 4 hours at room temperature. Putting it directly on the kitchen table is appropriate. Then drain off the water and let the seeds begin to sprout. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Let the seeds germinate for 12-24 hours. Once drained, let stand for about 1 day. Seeds will begin to bloom as they begin to grow, and you are doing a great job planting seeds. After a few days, they were ready to eat!

After 1 day, remove the seeds from the jar and place them on a paper towel to dry completely. Place in a bowl or other container and store in the refrigerator. They can be stored for a few days, and are already edible.
Normally, sesame seeds will be quite bitter if left for longer than 6 hours. Take them out sooner, then drain completely.

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Let the seeds germinate for about 6 days. Vegetable seeds will take a little longer to fully germinate to the length you want, about 5 days. They can be eaten at any stage in the process, but the sprouts will be young and more nutritious after a few days. Continue to wash the seeds regularly and let them dry, preferably with the jar upside down so excess moisture can escape and keep the sprouts fresh.

Use your eyes and nose to check the freshness of the sprouts. They will begin to turn brown and have a slightly disinfecting odor.

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Consider eating nut sprouts directly. Nuts like almonds, chestnuts, and oilseeds are often soaked for a few hours to “activate” and make them more nutritious. The nutritional benefits of soaking nuts to trigger germination before eating have yet to be validated, but if you want to give it a try, it’s pretty easy to do.

Soaked nuts are more nutritious, but this is not true of nuts that have been toasted.

Bean sprouts

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Choose one or more beans to plant. Perhaps the most popular and delicious sprouts are bean sprouts. Large bean sprouts are rich in nutrients and taste great, contain many good and delicious trace nutrients. Popular beans for growing bean sprouts include:

Lentils, especially green or brown
Chickpeas or garbanzo beans
Green beans, widely sold in stores as “bean sprouts”
Peas

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Soak beans in warm water. Start with about half a cup of dried beans (they can swell as they absorb water and peel off). The water shouldn’t be too hot, but it should be warm to the touch, like a cup of aged tea. Soak the beans for at least 12 hours in the sprouting jar.

Since the beans will bloom a lot, make sure that there is enough room in the jar and that the water level is a few centimeters above the beans for them to be fully submerged.

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Let the beans germinate within 3 days. Wash the beans twice daily, turning the jar upside down to drain as the bean sprouts develop. Occasionally on the first or second day, you need to shake the vial gently to remove the shell. You can add a little water and gently invert the jar to remove them. Don’t worry too much if the shell is still left. If needed you will be able to take them out before eating.

Particularly, red beans need up to 4 days to fully germinate and taste best. Give them more time.

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Drain the bean sprouts and store in the refrigerator. Once the germination period is over, you can either take them out of the jar, let them dry, and discard the excess peel that has separated, or you can leave them as is (they’re already edible, although a bit mushy). bitter). Bean sprouts can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week, if you keep an eye on them and keep them dry.

Bean sprouts are especially delicious when used as a key ingredient in broth-based soups, such as Vietnamese pho or other spicy dishes. They also go well with salads and sandwiches.

Grain Sprouts

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Choose a grain to sprout as the raw material. Since whole grains cannot be digested without being processed, this makes it difficult for raw food lovers to enjoy them. However, cereal sprouts are easy to digest and nutritious. Without processing, you can enjoy whole grains like rye, wheat, barley, or corn without baking or breaking down the micronutrients inside.

Grain sprouts help neutralize phytic acid that causes indigestion, releasing vitamins and nutrients that raw grains don’t. This makes the sprouts perfect for oatmeal, baking, and dough making. ^{[3] X Research Sources}
Shelled oats, like the ones you buy at the store that make oatmeal, won’t germinate. To grow cereal sprouts, you need to buy whole grains that are still shelled, raw, and organic. Other grains only need soaking. You can let the oats ferment with the miso paste overnight, for a quick and culturally convenient option.

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Soak whole grains in warm water. The cereal will triple in size during the soaking process, so it’s important to prepare a jar or bowl large enough to hold 3 times the amount of flour you’re putting in the soak. Soak the seeds for about 6 hours, then drain them thoroughly and let them germinate at room temperature for about 2 days. Wash the seeds frequently and let them dry thoroughly.

