So I've been researching on sprouting black oil sunflower seeds.
...
I mean by this that I'm working on the 'applied science' of it, not the theory. I'm actually sprouting them over time and growing them up enough to use with the animals.
Right now I'm trying to increase the number of seeds that actually sprout, as opposed to the numbers that never sprout and end up in the bottom of the tray. After doing this for several months I've noticed that there's always a certain number of them that don't sprout in the bottom of the tray.
This bothers me. I don't expect that its possible to get a 100% rate. I think that's probably not possibly, but I do believe it is possible to improve the rate significantly.
But to do this I think I need to know more about how much the seeds breathe during the first week of sprouting. How often do they breathe in this phase?
It seems like you are supposed to about every 8 hours or so dump out the water of the jar, with them being in a submerged jar on days 1 to 3. And then they sort of come out of the seeds and start growing. And then you sort of bounce them back and forth between a few hours with air exposure and a few hours submerged while over time moving them into having better drainage as time passes.
I want to ask, if its better to use horizontal trays throughout this, as a horizontal tray (instead of a mason jar) would allow more seeds to breathe more, as more of them could be near the top and not necessarily deeply submerged? What do you think about this?
And what's the ideal number of hours for submerged seeds, to how much time after in air exposure before being re-submerged?
When I first started this process a few months ago I had some trouble with drainage. I fixed that. (If you are doing this after they are sprouted and if there isn't enough drainage while they are forming root structures it will mess everything up.)
*I've fixed the drainage. But now I realize that its taking me too long for them to grow from seed to a sproutling.*
I think this is due to not having the right timing on how much time they are submerged compared to how much time with air exposure, and the cycling of going back and forth between the two. (So don't get me wrong. I do think its working, and I am feeding the animals this stuff and its working.) But I do think I've got the timing wrong still.
So any advise on this to fix it would be helpful. Thanks.
...
I mean by this that I'm working on the 'applied science' of it, not the theory. I'm actually sprouting them over time and growing them up enough to use with the animals.
Right now I'm trying to increase the number of seeds that actually sprout, as opposed to the numbers that never sprout and end up in the bottom of the tray. After doing this for several months I've noticed that there's always a certain number of them that don't sprout in the bottom of the tray.
This bothers me. I don't expect that its possible to get a 100% rate. I think that's probably not possibly, but I do believe it is possible to improve the rate significantly.
But to do this I think I need to know more about how much the seeds breathe during the first week of sprouting. How often do they breathe in this phase?
It seems like you are supposed to about every 8 hours or so dump out the water of the jar, with them being in a submerged jar on days 1 to 3. And then they sort of come out of the seeds and start growing. And then you sort of bounce them back and forth between a few hours with air exposure and a few hours submerged while over time moving them into having better drainage as time passes.
I want to ask, if its better to use horizontal trays throughout this, as a horizontal tray (instead of a mason jar) would allow more seeds to breathe more, as more of them could be near the top and not necessarily deeply submerged? What do you think about this?
And what's the ideal number of hours for submerged seeds, to how much time after in air exposure before being re-submerged?
When I first started this process a few months ago I had some trouble with drainage. I fixed that. (If you are doing this after they are sprouted and if there isn't enough drainage while they are forming root structures it will mess everything up.)
*I've fixed the drainage. But now I realize that its taking me too long for them to grow from seed to a sproutling.*
I think this is due to not having the right timing on how much time they are submerged compared to how much time with air exposure, and the cycling of going back and forth between the two. (So don't get me wrong. I do think its working, and I am feeding the animals this stuff and its working.) But I do think I've got the timing wrong still.
So any advise on this to fix it would be helpful. Thanks.
