Sprout Master Triple Sprouter

Here's is something that will simplify your wheatgrass growing IMMENSELY! Begin by soaking about a half-cup of wheat berries (hard winter wheat is usually recommended) twelve hours (more or less) and allowing them to sprout for three days or so. When you are ready to spread these little sprouts out into your sprouter, first fit one sheet of natural, untreated paper towel in the bottom of the sprouter (you can find these untreated paper towels at almost any healthfood store). You do not need to trim all the extra around the edges because after dry fitting, you will moisten the paper which will cause it to cling to the sides making a nice neat little container. You can moisten the fitted paper towel with kitchen sink spray or soft-pressure kitcen faucet water. Sometimes we moisten it from a kelp-water spray bottle. Either before or after fitting and moistening the paper towel to the inner contour of the sprouter, try cutting off about an inch and a half triangle from one corner of the fitted paper towel. This will give you an open corner from which to make later draining of the growing sprouts MUCH faster and easier. It is also helpful to mark one corner of the sprouter itself so that later on as you are rinsing the growing wheatgrass, you will know where the open draining corner is located. This will be helpful to know if you want to lean the sprouter at an angle to allow the extra rinse water to run off for a minute.Next you spread the sprouting wheat evenly along the bottom of the moistened paper toweling. I usually like to come back and spray them with the kitchen sink spray to help distribute them evenly over the bottom of the container, but this can easily be done with your fingers. If you wish, at this stage you can spray the spread with kelp water. Then place the container in some window light ... direct sunshine is NOT necessary or recommended, and rinse twice a day ... or more the first few days if you have time. Two will do.After you have chewed or juiced or otherwise ingested your wheatgrass crop and are ready to clean out the stubble and roots, all you have to do is start at any corner and pull out the entire mat in one piece. The paper towel helps hold the roots (not all but enough to make an easily remmoval one-piece mat)together inside the sprouter. Once you have disposed of this large mat of roots and stubble, the sprouting container is very simple to clean. The entire process (removing the remains and cleaning the now empty container does not take me longer than three or four minutes...maybe less. It certainly has taken me far longer to write this review. I once tried two layers of paper toweling and the results were nothing like as positive as just the one layer. Nothing else that I have tried this layering with (except garlic for which I prefer to use a cut piece of Sure-To-Grow (the most economical way to go here is with the 20-foot grow rolls) or nothing at all. The paper towel layering did not work well at all for buckwheat greens or sunflower greens. I grow both of these in just a plain empty Master Sprout spouter (large and/or small). BUT FOR WHEATGRASS, I have never had such great crops with such an easy and fast clean up as with this single-layer, natural paper towel process. Also, I do tend to spray all of my growing sprouts with liquid kelp-water solution, (but you can get plenty of beautifully green crops without it). The really good news, as far as I am concerned, is no more soil for either wheatgrass or sunflower greens, etc.! Now that I have retired and am living in an apartment, soil is out...paper towels and Master Sprout spouters (with or without paper towels) are in. I hope no one will allow the complications of soil prep, etc. to keep them for great wheatgrass growing. Also, with these Master Sprout sprouters, other greens for which soil has long been recommended can be grown soil free, e. g., sunflower greens and buckwheat greens.Oh, and one last idea. The Easy Sprout sprouter is the perfect way to start absolutely everything and for beans (which don't need to be greened). I've been sprouting for over thirty years, and I have never before found it this easy and I credit that to the combination of these two sprouting system. I don't see how it could be made any easier. The two together cover all of our sprouting needs: Easy Sprouter takes care of starting all sprouts for later transfer into the Master Sprout containers AND it covers the complete sprouting of beans which do not need greening. Master Sprouters take care of all the things that need greening. I am sprouting and cooking for two and make full use of three Easy Spouters, 5 Master Sprouters (the regular larger size), and 3 Master Sprouters (mini). I keep three wheatgrass sprouters cycling for a constant supply; buckwheat greens and sunflower greens (for salads); garlic and a variety of beans (mostly for soups and stews). All that is needed for this is one 48-inch wide diningroom window with a 20-inch by 48-inch wide folding table to hold the sprouters in the light. The Easy Sprouters stay in the kitchen. As you can see, the entire operation does not take up much space and yet it gives a much appreciated large quantity of live food year round. Rinsing takes no more than ten minutes twice a day.

The Sprout Master is made nicely and looks like it will last a long time. However, it has pin-size holes for drainage, and doesn't seem to work well with small seeds. I am mostly making broccoli sprouts and alfalfa sprouts (small seeds). Probably the Sprout Master would work fine with sunflower seeds, nuts, beans, wheat, or other seeds that are at least as large as a mung bean. What happens with the small seeds, such as the broccoli sprouts, is that they grow their roots through the holes, and their roots make a thick mat underneath. So then it is very hard to remove the entire sprout. The roots break off, so then we have only the tops of the sprouts. I'm able to scrape the roots off of the backside and put them in the salads too, but it's just not as nice as the whole sprout unbroken. I don't have this problem with my other sprouting system, the Tompson & Morgan Seed Sprouter - Two-tiered (also available at Amazon). It works so much better because it has slots instead of pinholes.The broccoli sprouts don't make a mat of roots underneath the tray with the Tompson and Morgan Sprouter. They just make sprouts like you would see in the grocery store. I've also noticed that my sprouts grow much faster in the Tompson and Morgan Sprouter. I've done many comparisons, and it always is like this. I am not sure why. So, all things said, I wish that I hadn't bought the Sprout Master Triple Sprouter. I would have bought several more Tompson and Morgan Sprouters instead. They look very attractive and are a lot easier for me to deal with than the Sprout Master. I'm sure the Sprout Master is great for people that are using the larger seeds. Maybe I will start doing some larger seeds/nuts/beans too, but my main interest is with broccoli sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, radishes sprouts, etc., all of which have tiny seeds.The other thing about the Sprout Master, as others have noted, is that it's a bit difficult to clean small seeds out of the holes. You have to use the tip of a paperclip to poke stuff out sometimes.Once again the Tompson & Morgan is so much easier -- with their slots instead of pin-size holes, the seeds and other stuff fall right out during a quick wash and rinse. No paperclips and poking needed!And the Tompson & Morgan has gone through my dishwasher many times without harm. Sprout Master says don't put theirs in dishwasher, so I have not.By the way, if anyone has some ideas for how I can make the Sprout Master work better with my little seeds, I would love to read your comments. Thanks!

We're new to sprouting and opted for this sprouter based on the reviews here and elsewhere, even tho it's pricey since it's just some basic plastic trays.Since this is our first kit, we don't have anything to compare it against but we're happy with it. We like how the trays stack and it makes for easy rinsing. It's all pretty effortless and we haven't had any problems with growing sprouts. Haven't had any problems with mold even tho we only wash with soap and water between uses. We've got the three trays but two of them keeps enough sprouts on the go to meet the needs of the two of us.My only dislikes are that rinse water will pick up the color of some of the seeds (namely, red lentils). The water will then evaporate, leaving stains on the sprouter. With scrubbing with a tooth brush, most of the stains will come away but not all of them. And, there's a lot of nooks and crannies to scrub. The bottom of the trays have a yellowish tinge to them after several months of use. I'll have to try soaking them with Alka-Seltzer and see if that helps.The only other thing is that I wish the dividers that slide into the trays had less play in them. It's a sloppy fit, so when I pick up the tray near one of the dividers, the tray's side bends and the divider pops out. I get around this by picking up and holding the tray by a corner or end.But, we're happy and don't regret the paying the high price.