by Katri Marson

Created on: October 05, 2009   Last Updated: October 08, 2009

Growing sprouts at home is a great way save money while still adding fresh vitamins and minerals to your diet. But, if you have ever tried sprouting at home and experienced mold you may have decided to just throw in the towel and spends the extra money to buy the packaged sprouts at your local market. Don't give up. Mold is a common problem and by following a few simple tips you can have fresh sprouts with little worry of mold destroying a whole batch

If you run into mold problems when you are sprouting at home you want to first make sure that it is really mold that you are seeing. Sprouts often grow root hairs, some seeds more than others. Root hairs are tiny fuzzy hairs that can look a bit like mold, but are really a perfectly normal healthy part of the sprout. You probably will not notice them when they are wet, as they often fall from the weight of the water. Just look really closely at them, use a magnifier if you need to, to identify if they are hairs or mold. You don't want to throw away perfectly good sprouts.

No matter what type of sprouter you use it should be sterilized every few sprouting sessions. Sterilizing is a very simple process. With bleach, hydrogen peroxide or grapefruit seed extract dilute one of your choice in a container of water, enough to accommodate the size of your sprouter. Let is soak, immersed, for an hour or so, rinse and then dry.

Rinsing and draining daily are one of the main essential steps in sprouting, but to avoid mold you need to take a little extra care in the both steps. When rinsing, something as seemingly small as rinsing with warmer water could encourage mold. Making sure you rinse every rinse with cold water can help keep away mold. When it comes to draining make sure you get as much water as you can off the seeds and the sprouter you are using. Removing the extra moisture makes the environment less hospitable to mold.

A very important part in sprouting is air circulation. If the sprouts don't get the circulation that they need mold will grow. If you tried other measures and you still have mold on your sprouts it could be a circulation problem. Some sprouts at the beginning need a cool dark place, which sometimes limit areas in your house. You might be tempted to start them in a cabinet, but the circulation is really poor and might not be the best option. A room with a fan is the best option to keep good circulation while sprouting. Even using a floor fan in the area of your sprouts can be very effective.

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