Grow Sprouts at Home

I am always looking for ways to keep fresh greens in our life year round. With a simple tool and a few scoops of seeds, you can grow sprouts at home in less than a week.

What are sprouts?

Sprouts are a delicious and healthy green you can easily grow on your countertop.

You start with a seed or various seeds, then water them for several days. Within a day you will see sprouts starting to grow out of the seed. Within a few days there will be little leaf shoots and small roots “sprouting” all over the place.

They are crunchy, fresh, and sometimes can even be a little spicy.

What kind of sprouts can I grow?

You can technically sprout just about about anything, but there are certain legumes, root crops, and kohl crops that work the best. Here are just a few!

• Alfalfa
• Mung Beans
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Radishes
• Garbanzo Beans
• Mustard (spicy and delicious)
• Onion

What are the health benefits of eating sprouts?

This is going to vary depending on what type of seeds you are sprouting. Certainly you’ll be getting the benefits of eating fresh greens, from there different seeds can help with blood pressure, digestion, vitamins, etc.

What are the risks of eating sprouts?

Please make sure you are buying seeds that have been tested for E-Coli 0157 and Salmonella.

Sprouts have gotten a bad reputation over the years because folks have eaten contaminated sprouts. The presence of E-Coli 0157 and salmonella bacteria has nothing to do with your cleanliness, it is present in the seeds themselves.

While you can certainly buy seeds for sprouting that are commercially available and look reputable (I will link below), I personally wouldn’t take the chance.

If the sprouts are thoroughly cooked before eating that should kill the bacteria if it is present. Again, I’d prefer to start with seeds that give me peace of mind. See below for a link to Johnny’s where I purchase my seeds for sprouting.

What do you do with sprouts?

I can eat them on just about anything, or even just plain by themselves.

Sprouts can be added to salads, eggs, soups, stir fry, etc.

Anything you want to add a crisp fresh flavor to will benefit from a little sprinkling of sprouts.

How long do sprouts take to grow?

Sprouts can take anywhere from a few days to a little over a week. This will vary on how warm your home is and how frequently (or infrequently) you water them.

How to Clean Sprouts

Rinse the sprouts in cool water using a colander. Next, lay them out to dry on a clean kitchen towel or expedite the process by giving them a few whips around in a salad spinner.

Only rinse the sprouts just before you are ready to use them.

How to Store Sprouts

Depending on what kind of sprouting container you have, it might come with a lid. You can pop that on the sprouting tray and toss it in the fridge.

I like to use a glass storage container with a lid that seals well.

Heck you could store them in a mason jar too if you wanted.

Make sure you do not wash sprouts until you are ready to eat them.

How Long do Sprouts last?

Unwashed the sprouts should stay good in the fridge for up to a week or more. This depends on how wet the sprouts were when they were put away (dryer is better!) and the humidity in the fridge.

If the sprouts seem slimy or limp, time to toss them in the compost.

How to Grow Sprouts at Home

Start the Seeds

Select whatever type of seeds you would like to sprout. If you have larger seeds you will use less in each tray. Here you can see about what you would want per tray of a smaller seed mix. This is a little over one tablespoon.

If you want, you can start a new tray every day rather than all the trays at once. This will give you a more continuous supply of sprouts.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

Water the Seeds

Place the solid tray on the bottom, then stack the others on top.

Add two cups of purified water to the top tray.

The water will fill the tray and slowly trickle down to all the trays below.

Water at least twice a day, morning and evening. Before you water the sprouts, rotate the top tray down to the bottom of the stack. Repeat this every time you water. This will give you a more even sprouting rate.

Within one day you will start to see little roots coming from some of the seeds. You might also notice white fuzzy looking things on some of the seeds. Don’t panic, this isn’t mold, these are tiny fluffy root hairs. To see a day by day progression of my sprouts, check out the video below.

Continue to water the sprouts twice daily, rotating the trays each time. When the sprouts get too big to stay in the trays anymore, you are done!

Store the sprouts for up to one week in the fridge. Wash the sprouts only before you use them, not before you refrigerate them for best results.

Wash the sprouting trays with a mild soap or if your trays say it is okay, in the top rack of the dishwasher. Then set up the trays and sprout again!

Shop this Post

• Sprouting Container – This one is a different brand than mine but will work the same.
• Amazon does have sprouts available. However, I can’t find any that assure of ecoli and salmonella testing. I personally buy mine from Johnny’s

Thinking about expanding your garden for growing even more greens next year? Check out my quick guide to planting a simple stock tank raised bed!

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