Growing fodder for chickens

[mg15]

The bucket of BOSS I had soaking only had enough seed to cover one tray. Now, I just keep the seeds moist, correct?

~ Aspen

Dear Mrs. Fluffy Puffy,
You are correct. Your seeds will start to "hatch" tails as that would be the root and
with a little light the two leaves will follow.
When I did my first batch of hatching BOSS I thought that I would like to put those lovely sprouts on my salad. Well, after about fifteen minutes of shelling the sprout, I had ....umm... maybe 20 sprouts. So, I have now bought for myself, a bag of shelled sunflower seeds, that I intend to sprout.
Kind regards,
mg

 

[sonew123]

The bucket of BOSS I had soaking only had enough seed to cover one tray. Now, I just keep the seeds moist, correct?

~ Aspen

Yup so before i went to bed i soaked them and before i left for work in morning!

 

[spiritrancho]

For the birds you can sprout untill the root and plant are 1/2" or less. If you want to use the BOSS in soup salads sanwiches omlets or stirfry, let them grow to 4" or more and cut the sprout off with sissors leaving the shell behind. I grown to 6" or more they get sorta tough.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

Here are my sprouts as of yesterday.

This is my small-scale set up- I rinse them 3 times a day.



This is after 8 days or more. Does this seem right?

This is how fine mesh the screen is-I find it drains water a little do quickly, so set it on top of a board.

 

[mg15]

BOSS in soup salads sanwiches omlets or stirfry, let them grow to 4" or more and cut the sprout off with sissors leaving the shell behind. I grown to 6" or more they get sorta tough.

This is a good idea, by cutting it is easier. I did buy the shelled sunflower seeds to try them. I like the sprouts in sandwiches.
Thank you for this tip.
mg

 

[mickey328]

It should also be noted, that there's a difference between sprouting and fodder Or..at least as I understand it. With sprouting you need no light because you'll harvest before the upper portion does more than just begin to grow. With fodder, I think you're looking at about 4 to 6 inches if green top growth.

We're planning setting up a fodder system in late summer, to provide greens for the critters through the winter. Hopefully it'll work well for us. I gave sprouting a try a while back and ended up with...mold LOL, thinking I didn't do it right. Oh well, trial and error...nothing like experience. I don't particularly care for sprouts and DH doesn't mind not having them, so I think we'll just table that project. As soon as it warms up, I'll go back to fermenting the feed for the chickens...it worked quite well, but we ended up with I think thousands of those dang fruit flies! So, I'm going to wait till it's warm enough to do outside. That'll leave us with fermented feed for the chickens and grass and weeds and various other greens for them and for the rabbits over the summer, as well as green fodder (wheat, barley, millet and other grains) all winter.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Here are my sprouts as of yesterday.

This is my small-scale set up- I rinse them 3 times a day.



This is after 8 days or more. Does this seem right?

This is how fine mesh the screen is-I find it drains water a little do quickly, so set it on top of a board.

It seems slow to me. I like the screen idea, and that *should* work fine even with a "quick" rinse 3x per day. But if the sprouts aren't to the "Yikes, I'd better mow the lawn" stage after 8 days, they aren't doing well, and yours are barely sprouted so are growing very slowly indeed. This could be due to several different factors. It could be too cold where your sprouts are. Maybe they needed longer/shorter pre-soak. Maybe the seeds had been treated with anti-sprouting agents? Dunno, really!

Steps to successful sprouting:

Buy "the right" seed

Wash a batch of that seed in plain water, skimming out debris

Soak that washed seed (from a few hours to a day or more, depending on seed), maybe with a sanitizing agent

Drain that soaked seed

Rinse thoroughly

Put that soaked and rinsed seed in the clean growing flat

Keep seeds moist but not wet

Keep seeds darkish and warm-ish/cool-ish (depends on your seed choice) & well-ventillated in a clean environment to promote shoots and roots but not mold & mildew

Give the shoots & roots some sunshine to promote greener shoots (not entirely necessary, but I like to do it)

Feed fodder to the chickens before it gets too long and tough

Thoroughly wash your growing flat before reuse.

That's it, really.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Is it ok to to grow fodder close to your fermented feed buckets? I'm thinking of the mold issues.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

Quote: I am pretty sure they are sproutable, the bag it came in says so. I soaked them for approx. 24 hours.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I am pretty sure they are sproutable, the bag it came in says so. I soaked them for approx. 24 hours.

Then maybe they just need to be in a warmer spot.