Sprouting seed

[wallis23]

Hi everyone
I have been sprouting my own seed using white french millet and virkon s. Just wondering what seed people are using and the results they're getting ?
My birds eat the french millet but aren't crazy about it.

[Craig52]

Hi Geoff, I use the normal finch mix,canary,white millet,red pannican and grey/jap millet but add more white millet bought separately and soak it for around eight hours with virkon s.The spouting time for these seeds are different depending on daytime temperatures but i find the canary seed takes the longest and the white french millet the quickest,so when the latter just pips the whole lot is mixed with a soft food and placed in the freezer.IMO,it really doesn't matter wether the rest of the seed hasn't piped as it is eagerly taken because it is soft and easily digested for young birds in the nest.
How much vircon s are you using to a litre of water? it maybe too strong and your birds are rejecting it because of taste. Craig

[wallis23]

Hi Craig
I use 1/2 a teaspoon virkon s to 2 litres of water is this right ?

[Craig52]

That's about the same as i use with out any problems but in saying that,i do rinse the seed before i set it to spout where others don't,i just don't like the dirty yellow water that its been soaked in. Craig

[nathau]

Craig, Just wondering what do u use to drain the water from the seed and let the seed sit in to grow? I found a small kids butterfly net, but the holes in that are even to big and I lose to much seed when rinsing it. It works well for any seed bigger than sorghum though.
Thanks Nathan

[Craig52]

Craig, Just wondering what do u use to drain the water from the seed and let the seed sit in to grow? I found a small kids butterfly net, but the holes in that are even to big and I lose to much seed when rinsing it. It works well for any seed bigger than sorghum though.
Thanks Nathan

Nathan,i use large kitchen sieves with holes of around 2mm,i rinse the seed in these under the tap and with a good up/down motion get rid of most of the water but leave it in the sieve to drain a bit longer for around an hour.It is then placed in a large plastic container(or wheel barrow in my case) in a warm place to sprout and then i add a finch soft food to dry it out even more and freeze it. Cheers Craig

[Redwing]

Hi Nathau
What quantity are you sprouting? I've only got a small colony so do mine in Chinese takeaway containers and then freeze so I can take out a few spoonfulls each day. Have drilled holes in one container and then just sit it inside another with no holes. Works great... no mess. I don't worry about rinsing off the Virkon S. and either do regular finch mix or a mixture our local supplier sells for sprouting.