We grow sunflower sprouts and pea shoots in our propagation house during the summer months when it would otherwise stand empty. Since our customers demand that we keep growing salad mix even during hot Nebraska summers, it is nice to have one crop we can usually pull off every week all summer long. Growing sprouts has not always been easy for us. We have struggled with our methods. After nine years of growing them, we have learned a few things which we are more than happy to share. Here is a quick overview of our sprout production:

We grow our sprouts on tables in a heated hoophouse. We use only natural light. During the hot months we use 35% shade cloth. We grow sprouts in plastic 1020 flats with drain holes. Black-oil sunflower seed and field pea seed are both soaked for twelve hours prior to seeding. We spread the soaked and drained seed evenly over a layer of vermiculite for sunflower, or perlite for peas (About one quart of media per flat).

Seed should be spread to completely cover media but should not overlap. During very hot weather we cover seed with a thin layer of vermiculite to make sure the seed remains wet for the critical germination period. A misting system is a very good investment! Uniform watering equals uniform growth.

Sunflowers take seven days to reach desired maturity in the middle of the summer. Day length influences maturation, so we adjust our planting accordingly. The desired stage for harvesting sunflower shoots is when the cotyledons are fully open and lose their attached seed hulls, but before the first set of true leaves fully express. Optimal harvest occurs in a very narrow window.

We have had good luck holding uncut flats of sunflowers and peas in our walk-in cooler. Stems do elongate, but leaf development can be held for about a week in the desired stage. We have found that covering the growing shoots with a plastic bag before placing them into the cooler helps keep them from drying out.

Pea shoots take 10-12 days to reach a harvestable size during the main growing season. We have found that it is preferable to harvest the shoots when they are about four to seven inches tall. When they get much taller they begin to run out of food. At this point the bottom leaves start to turn yellow. As the tendrils begin to elongate your harvestable yield seems to go down. Once again there is a perfect harvest window that we try not to miss. Pea shoots do best during our cooler spring and fall. With shade cloth we are able to keep growing pea shoots all through the summer.

To harvest the shoots we use a sharp knife to cut right above the growing media. It is a good idea to irrigate right before harvesting. This helps avoid wilting. We have found that the most labor intensive part of producing sunflower sprouts is removing the seed hulls. Right before we harvest we brush over each flat with the palms of our hand to brush off as many hulls as possible. Then we pick the sprouts. Pea shoots don’t require this step.

We wash the sprouts in large stainless steel bulk tanks. We use a large grid mesh to separate sunflower sprouts from their hulls. Tedious hand picking is still required. In this regard pea shoots are much simpler. We use a commercial salad spinner to dry the sprouts. Over the years we have had a few bad seed lots. Sunflower seeds can carry some nasty fungal diseases causing stunted and deformed seedlings with poor vigor. Unfortunately, the only way to know if you have a bad seed lot is to grow out a batch. Ask for a sample before buying a large quantity of seed.

We market both our pea shoots and sunflower sprouts at Lincoln and Omaha farmers markets. We sell them bulk alongside our salad mix and arugula. Our customers love to mix and match ingredients. We sell all our mixes for the same price to keep it simple, currently $8 per pound. We also sell our cut and washed sprouts to stores and restaurants. We sell to retail stores in 3 oz. bags with our label displayed on the front.

A few last lessons we have learned:
•Mouseproof tables are a necessity. We use only the two center tables for sprout production. We constructed our tables with legs made out of galvanized chain link fence pipe, which mice can’t climb.
•Sparrows flying through our vents have been a problem. Wire hardware cloth keeps them out.
•We have tried growing both sunflower and pea shoots on compost as well as our own soil mix. We had more problems with seed rotting. Soil is also more messy and prone to mold. Because they are harvested so quickly they really don’t need a secondary food source. The growing media is a substrate for the roots only.

Our sprouting seed source is:
Tiensvold Farms
HCR81 Box 22
Rushville, NE 69360
PHONE/FAX308-327-3135
mtienvo@gpcom.net