The Raw Chef

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 12

I've back-posted this a little as I wanted to show you the final picture at day 11.  Obviously the wheatgrass here is good to juice and will continue to grow until you've drunk the whole lot!

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 10

Still growing!

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 9

Blades of grass are growing nicely and should be various lengths between 2cm and 10cm now.  If you're starting to see some mould at the base of the wheatgrass it may be due to the amount of time that the wheatgrass seed was stored before you bought it.  Hydrogen peroxide is the best thing to get rid of mould.  Adding it to the water you use to feed the wheatgrass works well and look for better seed for next time.

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 8

Starting to look like actual wheatgrass now.  Just keep watering regularly, shouldn't be difficult if you've a had the storm that I experienced this afternoon!  I've never seen rain like it in the summer, or in the winter actually!

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 7

You should now have a tray of wheatgrass that looks something like the picture on the left.  I put this out last night so it has started to go green even in the few hours since sunrise.  You will find that it's more yellow when you take it out of the dark.  I have given my tray a good amount of water to be getting on with.

The hard work is now over and all you have to do is keep it watered and see the fruits of your labour flourish before your very eyes!

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 6

Leave your wheatgrass in darkness again today.  This is the last day until you reveal it to the world so tonight, if you can't wait until the morning, you can take it out and give it a good watering.  Otherwise, you can leave it until the morning and reveal it then.

We're going to need to place it as close to a window as possible but away from direct sunlight.  Outdoors at this time of year is great for wheatgrass, it'll end up being very green because it's had so much sunlight.  Just make sure you find a place that the sunlight won't get directly on it.  Also, make sure you put it somewhere the cats won't sit on it!  This isn't a problem I've ever had but I've been warned by people who have!

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 5

Nothing to do today as far as the wheatgrass is concerned - who said growing wheatgrass was difficult and time consuming? :-)

One word of warning though; don't be tempted to peak at your wheatgrass, not even a little!  They mustn't be shown even a slight bit of daylight otherwise they will think it's time to start growing again, rather than keep putting down their roots.

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 4

You should find your seeds have grown 'tails' that are a few times longer than the body of the seed itself.  This means you are ready for planting, but if your seeds aren't quite there, they should be by tomorrow.

So first up we're going to take your trays (use 1 tray for every 1 1/2 cups of dry seed used) and fill them 3/4 full with the organic compost.  Once that's done you can sprinkle the sprouted seed over the compost ensuring an even distribution all the way to the edge (start with the edges and then fill the middle).  It's okay to have seed on top of each other, you'll also find that there shouldn't be any compost showing.

Next we need to thoroughly water the whole tray as it won't be seeing any water or the light of day for the next few days.  Once fully watered, cover with another empty tray.  If you have more than one tray you can stack them up in this way.  If you are using trays with holes in you will need to use bin liners to cover them as well as we don't want the seeds getting any light at all.

I'm using a plastic box with a lid to put the trays in that completely cuts out the light.

We're going to leave the trays undisturbed for the next few days to allow the seeds to put down their roots and germinate further.

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 3

Today is just a continuation of yesterday - keep those little seeds washed as regularly as you can up to a few times a day.

At the time of writing this, we're experiencing some very hot weather so the seeds are quite advanced now and are sprouting well.  You should certainly be seeing some 'tails' on your seeds by now.  Day 4 will be the same as today and we should find that we're close to being able to plant them.

Grow Your Own Wheatgrass - Day 2

This morning you should have drained your wheatgrass seed as instructed yesterday.  Today is also very simple, it's all about keeping that seed washed.  Don't worry, you can still do this if you work during the day.

I like to use a sieve to drain the seed and then wash it through.  Then when it's washed I'll leave it in the sieve over a bowl.  If I'm using a larger quantity of seed that won't fit in a small sieve then I'll just leave the seed in the bowl once drained.

Wash the seed at least a couple of times throughout the day.  You can wash it before you go to work and leave it until you get back, no problem.  What we're doing here is sprouting the seed up to a certain point that enables us to plant them in the trays.