How to Prevent Mold when Growing Sprouts at Home

Growing sprouts at home is a great way to add fresh vitamins and minerals to your diet and sprouting at home is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying them packaged at the local market. Early on when I first started sprouting I would shy away from sprouting in the summer because the warm air and the moisture in the jar would cause mold and ruin a whole batch. It was a problem I experienced year round, but inevitably during the warmer months.

Eventually, over years of sprouting, I learned more about the technicalities of sprouting and now sprout anytime of the year, no matter the season, without the worry of mold.

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 (one of last 2 if your natural, like me) 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 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 sprouter you are using. Doing extra shaking and batting around could work wonders to get those last drops. Removing the extra moisture is important because it 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 for me always limited areas in my 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 to keep good circulation while sprouting. Even using a floor fan in the area of your sprouts can be very effective.