Growing Mung Bean Sprouts

Growing Mung Bean Sprouts


Mung Beans will pale as they swell with water. Before you end your soak, check them: If you see that on a lot of your beans, part of the bean (one end usually) is still as dark as it was before soaking, they may need a little more time to soak - to make sure they have taken up all the water they need. This is difficult to explain, but I will of course try. If that dark green is no more than 20% of the seed, consider it fully soaked. The seeds continue to take up water even after soaking, so they'll be fine. If more of the seed than 20% is still dark green, drain the soak water and add fresh water. Soak for a few hours more and check them. You'll be done soaking when the seeds are at least 80% pale. Of course, if you got your seed from us, we will tell you here if you need to soak them for more than 12 hours. We haven't had a lot of Mungs that required such special treatment since the last millenium, so don't sweat it - if you are using Sproutpeople Mung Beans.

In any case, we soak Mung Beans for 12 hours. If we are in a hurry we'll use warmer water - 80-90° is a good starting point if you want to experiment with shorter soak periods, but be careful not to go too hot - that can cook your seeds in which case they will never sprout.

Hard Seeds

Mung Beans also tend to have hard seeds once in awhile. If you buy your seed from us this is not much of a concern, but these are beans after all, so it is always good to check for hard seeds - as well as rocks (hey, these grow on farms! Dirt Happens!). If you buy Mung Beans or other seeds elsewhere be sure to examine them after soaking to make sure there are no hard seeds (seeds that are as hard after soaking as before) . If there are - throw those (the hard ones) out (or better yet, compost them)! Hard Seeds are easy to spot as they are smaller than those that are swollen with water, as we detailed above.

Big and Thick Mung Beans - Growing With Gas

We are still working on this, so the details will not be here until we have firm conclusions. When we do, they will replace this text: Our tests to date seem to validate the theory...... Here's the theory. It runs counter to our rap on Air Circulation, but hey, there are always exceptions to any rule, right? Fruit off-gasses as it ripens. The gas is ethylene. Ethylene is a gas used in commercial Mung Bean production. Ethylene gas seems to promote the root growth of Mung Beans. We use a large paper bag - from a grocery store. Allowing space for the Sprouter, we put in the bag; bananas and apples. We use organic fruit. We will be experimenting with other fruits to determine which work best. Here are fruits that emit ethylene gas: Apples, Apricots, Avocados, Bananas, Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Kiwi fruit, Mangos, Nectarines, Papayas, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Tomatoes. We don't know yet whether there are more, nor which produce the most gas. We work on this as time allows. Here is the rest of what you need to know if you want to experiment yourself: We use the exact same technique we detail in our Sprouting Instructions (above), though we are still trying to determine if applying weight to the growing sprouts is necessary. We are trying to grow in an Easy Sprout with a second Easy Sprout, partially filled with water as a weight. Our alternative method is to grow in a standard Easy Sprout with no weight applied to the seeds/sprouts. Isn't education grand?:~) Ironically we sell a product which helps keep sprouts and other vegetables and fruits fresh longer. Our Produce Storage Bags do so by allowing the ethylene gas to escape the bag. Perhaps we should try using them in our tests. Hmmm.

De-Hulling Mung Bean Sprouts

We do not try to remove the hulls of Mung Bean sprouts. They are thin, inoffensive, have no noticeable affect on shelf life, and they add color. The hulls are very difficult to remove, so we advise leaving them in your crop. We've eaten these hulls for 2 decades. They're swell. For those who want to know why store bought mungs often have no hulls - the answer is that commercial growers have big de-hulling machines that agitate the sprouts as they pass through a trough filled with moving water. It's a very elaborate process with no home version - at least not one we've figured out to date. As we like the hulls, we probably never will find a home solution, so enjoy your crop - hulls and all. Happy Sprouting!

Dry Mungs await their Soak.

12 hours later... Soaked, Rinsed and Drained.

Here is the weight we use when growing in Easy Sprout. The top is a water filled Solid Base with a Solid Lid. That is sitting directly on our Mung Beans in the lower Easy Sprout's Growing Vessel - which is of course sitting in its elevated position within another Solid Base.

12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.

12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle. You can be done now. They're small but perfect.

Here is what they look like if you harvest now (the same time as the picture above). If you are going for big thick roots, keep on sproutin'!

12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.

12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.

12 hours later... another Rinse/Drain cycle.

12 hours later... Harvest Time! Once you manage to get the sprouts out, they will look something like these.

Family: Leguminosae
Genus: Vigna
Species: radiata
Cultivar: Unnamed