Victorio VKP1014 Four-Tray Kitchen Crop Sprouter (2-(Pack))

WOW, x4.I used to buy supermarket sprouts (clover or alfalfa), but became concerned with the growing food-borne illness cases rising with sprout contamination. My first exposure to sprouting came with the Easy Sprout Sprouter from the Sprout People. However, even with the small seed guard and following the instructions and various tips for sprouting alfalfa and clover seeds, my seeds took 6-8 days+ plus to reach supermarket sprout size. And I found it difficult to get good drainage so my sprout roots would usually brown. Additionally, separating the sprouts, which were small and randomly growing in a heap, from the hulls was a time of dread. I wanted to highlight this first experience so that I could explain why the Victorio 4-tray seed sprouter is more optimized for growing these small seeds.I stopped sprouting alfalfa and clover and switched to sprouted lentils for a long time. Tail between my legs, I fought investing in yet another sprouter. But, missing my sprouts I took a chance on this item and I am SOOOO glad that I did.So far I have sprouted alfalfa, clover, radish, mung, broccoli, aduki, lentils, and other mixes from The Sprout House--which are awesome mixes if you're a beginner!So how do I do it? Well, I soak my seeds overnight (~7-10hr) and dump them into each of the trays the following morning. Twice each day I take the unit (4-stack and bottom) and fill ~2cups of water on the top unit to allow drainage top to bottom. The system is NOT absolutely perfect for draining, so after a few minutes I walk over and tilt the entire unit on a slight angle. The holes are located only around the edges, which is why I feel this is necessary. Not every hole drains as uniformly but this can be fixed in two ways: 1) you can use something to widen the hole such as a fork prong or as I do 2) take each individual tray and angle it on a paper towel after it's mostly drained. The capillary action will remove the last bit of residual water and keep your sprouts moist but not stagnant. I then assemble the unit back into the 4-tray and rotate the trays at each watering.After 3 days post soaking (!!!<---excitement) I have HUGE, HEALTHY, BEAUTIFUL sprouts. I have posted a photo (before de-hulling) of the mat and the tray with the sprouts :) The alfalfa and clover sprouts grow and form this "mat of convenience" with their little roots. This allows me to fill a large bowl with room temperature water, dump the sprout mat out and gently wriggle it in the water. Because the sprouts are in a mat, I can continually dump the water out and refill 3-4x to remove ALL the hulls. This allows the sprouts to be stored (once drained again) in the fridge with the lid--for UP TO TWO WEEKS (this is the longest I've kept them and they were fresh and delicious).I haven't found de-hulling as easy with the larger beans or legumes, but for alfalfa and clover this is as good as it gets!

I bought one - fell in love, then I bought 11 more. So 12 in all. I even gave one away as a gift. I crave salads, and my local Whole Foods has a handful of sprouts for 5 dollars - and they looked very sad, so I knew I needed a solution. This was it! Yes, I splurged, but in the long run I am saving money and I know my family will eat these sprouts - so many things you can do with them, and cheap bird food too. These come with a small pouch of organic sprouts, so you can have a go right away, AND they are made in the USA. The winter is long, and these are some hints of spring right by the sink. I am also so thankful that the price is very reasonable.

I came from the old fashioned mason jar/cheese cloth method of sprouting. It works, but it was a little bit of work so I thought I'd try several of the plastic sprouting systems like this.I've sprouted everything in this. I mean EVERYTHING. I bought several of the large packs of seeds from amazon including mixes, and they've all grown magnificently.The secrets (if they're secret, the instructions are pretty good) is to use ~2-3 teaspoons of seeds, soak small seeds like alfalfa for at least 5 hours, preferably 8, and the larger seeds/beans for at least 8, preferably 12 hours in room temperature water. Place in the tray, rinse and stack them, and I stick a lumped up kitchen towel under one edge to tilt it and dump the water out of the bottom tray half an hour later.Twice a day I rinse each tray and let the water drain off, then restack rotating the trays each time I rinse, bottom to top.Keep the top loosely set on top. Not enough room for a fly to get in, but don't seal it either. This allows the system to breathe and prevents too much moisture build up.Maintain the grown in temps around 65-80 degrees. Too hot and they'll spoil, too cold and they won't sprout.In 3-5 days you'll have sprouts or they'll at least be well on their way. Rinse out any hulls and non sprouting seeds after a few days because they'll ferment and taste bitter. When they grow thickly together, you can dump the whole mass into your hand or upside down into a clean bowl and rinse a ton of them off, then put the mass back in the tray. Keep rinsing and washing off the hulls.If you see what looks like white mold on anything, its not mold, its micro roots. They'll 'disappear' when you rinse for the most part.When you get a decent amount of growth, you might try putting them where they'll get some indirect sunlight as that will cause them to green up a little, which improves the nutritional profile a bit. No direct sun, it'll get too hot.If they grow too fast, put them into a colander or other draining vessel and put them in the fridge loosely covered, the growing will slow dramatically but still rinse once a day, they'll keep a while.Other than that, just make sure you have clean hands and clean surfaces when handling everything, and when you're done with a tray wash it with a bottle brush or similar and use a toothpick to poke out any small seeds that lodge in the drainage holes, and give it a quick disinfect. I keep a bottle of 10 parts water to one part rubbing alcohol with a little drop of dish soap in it for cleaning my granite counters and sink and the trays all get a little spritz of that and a rinse.I tried the other popular 'jar' type plastic sprouter and that worked well also, but I preferred this models ability to grow four different smaller amounts of sprouts rather than one large load of a single type. The ability to 'stage' them so you're always starting new ones every 2-3 days also improves availability and variety.