Hi everyone. I'm new here and am eager to master the art of growing and eating sprouts. I have a few questions that I consider really basic, but are still stumping me...

I have a sprouting chart that tells me how many hours to soak and how many days to harvest. For instance, a 3-part salad mix should be soaked 6-8 hours and harvest at 2-5 days. Well, my question is, how do i know exactly when to stop soaking and when to harvest? If it's 6-8 hours, what am i waiting for by hour 6 that prevents me from ending the soaking and moving on to the next step, rather than waiting another 1-2 hours for a total of 7 or 8 hours?

The same thing when it is time to harvest... with 2-5 days, by day 2, what would prevent me from eating now rather than waiting out the full 5 days?

That is my question... How do I know it's time within those time frames? Is there a magic clue, something i'm watching or waiting for?

Thanks.

The times are not strict at all.

The soaking helps activate the seed so it begins to germinate. The recommendation of six to eight hours is supposedly about the time it takes to activate most of the seeds. If you soak for only three hours or as long as 12 or 18 hours your sprouts will probably be fine anyway. I usually soak mine overnight or from morning to evening, not really bothering to count the hours.

Once the seeds have grown for a couple of days they should be edible. From that point it becomes mostly a matter of personal taste. After only two or three days the sprouts are probably not yet reacting to light and haven't started to turn green. I personally prefer to harvest after four to seven days when there's more green to the little plants. Most sprouters don't use soil or fertilizer, and so you will not be able to continue to grow the sprouts past the age where they begin to look for nutrients. I find that most sprouts grow like this for up to two weeks before this becomes an issue and they begin to suffer.

The best thing to do is experiment. As your sprouts grow you may want to taste a few of them every day to see how their taste and textures change over time. You will probably develop your own preferences that way.