The Victorio 4-Tray Kitchen Seed Sprouter costs less than $30 on Amazon. As far as popularity, convenience and cost, this may be the best seed sprouter.
You can even buy a set of stainless steel sprouting trays for under $50. Now, compare that to a small package of fresh broccoli sprouts at my grocery store runs about $5 a pop.
Alternatively, you can get everything in one kit for a few bucks more (including a variety of sprouting seeds!).
You can Grow a Lot of Sprouts in a Small Space:
The 4 trays make it really easy to grow a variety of different seeds simultaneously – like you get a salad kit or something. It also keeps your mini indoor garden nice and neat on your kitchen counter so that it doesn’t get in the way or become an eyesore.
Another bonus is that growing sprouts does not require lots of sunlight. In fact, during germination and the first few days of growth, I let my seeds sit in darkness. This gives me much more flexibility as far as where I can place my stackable trays. I don’t have to always keep them in a well-lit window that might get in everyone’s way.
Sometimes the most convenient place may be on a shelf, side table or desktop. Just be sure to keep it out of closets or cabinets because you want to provide ample air circulation as I mentioned above.
Disadvantages of Growing Broccoli Sprouts:
Probably the biggest frustration that beginners have is making mistakes and having mold grow or seeds not sprout. Victorio seed sprouters have simplified the process and therefore eliminated most potential problems.
Their specially-designed system maintains the proper amount of water throughout the growing period. In my personal experience, if you take care to water and rinse your sprouts daily, you will have problems.
Moldy harvests are typically due to gardens that are left unattended and have poor air circulation. This is an easy problem to avoid.
And then What?
Once you become a broccoli spout growing expert – keep in mind that you can get a second sprouting kit and stack it directly on top of your first one.
You can get double the sprouts without taking up any more kitchen counter space. This system is so efficient, you may never want to hassle with growing vegetables outdoors again!
Many people choose to get a variety of different sprouting seeds and grow different types in different containers. Get more nutrients, more flavor and make an entire salad with sprouts instead of lettuce.
You can also schedule your plantings to harvest on a daily basis rather than have them ready-to-eat all at the same time.
Grow Fresh Sprouts with the Victorio 4-Tray Round Kitchen Seed Sprouter Model VKP1014.
Are Sprouting Kits Better for Growing Sprouts?
Many people use plain mason jars with mesh lids to grow their sprouts. That is perfectly fine to do, not to mention cheap if you already have the materials.
However, I think that the easiest way get started sprouting is to purchase a simple sprouting kit. A complete kit will typically include sprout-growing trays, the type of seeds you need to grow along with step-by-step instructions. This makes it very easy to successfully grow sprouts without any problems on your first try.
You can also get sprouting kits that do not include the seeds. These kits generally come with the trays only. As long as you know which seeds to buy, this option can work just fine.
Specially-designed trays I think are better than mason jars mainly because they are made to provide optimal ventilation and drainage for the plants. This is key to healthy harvest.
In addition, wider, flatter trays can grow more sprouts at a time than smaller glass jars. Plus, many sprouting tray kits can be stacked on top of each other to provide maximum growing area while taking up a small amount of counter top space.
Yes, there are some super-cheap sprout growers around $10 that don’t provide as good a value as the multi-tray type that you can find for between $15-$30. There are also electric versions that cost over $100. These require less maintenance, but the cost is significantly greater.
As I mentioned above, buying a sprouting kit is not required in order to grow broccoli sprouts at home. However, when you compare the ease-of-use to the cost difference, the Victorio 4-Tray Kit seems to win.
