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Why I love and hate the SproutMaster™

I have seen many images on the internet of nice thick green leafy mats of sprouts. In a jar or the EasySprout™, sprouts tend to stay short and don't get very leafy. I discovered that the trick to growing these mats of greenery was to use a tray sprouter. The SproutMaster™ is a very popular tray sprouter. It's about 1 1/2 inches deep with a perforated bottom and a pair of covers. Using this sprouter, it is possible to grow beautiful tall green sprouts.

First I should mention that I believe that the SproutMaster™ is a little over-priced for what it is: a tray with holes in it. In fact, you could say that about any sprouter you buy. There really is nothing special about it. The lids don't even fit on it securely. The trays are stackable which will save space if you need to own several and sprout constantly. It comes in different sizes and mine is 8x10 inches. It has a cheap little divider you can put in the middle to separate crops.

Green Leafy Alfalfa Sprouts

A crunchy green mat of leafy alfalfa sprouts, thanks to the SproutMaster™.

Brown root tips

Why I don't like growing leafy green sprouts in the SproutMaster™.

It doesn't take much effort to grow a thick tray of beautiful looking tasty sprouts. I'm not talking about shoots or microgreens, Just sprouts. Not too tall but not short and curly either. To grow short leafy sprouts you need to do the following:

That's pretty much all there is to it. You can search around the internet and find more detailed instructions and advice but in the end, this is all you need to do. The key is not to break up the root mass and just let it grow.

Here are some of the things I absolutely dislike about this sprouter:

A lentil radish salad sprout mix

The SproutMaster™ does an ok job on everyday sprouting.

Despite the issues I have with the SproutMaster™, I still use it often. The size of it lets me sprout quite a bit at one time which is nice. And the extra surface area lets me spread the sprouts around and keep them nice and loose. For everyday use, it's perfectly fine. I have detailed instructions for using the SproutMaster™ here

As for growing thick mats of green leafy sprouts, I don't like to do it often. To get good results you need to sprout for a bit longer than I'm comfortable with. You also end up with loads of brown tips on the roots that poke their way through the tray holes. Not only do the root tips turn brown but they also block the sprouter's only source of ventilation. You'd think that letting your sprouts leaf it up would help remove the hulls and it does... from the sprouts. But they tend to fall into and get lodged in the sprout mass and no amount of spraying, even upside down, will free them. I find that by day six (if you go that long) the bottom of the sprouts smell and get slimy and to me that means inedible. If timed just right you can grow a nice crop of leafy green sprouts in the SproutMaster™ I just find I don't have the patients for it.

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