For those interested in growing their own fodder, just thought I'd share how I'm doing it. Before I started, I spent much time seeing (on internet) how others grow fodder and then gleaned info from there. There is a great thread on this forum about growing fodder here (that I read before starting).
I opted to go with the method that starts with sprouting the seeds in wide-mouth mason jars. In the first jar, seeds are soaked for 10-12 hours (from morning til evening). The other jars hold days 1 and 2 of sprouting. (This photo was taken in evening after I drained the soaked seeds in the 1st jar. In the daytime, that jar is upright as the seeds soak.)
Each morning and each evening, I rinse and drain the jars with water.
On day 3, the third jar gets the sprouts moved from the jar (photo above) to the tray (photo below).
Here is the shelf unit I use. Pardon the plastic sheet surrounding it. That keeps my cat out, lol.
This shows the growth from days 3 through 7 -- from bottom to top. The trays were from a Dollar Store (as was the dishpan at the bottom).
The white shelf unit is from Amazon. Each shelf has a lip around it. That lip allows each tray to angle slightly by having one end up on the lip. This slope allows the water to run down each tray and out the holes drilled at the end of each tray. The video below shows this in action.
I originally used some pvc pipe on one end of each shelf to make the trays slope at a steeper incline. I found that too steep of a slope made the water run through the trays too quickly. This caused the grass to grow mostly on just the lower side of each tray and just barely on the higher side. By decreasing the incline, that problem was solved.
The tower gets watered each morning and each evening (same time I'm rinsing the sprout jars).
I plan to grow the fodder indoors year-round. It is too hot here to grow it outdoors in summer and it would attract flies. For me, it is most convenient to grow indoors where a sink is close at hand for rinsing and watering.
I dump the dishpan of water after each use which eliminates the odor that those recycling it with a pump have to deal with. Usually I dump it on my potted patio plants.
And I would be remiss if I did not include a photo of the flock getting their first taste of the new fodder...
I opted to go with the method that starts with sprouting the seeds in wide-mouth mason jars. In the first jar, seeds are soaked for 10-12 hours (from morning til evening). The other jars hold days 1 and 2 of sprouting. (This photo was taken in evening after I drained the soaked seeds in the 1st jar. In the daytime, that jar is upright as the seeds soak.)
Each morning and each evening, I rinse and drain the jars with water.
On day 3, the third jar gets the sprouts moved from the jar (photo above) to the tray (photo below).
Here is the shelf unit I use. Pardon the plastic sheet surrounding it. That keeps my cat out, lol.
This shows the growth from days 3 through 7 -- from bottom to top. The trays were from a Dollar Store (as was the dishpan at the bottom).
The white shelf unit is from Amazon. Each shelf has a lip around it. That lip allows each tray to angle slightly by having one end up on the lip. This slope allows the water to run down each tray and out the holes drilled at the end of each tray. The video below shows this in action.
I originally used some pvc pipe on one end of each shelf to make the trays slope at a steeper incline. I found that too steep of a slope made the water run through the trays too quickly. This caused the grass to grow mostly on just the lower side of each tray and just barely on the higher side. By decreasing the incline, that problem was solved.
The tower gets watered each morning and each evening (same time I'm rinsing the sprout jars).
I plan to grow the fodder indoors year-round. It is too hot here to grow it outdoors in summer and it would attract flies. For me, it is most convenient to grow indoors where a sink is close at hand for rinsing and watering.
I dump the dishpan of water after each use which eliminates the odor that those recycling it with a pump have to deal with. Usually I dump it on my potted patio plants.
And I would be remiss if I did not include a photo of the flock getting their first taste of the new fodder...
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