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I am trying to grow cress on food grade paper, but it dries out so fast when you first put the seeds on that I can’t keep up with the watering. What can I do?

There’s lots you can do. First of all make sure you are around when you first grow them and they are needy for water. Or when you first sprinkle the cress seeds on the food grade paper try completely swamping them with water, even though it looks like the seeds might drown! They really won’t, they will suck it all up and start to germinate. Also you can use two sheets of paper one on top of the other (I have used up to three before) which will hold even more water. If you are using a bottle of water to spray your sprouts, it’s easy for them to look wet on top but still be dry underneath, so really do douse them.

Help my red clover are going mouldy, even though I water and drain them twice a day.

It could be old seed, or failing that, you could have too many seeds in the tray and they haven’t got room to breathe. The ones on the top might sprout a bit but the ones underneath will go mouldy. Make sure all your seeds can touch the bottom of the tray, side by side seeds are fine, on top, they will rot! This is true of growing flax as well. It’s ok to grow beans and lentil sprouts on top of each other though, because it’s only for a couple of days.

I have been sprouting broccoli, mung, chickpea and lentil seeds for around 2-3 months and try to consume sprouts for lunch and dinner most days (around 1 cupful).  I must admit, even this amount a day is playing havoc with the old digestive system!

The digestive problems are most likely to be caused by the chickpeas. I did flag this up on page 140 of my book – the answer is to lightly cook them. Plus make sure the mung bean sprouts you grow have a good root before you eat them. Some people do struggle with raw food generally, this is due to lack of stomach acid, so if it is still a problem you might want to check it out.  Do take a probiotic yoghurt or saurkraut with them too, as if you have digestive problems it might mean all the lovely compounds aren’t converted into the health giving properties.

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