Phottoman, thank you for that post. I have read this entire thread, and while I have had great success growing fodder from wheat, sprouting barley has been a bust.
I think that part of the problem for me might be corrected by using the method you use for putting holes in one end of the tray and staggering the stacked tray so that the water from one tray drops to one end of the tray below then has to travel through the root mat before reaching the holes at the opposite end of the next tray.
I built a tower out of Wal-Mart shelving as described and pictured by TalbottPoultry, but my trays have the holes drilled across the bottom of the entire tray. Water from one tray showers down onto the top of the next tray. LeslieDJoyce explains in Post 818 that she found that only soaking the root mat from below helped to reduce mold problems. This might explain why your method with the trays works better.
Also, I think my pantry is too cold for sprouting barley (54-57 degrees), so I am moving the sprouting buckets of barley into my 70 degree house to see if warmer temps help the sprouting. Wheat sprouted just fine in my pantry, but the barley won't. It has to be the temp.
I think that part of the problem for me might be corrected by using the method you use for putting holes in one end of the tray and staggering the stacked tray so that the water from one tray drops to one end of the tray below then has to travel through the root mat before reaching the holes at the opposite end of the next tray.
I built a tower out of Wal-Mart shelving as described and pictured by TalbottPoultry, but my trays have the holes drilled across the bottom of the entire tray. Water from one tray showers down onto the top of the next tray. LeslieDJoyce explains in Post 818 that she found that only soaking the root mat from below helped to reduce mold problems. This might explain why your method with the trays works better.
Also, I think my pantry is too cold for sprouting barley (54-57 degrees), so I am moving the sprouting buckets of barley into my 70 degree house to see if warmer temps help the sprouting. Wheat sprouted just fine in my pantry, but the barley won't. It has to be the temp.