sprouting fodder advice please?

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Noobious

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montana
I'm trying to sprout barley seed for my rabbits, and I keep running into a problem, the seeds start to sprout, and then after a week has gone by only a few seeds grew grass and the rest get moldy. I even soaked them in a bleach solution first.
I'm wondering if maybe the drain holes are too small, or am I watering yhem too much? I typically do it 3 times a day. I know it's not humidity, as montana is a dry climate. Does anyone have advice for me?
 
It could be the quality of the seed or you could be overwatering. I sprout wheat in winter for our goose and chickens and find it easier than barley or oats. However, last year I had a bag of wheat that had a very low germination rate. I complained to the feed store and they replaced the wheat but the second bag was just as bad. Wheat from another feed store sprouted just fine, so I speculate that the bad bags were old or had been stored in poor conditions. Very frustrating!

There is a lot of information in these "stickied" threads:
fodder-sprouting-systems-anyone-t10317.html
a-beginning-t21277.html
 
Like Maggie, I sprout wheat and grow it out into fodder, about 3-4" tall to feed to our meat mutts. (I can't get barley locally, just oats or wheat and oats are said to be harder to sprout) My experience has been that it doesn't do well when the weather is warm--don't really know if it's because of temp or because the humidity is higher when we're not needing heat on. But it grows really well, no mold problems as long as it's cool. Couldn't start it until quite late last fall. I only water mine twice a day, nearly 12 hours apart. And the one or two times I forgot, it didn't die. So perhaps overwatering could be a problem.
I hope someone who actually sprouts barley will respond. It's always most helpful when the circumstances are closest.
 
I did a little research and I think my next attempt I'll try planting a batch in a little potting soil, I saw that it worked for one person, and I'll also do a batch with just water and try watering it less and see if there's a difference there. If not, I'm gonna assume it's the seeds themselves
 
Rainey could be right that heat is the problem... how's your weather? I only grow fodder when there is no grass available outdoors, so November to April. It's mainly for our elderly Pilgrim goose, Elsie, who is a darling and deserves a little pampering. :angel:

I have grown grain grass in soil in the past and that worked very well. I used to do it for fresh treats for the rabbits (no longer have any) and I could get 2 or 3 cuttings before the grain grass got discouraged. I then threw it to the chickens, soil and all, and started fresh.

If you decide it is the quality of the barley, try to get some wheat. The barley could be used as grain and fed either to rabbits during the cold winter months or to poultry as a supplement.
 

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