Sprouting!

[MysticTree]

have you checked out plantsforafuture database? May have helpful info

[Living Food]

Yes. There is no information on how to sprout the seeds, but I think I'll manage just fine through trial and error. I'll start with small batches and see how it goes.

[MysticTree]

You must be looking at another site from the one I am looking at.

Cultivation details Succeeds in any moderately fertile soil in a sunny position[200]. Although this species is a common garden weed, some named forms have been selected for their ornamental value[233]. An important food plant for the caterpillars of many species of butterflies[30].

Propagation
Seed - sow spring in a cold frame. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in early summer. A sowing can be made outdoors in situ in mid to late spring if you have enough seeds.

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?...Plantago+major

[Living Food]

No, that's the exact same site. It has some cultivation details, but not really any information on sprouting.

I always plant my microgreens in fertile soil (and always compost it after, so I never run out), and I am going to put it in indirect sunlight even if the website does say "in a sunny position", becuase it will do just fine like that and I won't have to water it a dozen times a day.

[MysticTree]

Sprouting is exactly the same as germination. Any information about germination and cultivation will be relevant to sprouting seeds to eat - especially if you are looking for microgreens.

[Living Food]

Sprouting is exactly the same as germination.

I know.

Any information about germination and cultivation will be relevant to sprouting seeds to eat - especially if you are looking for microgreens.

Read the information that you quoted from the database - there's nothing on it that tells me how long to soak the seeds for, or how long until the cotyledons emerge, etc.

But I don't need that information anyway, I can figure it out myself. I don't see the point of arguing over it.

[MysticTree]

Soaking is just artificial rain. You don't need to soak seeds. The seeds sprout happily just from rinsing. The rest you mention will vary on a number of factors.

[Living Food]

The first time l went sproutarian l was alot healthier and younger and the results were absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! l felt like a super God and had no weight in my body. l felt like l was gliding along when l walked. l also drank ALOT of wheatgrass juice, pea shoot juice and chlorella and kelp. l also had very close to a photographic memory. l was a machine of the highest order and run everyday and really lived the lifestyle. l am not near the man l once was, but l am slowly getting back to that. In time l do believe l will feel like a super-God again. Nothing touches this diet.

What I should have asked is, how long were you a sproutarian the first time before you got to that level?

l also drank ALOT of wheatgrass juice, pea shoot juice and chlorella and kelp

How much is "ALOT"?

[streetsurfer]

Living food you looking for celery instructions?
this is copied from the sprout peoples website....hope they don't mind
[h=1]Sprouting Instructions[/h]
Print




Yields approximately as many Micro-Greens (by weight) as seed
"planted"
We put quotes around Planted because the
seeds are always spread atop a medium - not planted
under.

We do Not Soak
Celery. It is too tiny and hard to work with when wet, and we have found that
there is no real benefit. Celery is a very slow Germinating
seed.

Planting

(see Notes (below) for variations)

Grow these on soil or Baby Blanket (a soilless medium) in a Tray, on a Hemp Bag, a Miniature Garden (which is
basically a small set of trays - each which holds a medium) or on virtually any
moisture retaining medium
(theoretically as minimal as paper towel or fabric - like cheesecloth) you can
think of.

Thoroughly moisten the Medium upon which you are going to
grow.
Whether you are using a Hemp Bag, Baby Blanket, or another medium - lay it on a plate or in a
pan or something - so that you don't end up watering your counter. If you are
using a Tray with drainage slits to
hold your medium, put it on a
plate or in a solid (Drip) Tray - or
use a plate or pan to capture the water runoff.

Spread seeds sparsely on your thoroughly moistened medium.
There should be
a bit of space around each seed but you are not expected to place them one at a
time - just spread them out as much as you can and as evenly as you can, within
reason.

You may cover your seeds:
If planting on soil or
another medium in a Tray use another
identical tray - up side down.
If using a Miniature Garden you can slide
the tray into the central unit for the first 2-3 days.
If using a Hemp Bag, Baby Blanket, or another medium - be creative. If it's on a
plate then use an identical plate (upside down) as a cover.
It is not
mandatory when growing Micro-Greens to cover them
at all. Experiment for yourself and see what works best in your
climate/location.

Place your Micro-Garden in a low-light, room temperature
location (70° is optimal).

