How To Grow Seed Sprouts: 3 Easy Ways.

How To Grow Seed Sprouts: 3 Easy Ways.

It is cold and dark outside. In the middle of winter, we just want to find a cosy armchair by the fireplace and curl up and hibernate. But even if there is nothing happening in the vegetable plot it doesn’t mean you can’t grow a quick and easy crop of home grown, healthy and yummy sprouts and leaves for the kitchen!

Growing sprouting seeds is a great way to produce your own ultra-fresh, low food-miles crop. Anybody can do it. You don’t need any special skills or equipment. You don’t even need a garden – and you can sprout seeds to eat all year round.

It is a great indoor activity to help keep bored kids occupied when they can’t go to the dark and muddy park. Every child should be able to experience the miracle of watching seeds germinate.

In this article we are going to look at three easy ways to grow your own tasty sprouting seeds.

What seeds can I grow?

Many of us have tried growing cress seeds as children. However, as well as the classic cress seeds you can also sprout the seeds of lettuces, mustard, chard, kale, rocket, mung beans, peas, Chinese vegetables, cabbages, herbs and lots of other nutritious things packed with flavour and freshness.

Did you know? The punnets of salad cress at the supermarket are usually not ‘mustard and cress’? The traditional British mixture of 75% garden cress and 25% mustard is now a blander combo of 85% oilseed and 15 % garden cress.

To learn more about the history of the great British combination of mustard and cress, follow the link:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/jan/22/cressexpress#comment-428691

Method 1:  Soilless seed growing on damp cotton wool or kitchen paper.

If you want to grow your own classic mixture of mustard and cress you only need to know two things:

1. a) Mustard grows faster than cress! So, sprinkle your cress seeds three days before you add the mustard seeds and then they will be ready to harvest together.
2. b) Sow three times the volume of cress seeds to mustard. For example, three teaspoons of cress seeds to one spoonful of mustard seeds. This ratio will give you the perfect combination for salads, egg sandwiches, or garnishing dishes.

Cress is delicious on its own in egg and cress sandwiches. You can grow your cress on a damp sheet of kitchen paper placed on the bottom of a clean plastic tray (the ones mushrooms are sold in are perfect for this).

The kitchen paper needs to be kept damp but should not be flooded with water. Sprinkle the seeds over the surface like you are seasoning your cooking. The seeds should be lightly scattered, not in piles. Gently press the seeds down on to the damp paper after sowing to ensure they are in contact with the moisture.

Cover the top of the shallow container with a layer of cling film to keep them moist until they have sprouted.

The seedlings are ready to cut after they reach about 2 to 3 centimetres tall. The whole process from sowing to harvesting should take a week at the most.

Two Fun Ideas for Children:

…and a very sneaky way to get them into eating veggies.

1. A) create fun cress-heads using old eggshells.

The empty shells of breakfast boiled-eggs can be used to create creative ‘cress-heads’. Simply wash out the empty shells. When they are dry you can help your child draw a funny face on the outside with a sharpie.

Then place damp cotton wool inside the empty shell and sow your cress seed onto this. The seeds will quickly sprout and produce masses of green curly hair.

When the seedlings have grown and are ready to harvest give your character a haircut with a pair of scissors (this might be a job for an adult).

Look out for ‘Mr Tickle’ cress extra curled from Thompson & Morgan (£4.99 a packet) on our seed racks, it creates the curliest hair – and is very tasty in egg and cress sandwiches!

1. B) Create Edible Art.

Prepare a large, shallow plastic tray lined with a layer of damp kitchen roll for each child. Let them use the cress seeds to get creative. They could choose to do their initial or maybe be their whole name if there is space. Maybe they will want to get creative and make a pattern, a face, or some other design?

Top tips: you can draw the outline of any initial or any design with a pencil on the kitchen paper before you dampen it. This guide makes it easier for younger kids.

Use a small kitchen funnel to avoid the seeds going everywhere.

Method 2: Microgreens on Soil.

Microgreens are simply tiny salad plants. These young seedlings are easy and quick to grow and packed with nutrients. Many salad, vegetable and herb seeds can be grown in this way. The plants may be small, but they are packed with punch and goodness. Microgreens take just 10 days to mature from sowing.

