Sunday, July 10, 2011

Growing wheat grass


Wheat grass is known as a super food, some say rather "touted as super food" - but I would not agree with them ... I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and I took some medications, but it did not seem to work out well. I started my intake of wheat grass and it proved to be as beneficial as the medicine otherwise would. However, growing wheat grass is not a very easy deal, but once you standardize how to grow them, then it is a piece of cake. You have to remember to take care of them twice a day, else, you loose it to mold and other natural/unnatural predators. Recently I bought a kit from amazon, that works wonders growing these. I will post the photographs in a while.
The wheat grass kit consist of trays and on the top of the tray there is a flat sieve like structure and on top of that there is a plastic sheet. All can be independent of each other and stack very well.
This is 3 days after germination. You can start washing the culture at this stage. Notice, the culture is on the sieve and the thin plastic sheet.

You can keep covering with this green house cover till day 5 or till you see any mold growth. Once mold growth is detected, take the cover off.

5-6 days growth

Almost ready for harvest
You can roll off the roots after harvest. Notice how the roots form a massive sheath like structure. This is the structure that holds water for the wheat grass culture.
This is when you keep it under sun and water twice a day or you are away from home:((

First soak the wheat seeds overnight and the next day spread them uniformly over the plastic sheet of the  kits. The plastic sheet stack over the sieve and the sieve sits on the tray. Spray water and cover the tray with the black specified cover. Everyday, spray some water twice a day, so that the seeds are adequately moisturized. In about 24-36 hours after getting transferred to the trays, the seeds will germinate and you can see the green epicotyl. Once you see the epicotyl, take off the black cover and replace this with the white green house cover. Keep spraying water twice a day. In about 2-3 days after germination, the root growth will be strong enough, so that the trays can be washed under running water. This prevents mold or bacterial growth. After about 4 days of sowing the seeds, you can take off the green house cover and start washing the trays twice a day. Make sure, you don't keep the trays under direct sunlight or in a windy place. This way, the seeds itwll dry quicker and you will need to water them more frequently. The best place to keep them is inside the house.

I Tried growing mustard green un-successfully on the tray!!

Same fate with methi seeds - did not come out well at all!!

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