Keep the medium moist - but not soggy - by
watering or misting with a Spray
Bottle every day.

When your plants grow up and begin to shed their hulls they
are ready for light so move them (if necessary) to a well lighted
location.
If you go with sunlight be prepared to water more
frequently. Room light will usually do quite nicely - and will not dry out your
medium as
quickly.

Keep the medium moist but not soggy by
watering regularly.
Water from the side if possible to prevent
injuring the tiny plants - especially if you are not using a Spray Bottle.

When your plants have open leaves which are green, they are
done.

Harvest

Cut the plants just above the medium upon which they have
grown.
During the final 8-12 hours minimize the surface moisture of your
plants - they will store best in
your refrigerator if they are dry to the touch. So if you water try to keep the
water off the plants - just water the medium.

When you are ready to store them (I'll remind you that these
degrade fast, so eat them instead of storing them if you can), if they are still
damp - lay them between some paper towels or anything you prefer, and dry them
very gently.
Transfer your crop to a plastic bag or the sealed container of
your choice - glass is good.
We sell an amazing Produce Storage Bag that actually
extends the shelf life of produce, if you're interested in the best of the best
=;-)
Whatever you store them in; put them in your refrigerator - if you
must.


* Dry Seed Volume

See our Notes (below) for Variations.

If using Sproutpeople's Single Harvest Pack and a 5x5 inch
Tray; use the whole
bag.

2 Teaspoons for our little 5 inch tray.
2 scant Tablespoons
for an 10 inch square tray.
4 Tablespoon for an 10 x 20 inch tray.

The first time you grow these you should consider giving quite
a bit of space to each seed just to familiarize yourself with the plants' habit.
Our suggested Dry Seed Volume will provide you with this
space.



[h=1][/h]

[streetsurfer]

[h=1]Notes[/h]

Crop Note

Celery is The Slowest of Micro-Greens. It can take up to 2 weeks just to germinate. As the seed is so
amazingly tiny, keeping the medium moist is a somewhat
different thing. The smaller the seed - the less water is needed. Frankly we are
not Masters of Celery. We have grown it several times, but we are still
learning. For example; we think it is possible that exposing the planted seed to
light may be speed its germination, but we're not
sure yet - we're still experimenting. We don't even like Celery on its own (we
find it painfully bitter), so though we love to grow things, we don't experiment
with it often - so our knowledge may be as slow to grow as Celery
#;-)


We first grew Micro-Greens
back in 1994. We were way ahead of the curve. Nobody was interested in them -
not our farmers market customers, not our food stores (co-ops, natural food
stores and grocery stores we delivered to every week), not our restaurants,
nobody! That did change some as the years passed, but we were always Sprout
People first. Frankly, we prefer Sprouts to Micros, but we keep working with
them. We want to like them more.

Micro-Green Variations

There are varying opinions of what constitutes a Micro-Green. Traditionally it is just a plant grown
to the Cotyledon stage, and
cut above the medium upon which
it is planted.
When we grow to this stage; we either grow on Baby Blanket or soil (any kind
will do). Baby Blanket is less
messy and works fine and dandy. We cut a piece to fit a plate, then we follow
our own instructions for keeping the medium and seeds-sprouts
thoroughly moist. We use another of the same size plate - inverted - as a cover.
We uncover Celery when it is tiny - just 1/16 inch tall. We then expose them to
all the light our kitchen has to offer. We even use direct sunlight when
available. We have to water them more often when we do this. When it comes to
watering, We mist them with a Spray
Bottle until the seeds have firmly rooted. After that - when growing on a
piece of Baby Blanket on a
plate; pour water directly onto the plate. We gently tip and turn the plate so
as much water as possible gets soaked up by the Baby Blanket, and then pour off
most of the excess.
When growing on soil; we continue to spray with the Spray Bottle, but we keep the medium moist by adding water
directly to the plate or solid tray it is sitting on. We allow the medium to drink up what water it
can, and then gently pour off the excess. Leaving a little water on the plate is
fine - it will get sucked up before your next watering. If it doesn't, you are
leaving too much water behind.


There are some nowadays who want a Micro-Green to be a plant which puts out a True Leaf before they'll call
it a Micro-Green. We find that concept Very
interesting, so we have worked to make that happen.