Look out for the ‘Microgreens’ packets on out seed stands for some horticultural and culinary inspo. We stock a variety of Thompson & Morgan Microgreen seeds at £2.99 a packet. This range includes, green broccoli, red cabbage, rocket, pak choi, red Swiss chard, mizuna, garlic chives and Nero di Toscana kale.

Top tip: all our seed packets have growing instructions on their reverse.

How to grow microgreens.

Firstly, choose a small seed tray, shallow plant pot, or make some drainage holes in the bottom of a plastic food tray (this is probably a job for an adult).

Then fill your container with about 3 centimetres of fresh multipurpose potting compost. Water it well and then let the compost drain.

Little seeds such as radish, lettuce, and garlic chives can be scattered on the surface of the compost. Larger seeds such as coriander, chard, spinach and beetroot should be covered with a thin layer of compost.

Finally, put the seed container into a clear plastic bag with a few airholes, or place it in a plastic propagator on a bright windowsill and wait for the seeds to grow.

Your microgreen seeds should germinate and start sprouting within four to five days. And you can begin harvesting them with scissors once they are about 3cm tall.

Expert tip. Once you have harvested all the microgreens don’t throw the soil away. Simply cove the old surface with a thin layer of fresh compost and re-sow with the new generation of microgreens. You should be able to repeat this process at least three times before you need to start the again from fresh.

Method 3:  Sprouting Seeds in a Glass Jar.

This is a simple way of producing delicious, crunchy fresh seed sprouts in a jar. No need for green fingers, you just need to follow basic hygiene rules.

Most leaf and stem vegetable and salad plants are suitable for sprouting in this way. Beans, peas and chickpea seeds are particularly good because they produce thick, crunchy sprouts. You could even compose your own signature mixture from our ‘microgreens’ collection!

What you need – a large clear glass jar, an elastic band a cheese cloth and a good tablespoon of seeds or beans – don’t overdo the volume of seeds because they will grow to fill the jar.

Step 1: wash and sterilize the glass jar (this is a job for an adult). Let the sterilized jar cool before you start.

Step 2: rinse the seeds in a sieve and remove any non-seed material or damaged seeds. Place the seeds into the sterile jar and half fill with tepid water. Cover the top of the jar with the cheese cloth, fixing it in place with the elastic band.

Put the jar in a safe place out of strong light and leave the seeds to soak for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Step 3: in the morning your seeds should look much plumper and less puckered. They are now ready to germinate.

Now pour out all the old water – with the secured cheese cloth acting as a screen to stop you losing the seeds.

After you have drained all the water partially fill the jar with tepid water, swirling the seeds as you fill, and again pour this water away. Repeat this rinse two times. When you have finished there shouldn’t be any water sitting in the bottom of the jar.

This thorough cleaning prevents mould and bacterial growth in your jar and provides the ideal amount of moisture for seeds to germinate & develop.

Once the seeds have been washed the jar can be put back in a safe, warm dark place.

All you need to do to produce a harvest of tasty sprouts is to repeat the rinsing and draining twice-a-day, in the morning and evening, for the next 3 to 5 days.

If you start today with mung beans or alfalfa, then your delicious sprouts will be ready to harvest in less than 5 days!

Once your seed sprouts are big enough to eat, then take the cheese cloth off and tip the sprouts into a sieve, rinse thoroughly and then they are ready to eat.

If you want to store some to cook or eat later, then drain them thoroughly and place them in an airtight box lined with a paper towel. Place the box in the vegetable section of your fridge with a date label on the lid. Stored like this they will be good to eat for the next couple of days.

In conclusion: Seedlings, microgreens and crunchy seed sprouts are easy and fun to grow. They are an easy way for anybody to discover the pleasures of growing food from seeds.

Microgreens, seedlings and sprouts are a great way to add crunch and flavour to winter salads and sandwiches and boosting the nutritional value of your meal. The three methods offer a range of different educational and fun activities for children to enjoy, a great diversion on dark, cold day.

For some recipes for using microgreens in salads:

https://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/homegrown-microgreens-salad/

If you are interested in learning more about growing and harvesting unusual edibles why not check out our blog on creating your own edible garden:

https://www.capitalgardens.co.uk/blog/creating-your-own-edible-flower-garden/