How & Why to Grow Sprouts… a complete guide

Last Updated on June 20, 2024 by Michelle

I’ve been loving homegrown sprouts for years and decided it’s about time I fill y’all in on how amazing (and easy!) they are.

Why grow your own sprouts?

Sprouts offer amazing nutritional value. Keep reading!
You can grow them all year long! Sprouts are fresh food, loaded with good-for-you stuff, that you can grow anytime, all year long! This is a huge plus for our family, given our short window of gardening time in New England.
You can grow a large variety. I love having control over exactly what seeds I’m sprouting on any given week and exactly how many I sprout. I think ahead to what sandwiches, or soups, or salads I want to have in the upcoming week and grow the sprouts that will go perfectly with what I’m planning.
There’s less waste. Sprouts don’t have a very long shelf life. They won’t last as long as the lettuce and peppers in my fridge, so instead of buying a large bag from the store that gets wasted, I can make just the amount of sprouts that I want each week.
You save money. I also love saving money, of course. It’s much more cost effective to grow sprouts than purchase them at the grocery store.

Are sprouts good for you?

I remember learning in middle school history class that hundreds of years ago European sailors ate oranges, or some kind of citrus fruits, while they were at sea most of the year, to avoid scurvy. Or something like that.

The idea was they found a portable way to make sure they were eating fresh nutrients to help them stay healthy.

So I thought it was pretty cool when I learned recently that Chinese sailers did the same kind of idea but instead of fruit, they took along food they could grow right on the ship!

You can probably guess what those brilliant seafarers took with them?

You got it… sprouts. Ingenious, right? Especially when you hear what modern science has learned is packed inside of these little powerhouse sprouts…

Sprouts are:

low in calories
almost totally fat-free
a good source of vitamin C
anti-inflammatories (seriously. like ibuprofen, but better.)
high in carbohydrates, so they provide lots of energy
high in vitamins
high in minerals
high in proteins
loaded with good-for-your enzymes
subtly flavored nutrition that is easily added to almost any foods
an easy snack, either by themselves (think chickpeas) or layered on something (like a rice cake cracker, with cream cheese)

Add to that long list of benefits the fact that science has found sprouts may reduce your risk of cancer, improve your allergies, decrease your risk of heart disease, and fight diabetes, ummm, we all need some sprouts in our day, no?

What exactly are sprouts?

Maybe I should have started here. Until a few years ago, I was mystified by sprouts, but honestly I have no idea why. They’re super simple.

Sprouts are baby plants. By soaking them in water for 24 hours, you soften their seed casing and they start to grow. Then after a few more days of daily spritzing, they’re ready to eat. They’re powerhouses of nutrition because they are kinda of everything in a full-grown plant, in one tiny little thing.

How do sprouts compare to microgreens?

Not only was I mystified by sprouts, but I was super confused about the difference in sprouts and microgreens. Again, I have no idea why I found this all so confusing. Basically, microgreens larger mini-plants grown in dirt, with sunlight. You don’t eat the entire microgreen, but cut off and eat the top part, that grows above the soil. (With sprouts, you eat the entire thing, the mini seed and mini plant that has started to grow.)

Sprouts don’t need sunlight or dirt to grow. Sprouts honestly couldn’t be any easier to grow, and they can literally be grown anywhere–the hull of an ancient Chinese sailboat or the dark, otherwise unproductive corner of my kitchen.

What are the best sprouts to grow?

I like different sprouts for different purposes, but some of my favorite sprout seeds are ones that are already professionally “mixed” for me like this 3-part salad mix, this lentil fest, and this protein powerhouse.

I love garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) as a larger bite of crunch on a salad (kinda like adding nuts to your salad). Or I’ll enjoy them as a snack in and of themselves occationally. I’ll sometimes add some salt and some nutritional yeast or cheddar cheese powder–a little like popcorn.

I love alfalfa or clover sprouts layered on top of my tossed salads or in place of lettuce on a sandwich.

How do you grow sprouts?

You don’t need any special equipment at all. You can grow sprouts in an inverted mason jar with a piece of fabric over the top, that allows the moisture to drain off of your sprouts after watering them daily. Or you can get a special sprouting lid like this one for your mason jar, to make things a little neater.

But I love my 3-level sprout garden. It takes all the guess work and difficulties out of the equation. And it’s just one simple “tower” for up to 3 kinds of sprouts, instead of having 3 different inverted jars propped around my kitchen. If I ever wanted to, I could even purchase an additional kit and have 6 levels of growth (and 6 varieties at once) yet take up no more space in my kitchen.

I have to be creative to have enough dark, cool places to store my loose leaf tea and my scoby hotel, so I love it that the sprout garden doesn’t need me to carve out any special area to keep it, since it has a built-in way of keeping the sprouts in the dark.

Also, there’s no need for rigging some sort of a draining tray or bowl. The sprout garden system is made up of 3 grow trays and 4 lids, which serve to cover the sprouts below while collecting draining water from the sprouts above. There are 4 lids, which gives you a base for the whole system even when you are using all 3 trays.

How to Grow Sprouts with a Sprout Garden:

1. Pour some sprouting seeds in a lid that you’ve placed upside down. No need to start with a lot of seeds, just a 1/4 of a cup is plenty.
2. Soak your seeds for 12-24 hours in lukewarm water, in the lid. Cover the seeds totally with water and place another lid on top.
3. After they’ve soaked a while, transfer your seeds to a sprout tray and rinse the sprouts with a gentle stream of tap water.
4. Then I shake the tray to kinda evenly disperse the sprouts all around the tray.
5. Cover your sprout tray with a lid and set it on a base. (The tray has small slits for drainage and the base has indents to collect all the drainage.)
6. Rinse your sprouts with cool, fresh water a few times every day for 2-4 days, or until sprouted (when you see tiny plants have started to grow).
7. Lay your sprouts in indirect sunlight, without lids. The sprouts will produce chlorophyll and carotenes as they lay out in the light.
8. Pad dry any sprouts you don’t eat right away or make sure they’re completely air dried, before storing them in the fridge. They will keep up to a week in the fridge. Adding a piece of paper towel in your storage container will help them stay fresh longer.
9. If you’re not re-sprouting more, clean your trays and lids with hot, soapy water and a scrub brush, dry, and store away until you’re ready to grow some more delicious, nutritious sprouts.