How to grow sunflower sprouts

I like to watch youtube videos on how to grow stuff, and about a week or so ago i was watching a particular video about how to sprout sunflower seeds, and so I decided to try it out.  I tried last year only to grow a bunch of mold and so I had given up, but this particular video gave me a new idea, and so I tried it out :) i'm glad I did.

I only currently have photos of my sprouts that are basically to the eating point (though they're a bit of work right now to pull of the shells I still am to impatient to wait).  I'll try and get photos of every step so you know what to expect day after day.

I used normal bird seed here, they're ridiculously cheap.  Since these are so good, i'm going with Raw Shelled Sunflower seeds from amazon so that I can start cutting them as soon as they start to get tall enough.

Note, I've hand picked this ad thing below it's the sprouter I use, and the one they mention on here. I've heard for several people that this is the best, and it's proven to be very very nice.  So i'd recommend getting it.  Amazon might be cheaper, but I highly recommend getting it.

Note on this video, skip to 24 minutes or 25 minutes in.  The growing your greens guy likes to ramble on.  I enjoyed the whole video, but the sunflower stuff starts at 24 minutes.

Stuff from the video that is extremely important:

• Soak the sunflower seeds overnight, 8 to 12 hours
• Use good garden soil, i got mine from lowes, $3 for 2 cubic feet which is probably 10+ trays worth
• Use a tray underneath, and a tray with dirt that has holes.  This was my main failing, the water absolutely must not sit in the dirt or you will get mold!!!
• at 29:00 on the video he mentions that Sunflowers like pressure, this was a big one for me, put another tray on top to push down on the seeds, I put a book inside. So this is 3 trays total, 1 to catch water, 1 to have the dirt and seeds, and 1 for pressure.
• Water it every day, and then just empty out the container below when the water has gone through.

So, it should take about 1 week for a complete set of sprouts.  at 33:00 minutes he talks about knowing when they're 100% done.  You can eat them before they're 100% done, but they shouldn't be allowed to go after the point he mentions at minute 33.

At 36 minutes he talks about how much light you need.  These aren't under grow lights or anything.  I've left mine just right in the kitchen and they've grown perfectly.

Here's my photos so far, i'll switch these out with daily photos.

 

These are pictures are about 6 (turns out it must have been more) days I think :) I don't remember exactly when i started them.  This next set is starting today.

Update - Just harvested the last 1/2 pound today.  A few started to get their second set of leaves so it was time to cut them down.  These things are awesome.

Daily Photos:

Day 1 - Starting Soaking, at 2pm

Day 2 - Put the seeds on the dirt

Day 2 (3 minutes later than the other picture) - Put
pressure on the seeds (the bottom 2 trays are this new set)

Day 3 - Look at all those little tails growing

Day 4 - Looks like the other one wasn't 6
days.  But these are growing pretty well.  I'm
also starting some seeds not in the seeds.

Day 5 - Starting to become something

Day 6 - :( sucky lighting, sorry

Day 7 - Almost time to cover these the other way

Day 8 - Covered the other way, and these
things are growing very quickly

Day 9 - Uncovered, and starting to turn green.
Moved to the dinner table, tomorrow I should
be eating these for lunch

Day 10 - Ate my first bowl full.  Everything
is green now, still lots of husks

Day 11 - Most of the husks are off, but the
ones underneath still have a lot

Day 12 - It's now a pretty easy job to
eat a bowl full (which i do right after this picture)
There are still a few husks on the plants that are
under, but it's not as often.

Day 13 - Final Day, look at how big they got.
Note, there are still husks on the ones below
most are gone, but not all.  This is why I
attempted the ones with the husks removed

Day 13 - same day as above, nice the 2nd leaves
starting inside.  Now it's time to be sure to eat them all.

Day 13 - THE END.  Notice how big of a salad you get.  I had
cut about 1/3 before I did this bowl.  This, with other veges,
what a major portion of my wife and I's dinner (the kids don't like it :))

UPDATE:
These lasted until Day 13, when they started to grow their second set of leaves, and I had a big salad :). Note, On my next batch I waited a few days and the second leaves got a bit bigger (not full sized) and they were still fine to eat.

I've also since grown another set out of deshelled raw seeds which I figured would make it much better because I wouldn't have to remove the black seeds all the time.  I WAS WRONG.  It's not better if you're using dirt like I do, and probably isn't either way.  The raw seeds have many broken ones, which won't sprout but will start to stink.  They also have dirt on the leaves as they grow making them harder to clean.  Also, for some reason they didn't grow as thickly meaning I ate through them faster.  All in all, i'll be eating my raw sunflower seeds, and growing ones with the shells still on.

I'm convinced enough at the quality of my salads with these that I will be starting a new batch of sunflower seeds every other day.  I throw in some cheese (usually feta or crumbled goat cheese), diced up onions (green onions would be good too), tomatoes, carrots, and whatever else sounds good at the time.  I've been using italian dressing, but some olive oil, basalmic vinager, and raw pressed garlic would make an awesome alternative (i'll update if this isn't the case :)), we just got our garlic press last night so hopefully I'll get to try this out when my next batch of sprouts are ready.

UPDATE (and probably final post):
Ok, the basalmic vinager with oil and raw garlic is AWESOME :).  If you're like me and enjoy all 3 of those ingredients, then you really need to try them together.  We've got 3 sets of sunflower sprouts, and 1 batch of wheat grass going on right now and have really started to integrate it into our normal meals.  It's cheap and healthy.  Wonderful stuff.