Sunflower Seeds Day 8. Click to hide.

Sunflower Seeds with mould Day 4. Okay in this picture the sunflower seeds have been under the clear Perspex for 3 or 4 days which has begun to lift up, so time to remove the cover. Now if you have not sprayed it with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) water (fresh i.e. within a couple of days of adding to the water in the spray bottle), then you can get mould developing on the seeds as seen in the 1st picture top left. In this case we then spray it with fresh H2O2 (3 mils – 35% per 750mL/1L). In the next picture, bottom left you see the day after and almost all of the mould has disappeared and then in the final picture bottom right, i.e. the following day all the mould is now disappeared.
This is not a major problem as we recommend that you spray it once a day preferably with the H2O2 water this has a couple of benefits, the main one being that it keeps the seeds loose, meaning that they will more easily fall away as the leaves expand, I also remove some of the seeds each time I do this.
The other method is to soak in a colander (with a small squirt of H2O2), soak for 5 or 10 minutes rinse clean until the root tips appear and then spread on top of your growing medium, cover with the Perspex cover. Click to hide.

Sunflower day 9 ready to eat, the trick is to get as many of the shoots to be clean of their outer husk at the same time & not to have developed their 2nd set of leaves as these have a furry texture & are not as nice to eat. I will actually pick these tomorrow as there is still some moisture on the leaves from the previous spray and I want to add them to a salad and I want them to be surface dry, I will then add the whole salad mix to our vegetable storage system. Click to hide.

Here we see an alternative way of germinating and eating your sunflower sprouts, previously we looked at doing them as a Microgreen here we are looking at doing them as a sprout.
The advantage of this method is that you do not have to go through all the steps of growing Microgreens, and what you see in the picture is basically 3 times the amount that you was grown in the tray.
The disadvantage is that the tip of the roots becomes brown, so it could be argued that it is less attractive, however this does not detract from the taste. The other issue is that you have to manually remove many of the husks this is a 10 to 15 minute process which some people might find annoying, however I tend to use this method now and when I need to remove the husks (which actually just slips off very easily after a soak), I do this while I’m watching the news on TV, which doesn’t require me to fix my visual attention 100% on what’s happening on screen. Click to hide.

Play

A short video on growing sunflower as a Sprout rather than a Microgreen . So after soaking (in nutrient solution) and rinsing for 3 or 4 days it’s time to remove the remaining husk and expose the shoots to light so they can green. Finally we add them to the rectangular Microgreen/sprouting trays which have larger slots, which makes it easier to remove any root mass that has become dislodged. Click to hide.

Sunflower

Price range: $1.85 through $11.12

Sunflower Seeds (Au 95+% germ.). seeds for sprouting untreated

Maximum of 1kg per order

Not available for shipping to WA/Tas.

SKU: N/A Category: Microgreen Tags: Sunflower seeds, Sunflower seeds black, Sunflower seeds for sprouting, Sunflower sprout seeds, Sunflower sprouting seeds

Product Info

Sunflower seeds for sprouting – Untreated Au 94% germ.

Sunflower seeds are high in fiber, protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, B complex, C, potassium, magnesium and also these sunflower seeds offer the trace elements zinc, manganese, copper and chromium.
Some people say that sunflower seeds are easy to grow and this is true if you are just growing them in a jar or a colander however there are some things to point out that may make life easier.
Try to get all your sprouts ready at the same time otherwise you will cut the batch and then you have to go through and manually remove the husk of a certain proportion of them or cut them individually which is a bit time-consuming I think.

We have found the best way for maximum germination and reduce mould problems is to pre-germinate them in a colander for a couple of days, soaking once-a-day nutrient solution, and then transferring to your growing medium.

Anyway if you look at the pictures we presented is the way that we grow them which takes these issues into consideration.

Links

Microgreen Tray 330x245mm Kit 25wLED+Stand-3xShelf-Ht.Med. 470x170mm Mic.Grn Kit

Not available for shipping to WA.

330x245mm Tray Kits

330x245mm Kit (Parts)

470x170mm Tray Kits

470x170mm Kit (Parts)

230mm Round Tray Kits

230mm Round Tray Kits (Parts)

Microgreen/Herb Info.