True Leaves

The first thing is to plant less seed. Just how much is the
question. The general rule is this: The more space your plant has to grow roots
- the bigger it can grow.
We are currently using 1/4 teaspoon in a 5x5 inch
tray. That leaves quite a bit of room between the seeds-plants, but gives them
enough space to grow to the True Leaf stage. This can take
4 weeks or more. Celery is Very Slow! The main thing that is needed is More
Light. Plants get "leggy" when they need to reach for light. We use that to our
advantage in all other circumstances in the Sprout World, but here we want to
minimize the legginess of the plants. If you can put a light right above your
crop - or keep it in direct sunlight, that will help. Keep everything adequately
moist. Remember - the more light the faster the medium and plants will dry. This
may sound like a lot more work, but really it isn't much more than usual.
We
cover the seeds only until they have sprouted when growing this way. We plant on
soil which has been enriched with 20% Earthworm Castings, which add
nitrogen that a plant uses to grow leaves. When making up the soil, do not
exceed 20% Earthworm Castings
as too much nitrogen can burn your plants (they actually whither and die when
the soil is too "hot" - which means it has too much nitrogen). Mix the castings
into the base soil (anything will work, though we do not advise mixes that are
heavily peat moss as we find it hard to work with and we don't find the crop
turns out as well) - it is the roots that will need access to the rich soil
medium.
If growing a mix, not all of the plants will grow True Leaves at the same time.
Keep growing until most have them. Harvest then and eat them up. Though you can
store Micro-Greens, they degrade quickly, and
since you have put so much work in these - you should enjoy them at their
peak.

The Next Variation

The next obvious step (to us anyway) we find really
exciting. It is to grow even fewer seeds into even fewer plants. Those plants
will grow more leaves. They will be more like Baby-Greens than Micro-Greens.
They will require more time. They may re-grow more quickly because they'll have
a bigger root-mass. The container (tray, pot, etc.) they grow in will likely be
too small for that root-mass to live long, but it's possible. When it comes
right down to it, we're talking about an indoor-garden. All the other stuff we
offer is about indoor gardening, but this is more like a garden. Not many of us
have space in our homes to Garden inside, but we love the idea. We're working on
this, and we'll tell you what we find out as soon as we know something. It was
gardening that eventually led us to sprouting. We feel like this is closing that
circle started so long ago - now it is sprouting leading back to gardening
@:-)

again: from the sprout people's website.

[Living Food]

Living food you looking for celery instructions?

No, I know how to grow celery - it was Mr Raw looking for help. But thanks anyway, I'll read it and see if I learn anything new.

[Non]

I think this PVC rack system looks good. I want to get that for growing wheatgrass and sunflower/pea greens. The hurricane juicer looks like a really good manual juicer also.

Oops. I forgot to get the link.

http://www.gotsprouts.com/rawsome-pv...uble-wide.html

It's made with PVC so hmm I could probably make one on my own for cheaper. not sure how much cheaper though.

[Non]

Darn. Pretty much !
Building a Seed Starting Rack From PVC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxqh9KG9bQo
PVC Greenhouse Shelves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpr1vkh_a9g

Plans for one version:

http://www.jcbnllc.com/sprouting_pic.html

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

That's perfectly normal, celery takes a long time to sprout, sometimes up to 2 weeks for me, although normally you can see tiny tails by about a week or so. After they have little shoots coming up put them in indirect light and keep them there for at least a week until they're as tall as any other microgreen.

They seem to germinate faster if you expose the seeds to light, maybe one of he few sprouts that do.



I don't soak them at all, they are really difficult to hadle and spread possible when wet becse they are so tiny. I've experimentedwith 8, 12 and 24 hour soaks and they didn't seem to speed up the process at all, maybe by a day or two.



.

That sounds right because my instinct tells me. No soak time and a long sprouting period, yes.

lnteresting about sprouting in light.

lt's been four days and my seeds have not changed one single bit, but l am sure they will. l am looking forward to see how they turn out.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

They have a notoriously bad germination rate and you shouldn't be surprised by 50% failure!

Special sprouting seeds from companies are known to be a higher quality seed that should have at least a 90% sprout rate, where-as seeds from most non sprout companies are not guaranteed to do as well. So yes, proper seeds grown for sprouting are supposed to be a better seed overall. lt's not always like that, but it is supposed to be according to various sources.