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I agree with you that I think there could be a fair amount of mold involved without us noticing it. You know how they say that in a moldy piece of bread that you need to remove an inch around the visible mold because the mold is actually there and we can't see it. But I don't know; that's just what I hear ... I haven't looked into it to figure out the truth. And there is a wheatgrass growers out there telling folks that it's okay to eat moldy wheatgrass if you cut above the mold and only eat the grass above the mold line. I just don't feel comfort feeding my chickens or myself mold ... well, unless it's blue cheese.
And since I can prevent the mold on the wheat shoots/sprouts and/or don't mind tossing any moldy sprouts, that's what I do.
One way I prevent mold is to sprout to 3-4 inches
only whole grains that are described as "wheat for bread making." It's been cleaned and all the chaff, broken pieces, wild oats, hulls have been removed.
When I tried sprouting barley with the hulls on, I could only get them to barely sprout before they started to sour or grow mold. That's when I switched to cleaned wheat. I struggled with sunflower seeds also. Part of it was that I didn't like the fact that different stuff had different sprout times, so I just simplified and went with wheat.
However, the whole grain wheat would mold, too, but at a later point in the growth at around 2-4 inches high. I also couldn't figure out how I was supposed to know if it was a fungus or a mold? What if it was a fungus like ergot? Does ergot grow in water?
So then, I researched it a bit and found that for some it helps to wash or soak with some sort of vegetable oil extract. Say neem oil or oregano oil. I saw lavender oil mentioned. Tea tree oil. If you look up "fungicide" and "wheatgrass" or "mold" and "sprouting," etc., then you can assess the risks and experiment yourself if you feel lucky. My concern with using a vegetable oil/extract is that if it's truly a killer of bacteria, which some claim some extracts to be, then if my chickens eat it, it will kill the good bacteria in their digestive tract. My chickens do get probiotics, so hopefully they're digestive tract is fine. You know what? They do live through the winter ... even my back up roosters that I keep just in case of trouble. In actuality, I probably just worry too much.
Beyond what I read about the vegetable/plant extract oils, I also read a little vinegar will help keep the mold at bay. Again, I've not tried this, so I don't know about how well it works. It will change the pH a little, so if that matters to you, then you'll have to make sure it's okay in that respect. Additionally I saw food grade hydrogen peroxide mentioned.
Bleaching the soaking container and sprouting containers between batches or at least giving them a good scrub is something else to try if you aren't already.
So, when I think about you using rye right out of the combine, I am wondering how clean it is. If it's got a fair bit of broken pieces or hulls, then a few vigorous rinsings will be in order. Do you think you can get the hulls/chaff to float so that you can skim them off? Maybe soak for 2 hours and then rinse and then begin another soak? Maybe the whole grains will sink and some of the chaff/hulls will float so you can skim them off? I have sprouted some grain that has floaters (I can't remember which grain), and I try to get those floaters to drain off the top when I do my rinses. But if you have broken pieces of rye, they can start to rot before you can get your grass to grow very tall. I think you may just have to do a lot of experimenting to figure out what you can get away with. Maybe you can do extra vinegar? rinsings after a few days of growth ... something like that?
Just for the record, in case it matters for those who can't remember which method I've been using, I have been doing this for a number of years and do a real low tech and low brow method of growing wheatgrass/sprouting wheat. I use three plastic spinach containers from costco and stack them on the kitchen table under a window. They will stack open (for air flow) if you set the lids cockeyed. It's a bit of a booby trap, I'll admit. Initially, I rinse and then soak about 8-12 hours. Then I wash with a few drops of whatever veggie extract I have on hand in the water, swirling it around quite a bit, then drain and rinse again and set aside to grow. I rinse twice a day; I just drain the water off the top since I don't poke holes in the bottom of the containers (embarrassingly low tech). I feed one container probably every other day to the chickens once the green sprouts are 3-4 inches. I'm not super regimented about it. I just feel that the chickens do a whole lot better if they are getting something fresh and green in the winter months when the green grass they love is under the snow. They get dry ground org. alfalfa and dry org. kelp flakes also which are green in their feeder of balanced feed year 'round. They get table scraps of lettuce ends and a few other greens, like parsley stems, cabbage, spinach, purslane, etc., too, but it's all sporadic. And they also have a feeder with whole grains in it. I tear the wheat grass brick apart and toss it onto old enamel pans I have out there for kitchen scraps. It keeps it out of the shavings/leaves/hay or off the snow for a few minutes before they have strewn it about.