The corn needs to be soaked a little longer, about 12 hours before it drains and starts to germinate.
Amaranth, quinoa, and millet seeds, often confused with nuts or rice, are actually alkaline grains, and can germinate exceptionally well using this sprouting method.
Barley doesn’t actually germinate, but you can stimulate its germination, when malting barley to make wine, by letting the seeds “germinate” for about 12 hours. This will stimulate the process and begin to peel.

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Harvesting grain sprouts. After sprouts grow about 5-6mm long, you can harvest. Rinse the seeds with water one last time. Place them on a towel to dry. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator.

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To make flour from cereal sprouts, you will need a food dryer and a cereal grinder. After the grains have germinated, dry them for 12 hours and grind them to a fine, even powder, sifting again if desired. You can store the dough in the freezer to maintain freshness, and use it like any other baking powder. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Growing Vegetables and Sprouts

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Sprouting the start with more work. The process of starting a batch of sprouts such as wheatgrass, pea shoots, or sunflower seeds is remarkably similar, although slightly more specialized equipment is required than growing sprouts in the kitchen. You’ll be able to harvest lots of high-yielding veggies from the sprouts, but make a good investment if you want fresh young wheatgrass or young veggies for your salad.

Start growing vegetables as you normally would, soaking the seeds, peas, or sunflowers in a jar and letting them germinate for a few days before washing them thoroughly and transferring them to a tray.
The sprouts need to grow roots about 1 cm long before transferring to the tray. This will take some time, maybe 3 or 4 days, depending on when it was planted. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

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Prepare the seeding tray. Outdoor vegetable growing systems typically include a tray for sprouts to germinate and grow, with a mesh or hole in the bottom to allow water to drain when watering frequently is required. They’re fairly common at gardening stores, or you can make your own by punching drainage holes in any type of tray large enough for 9 square centimeters of soil.

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Place the soil in the seeding tray. Put the right amount of soil in the tray. You don’t need a lot of soil, as the sprouts mostly grow at the top, not much of the roots, but it’s better to get enough moisture so you don’t have to worry about the sprouts dying.

Moisten the soil with plenty of water and let the puddles evaporate on their own before transferring the sprouts through the soil.
Line a small blanket on the bottom of the seedling or sprout tray to keep the soil moist from below, and mix a small amount of mineral matter – about 130 g for a 25 x 25 tray – to promote growth.

Advice

To grow fat bean sprouts, place something heavy on top of the sprouts as they grow.
Mixing mucilaginous seeds like mustard or flax seeds with “regular” sproutable seeds like chickpeas and spelt will help the mixture retain moisture better and don’t require as much washing; Besides, mustard seeds give your seeds more “life”. But they can backfire if you don’t use the sprouts on the third day, when moisture starts to increase which can increase the risk of mold growth.
Sunflowers can be germinated from shelled or unshelled seeds. Young sunflowers (very tasty!) grow best from black-shelled seeds, in almost 10 days. In contrast, shelled sunflower seeds should only be sprouted for a day after soaking, and used in salads, or used in pâtés.
If growing the seeds in a jar or drinking glass rather than in a dedicated sprouting device, a fine sieve or Swiss golden coffee strainer is invaluable when used for draining and rinsing.
Drinking “soaked” and “washed” water is also quite pleasant and nutritious, especially if spices such as caraway seeds are added to the mix.
Consider when buying an automatic sprouting machine. They will automatically water your sprouts.
Adding seeds that are not used for sprouting but have a flavor such as carum, cumin, anise, or sesame can improve the taste of the product.
Do not use seeds that are damaged, discolored or deformed. This will result in a poor product. Don’t dig too deep. The soil should be shallow enough for the seeds to germinate. Irrigate the soil with mist.

Warning

Do not eat seeds if they are moldy due to lack of drainage.

Things You Need

Organic seeds
Pots, trays or automatic sprouting machines
Water source and drain pipe.
bed

Steps