The Sprouting Project, part 3/4

Sorry, I got a little behind last night. Trying to keep this project up and going. Funny, seeing the posts from others made no sense to me looking before, and when I saw this prototype design in someone else's video post, I thought it made for a good way to discover without spending too much.  So I am trying to log the things I am experiencing and learning so that others can learn, and so that I can remember.

Did I mention that I had a hard time finding seeds? Yup, I really did. I ended up with the prototype system ready and no seeds until I decided to try sprouting the sunflower seeds while I tried to get seeds from the coop. The hard thing for me with coops is how far they all are from me, and trying to order where I can pick up with little notice on some one else's time frame. But we are part of a coop for the feed we purchase, organic and soy and corn free, so my friend talked me through this other coop to get the seeds to sprout and I picked up some oils at the same time so I could work on restocking soap. We shall see how it works.

These first couple photos are from yesterday.  This one is the top right box int he stack. Yesterday would have been day three (counting the start day as day 0), and while it seemed like there was a root mat developing, the seeds were still very loose when I pouted the water in.

These are the seeds in the open colander. You might remember I did this because I soaked too many seeds for the prototype system- Oops- and refuse to waster them.  These are still growing far slower than those in the enclosed system.

This is the prototype system, There is a reservoir in the bottom box of each stack, with a hole cut int he top. The box above has drainage holes, and sits atop the ledge where the cutout is.  This continues on up, with the top one having a full lid. THey are watered three times a day, on average.  Not sure why, but the one on the top right seems to have the most developed root base, and is growing a bit faster.

This is the open colander in the sink as of tonight. Charlie asked if I was growing worms...

This is the top right box, which has a good solid root base tonight, and a fair amount of new green shoots and sprouts.

This is the top left box, seemingly developed at about the level where the top right one was as of this morning. Funny, since I set up all of them at the same time.

Well, that is about hte size of it. I am figuring I need about 6 of these per day as a feed supplement, so I have a lot to figure out, might get more boxes to start another wave tomorrow, not sure if I will have time. If you have any advice or experience to share, I welcome it! The more we learn and share, the more self-sufficient we can be!