Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

WOW, x4. I used to buy supermarket sprouts (clover or alfalfa), but became concerned with the growing food-borne illness cases rising with sprout contamination. My first exposure to sprouting came with the Easy Sprout Sprouter from the Sprout People. However, even with the small seed guard and following the instructions and various tips for sprouting alfalfa and clover seeds, my seeds took 6-8 days+ plus to reach supermarket sprout size. And I found it difficult to get good drainage so my sprout roots would usually brown. Additionally, separating the sprouts, which were small and randomly growing in a heap, from the hulls was a time of dread. I wanted to highlight this first experience so that I could explain why the Victorio 4-tray seed sprouter is more optimized for growing these small seeds. I stopped sprouting alfalfa and clover and switched to sprouted lentils for a long time. Tail between my legs, I fought investing in yet another sprouter. But, missing my sprouts I took a chance on this item and I am SOOOO glad that I did. So far I have sprouted alfalfa, clover, radish, mung, broccoli, aduki, lentils, and other mixes from The Sprout House--which are awesome mixes if you're a beginner! So how do I do it? Well, I soak my seeds overnight (~7-10hr) and dump them into each of the trays the following morning. Twice each day I take the unit (4-stack and bottom) and fill ~2cups of water on the top unit to allow drainage top to bottom. The system is NOT absolutely perfect for draining, so after a few minutes I walk over and tilt the entire unit on a slight angle. The holes are located only around the edges, which is why I feel this is necessary. Not every hole drains as uniformly but this can be fixed in two ways: 1) you can use something to widen the hole such as a fork prong or as I do 2) take each individual tray and angle it on a paper towel after it's mostly drained. The capillary action will remove the last bit of residual water and keep your sprouts moist but not stagnant. I then assemble the unit back into the 4-tray and rotate the trays at each watering. After 3 days post soaking (!!!<---excitement) I have HUGE, HEALTHY, BEAUTIFUL sprouts. I have posted a photo (before de-hulling) of the mat and the tray with the sprouts :) The alfalfa and clover sprouts grow and form this "mat of convenience" with their little roots. This allows me to fill a large bowl with room temperature water, dump the sprout mat out and gently wriggle it in the water. Because the sprouts are in a mat, I can continually dump the water out and refill 3-4x to remove ALL the hulls. This allows the sprouts to be stored (once drained again) in the fridge with the lid--for UP TO TWO WEEKS (this is the longest I've kept them and they were fresh and delicious). I haven't found de-hulling as easy with the larger beans or legumes, but for alfalfa and clover this is as good as it gets!