Makeshift sprouting tray?

[subbacultcha]

I've been eating sprouts from health food shops for a while now but its getting to be an expensive habit and I'd like to grow my own at home.

I can't afford to buy and special equipment and was hoping for any suggestions as to how to make some sort of sprouting tray!

Cheers x

[crystalmoon]

do you have any glass jars? I find these great for sprouting in. Or you could use a nylon nut bag if you have one

[spicyfull]

You can Sprout Literally in Any thing...If you have a Colindar? You can Sprout in it, just keep the seed rinsed. You can put Cheese Cloth or any fine woven cloth over a glass jar and keep the seeds rinsed. You can sprout seeds between 2 dish towels......Seeds and water can't do ANYTHING else but "SPROUT"

[sport]

I think that the glass jar method is the easiest way to sprout a quantity and you can use the same jar to soak and sprout.
Do not fill it too much as they will expand .
www.sproutpeople.com/devices/jar/jar.html
This site gives you instructions but remember that any jar will do and you just need to wrap some cheesecloth over the top. Always use 2 rubber bands to hold it in place.

[subbacultcha]

awesome, I will try either using a jar or colander. Thanks everyone!

[sfdreams]

A coworker does it this way. I went out and got wide-mouth mason jars (quart size) and used a square of nylon mesh window screening over the top of the mason jar. I used the ring from the mason jar and screwed on the mesh. I just used a little bit of seed so they are not so crowded when they sprout. I soak in filtered water overnight, then drain and rinse (with filtered water) in the morning and 2-3 times per day.

The hard part is keeping it drained. My coworker keeps the jars inverted, using glass rods on the neck of the bottle to hold it off the ground so air circulates through. I found a stainless steel mesh shelf-thing at the hardware store. (I'm not sure what it really is--but it is rectangle shaped with a mesh or lattice shape inside the rectangle, and has metal "legs" on each end, so that I can set it on the "legs" and have a shelf.) I place the bottles with the nylon screening down, and place a towel underneath the shelf to catch the water drips. This has worked great for me. The tails of the sprouts do like to poke through the screen, but when I rinse them, I try to poke them out again. You can have several bottles going at once! (Though, to be honest, I haven't done this yet--still have gotten around to cutting out more squares of the screen cloth yet! ...lazy ol' me!)

My gynecologist tells me that she places her sprouting jars upside down in the dish drainer, and that may work even better! I didn't have a dish drainer either, and I kinda wanted to keep the sink clear, so we came up with this shelf thing.

Enjoy your sprouting! I found that I really enjoyed my red lentil sprouts! With a little bit of avocado on top they are absolutely amazingly YUMMY!