ORGANIC COTTON FOR SPROUTS
Organic cotton for sprouts and microgreens in loose weight from Simply Gentle Organic.
This organic cotton is free from pesticides, coloring and toxins. Therefore, it is suitable for your cultivation of gelling / mucilaginous seeds such as Cress, Chia, Rucola, Tatsoi, Mizuna or Mustard for sprouts and microgreens.
Your seeds only need 5 mm wet cotton in height. You can place the wet cotton in a small bowl, moisten it and spread out the seeds on the cotton. The seeds will grow on the moist cotton wool until you harvest your sprouts 6 days later. If you choose to grow the seeds into microgreens, then you should give the plants more cotton to grow in to prevent these bigger size plants from tipping over.
HOW TO GROW SPROUTS IN ORGANIC COTTON
Here is how you cultivate your own organic sprouts on cotton in 6-7 days:
- Wash your hands.
- Take a handful of organic cotton wool from the package. There should be about 5 mm of cotton wool in height when the wet cotton is spread out under your seeds.
- Place the cotton wool in a clean bowl or flat sided plate.
- Soak the cotton in clean, cold water untill it is very wet.
- Sprinkle your organic seeds – Cress, Chia, Rucola, Mizuna or Mustard – on the organic cotton wool. The seeds should be in one layer and only just touch each other.
- For the next days the cotton wool should be slightly damp all the time, until the sprouts have developed leaves. This takes about 6 days.
- When the sprouts have colorful leaves, they are mature and ready to eat.
You can now harvest the mature sprouts by cutting them 1 cm above the cotton wool. You can not eat the cotton wool with the roots, but the stem and the beautiful leaves are crispy and delicious in all dishes.
HOW TO GROW MICROGREENS IN ORGANIC COTTON
Microgreens are bigger plants that grow for longer time than sprouts. This means you need a little more cotton + lights + liquid fertilizer to grow your own microgreens on cotton. Here is how you do it:
- Wash your hands.
- Take a big handful of organic cotton wool from the package. There should be about 10 mm of cotton wool in height when the wet cotton is spread out under your microgreen seeds.
- Place the cotton wool in a clean bowl or high sided plate.
- Soak the cotton in clean, cold water untill the cotton is very wet.
- Sprinkle your organic seeds – see all the Microgreen seeds – on the organic cotton wool. The seeds should be in one layer and have 1 mm distance between them to grow well into these bigger microgreen plants.
- For the next 6-7 days – until the plants have developed colorful leaves – just keep the cotton wool slightly damp all the time.
- On day 6 and until harvest, the microgreen plants need a dew drops of fertilizer once a day – see fertilizers >
- Also let your microgreens get extra light by placing them under a lit plant bulp for 8-10 hours every day.
- When your microgreens have unfolded their first set of true leaves – the leaves after the first very small leaves – then the plants are mature and ready for you to eat. It takes about 12 days for microgreens to grow from dry seed to mature plants.
You can now harvest your mature microgreens by cutting them 1 cm above the cotton wool. You should not eat the cotton wool with the roots. In stead simply rinse the stems and leaves and enjoy your homegrown microgreens raw, juiced or steamed in your dishes.
Marlene –
Good for home-made Chia pets! 😀
Karen the Sprout Lover –
I absolutely love your great explanations on how to use your products. Thank you <3