Saturday, March 24, 2012

Sprouting experiment

A little while back, I posted about how I wanted to start sprouting seeds to feed my chickens and eventually my horses as well.  Once I got back from my last ACTHA ride, I started  my experiments. I started by buying several seed starting trays with clear domes like these shown below.
 


I had some left over Indian Corn that I had grown 2 years ago. I had been grinding it up to add to the Chickens diet, but with the amount I had left over It was the right amount to try 4 days of sprouting experiments with.  I also got a bag of whole oats to try and grow oat grass. So I thought I'd mix the oats and the corn.  Well that's not working so well. The 2 year old Indian corn is sprouting within 24-48 hours but none of the oats over the last 4 days have sprouted. If I continue this, the Corn will have to be separate from the oats.  Additionally next week I'll be able to pick up some whole wheat and some whole barley to try.  More on the experiment when I actually feed it to the chickens.

5 comments:

  1. Sounds interesting , I wonder if the corn and the oats need different nutrients form the soil

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  2. Well I'm not using any soil. I'm treating them like any sprouts for human consumption. They are basically soaked, rinsed and drained a couple times a day for several days until they start sprouting. Everything I read on the human sprouting websites state that oats should be sprouting in about 2 days.

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  3. Actually I'm wondering if it's my soaking times. I felt that the 2 year old dry corn needed much more soaking time then then fairly fresh and softer hulled oats. So the corn got a full 12-18 hour first soak and the oats got a much shorter soak. In my Day 4 experiment, I decided to soak all of it the same length of time. So I'll see if there is a big sprouting difference in that last one then the first three.

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  4. OK , so more like when we test grain , we soak a paper towel, sprinkle a few seeds(oats usually) on it and seal it in a plastic container

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  5. Lots of interesting ideas you're trying out. I hope you'll keep us update on their progress.

    ~Lisa

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