July 2025

DIY Sprouting without mold

Sprouts are one of the easiest foods you can grow indoors. Sprouting seeds is a cheap and easy way to grow some fresh salad during the winter. The best way to do this is to use upside down mason jars with a screen instead of a closed lid. You can buy a kit with a stand and a jar for 25$ dollar but if you have already a mason jar then you can build this yourself for pennies. You can use regular mason jar rings to hold the screen in place but I recommend to use a plastic mason jar lid and cut a hole into it. Regular tin coated rings will start to rust after a few weeks. This is because they are not made to be always wet. So plastic is better. I make the screen lid out of a fiberglass or plastic patio door screen sewed onto a plastic ring cut out of a yoghurt jar lid. The plastic ring cut from the lid provides some stability to the patio door screen material.

plastic patio door screen sewed onto a plastic ring made out of a plastic yoghurt jar lid. This will make the screen lid for the sprouting kit.

standard mason jar with the above screen lid

Stand made out of a plastic orange juice bottle. This upside down setup it the most effective way to sprout seeds. It allows for good drainage but keeps some moisture in the jar.

orange juice bottle used to make the above sprouting stand

With the above home made kit you are ready to grow your own salad greens during the winter season. Put the jar on a window sill if you want green salad. If you keep it in a more dark area then you will get just white sprouts. You can find plenty of tutorials and videos online about sprouting. The basic procedure is:

Put a spoon full of seeds in the jar and close it with the screen lid.
Soak the seeds in water for 24h (jar upright)
Drain and rinse seeds with fresh water and put it upside down in the stand
Drain and rinse twice per day (once in the morning and once in the evening)
Enjoy fresh salad greens after about 5-7 days

The draining and rinsing maintains humidity and reduces the risk for mold growth. It depends however on the kind of seed that you use. I had been buying seeds at https://sprouting.com/ but their seeds are on the more expensive side. A cheaper way is to just buy dried lentils or beans at the supermarket. I have used whole grain fenugreek, lentils and various beans from the supermarket. A two pound pack will last for years.

Some seeds seem to have mold spores on them. A particular pack of Mung Beans sprouted OK but made it more likely to get mold growing and this is annoying because you find out about the problem only after a few days and then you can throw the whole batch out.

No more mold: soak seeds with Chlorine Dioxide

If you are new to Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2) and this sounds like a scary chemical to you but you want to learn more about it then take a look a the following resources:

https://theuniversalantidote.com/
https://curioushumanproductions.substack.com/
https://mmsguidance.com/
https://mmsinfo.org/
https://theuniversalantidotetestimonies.substack.com/archive
https://andreaskalcker.com/en/
https://jimhumble.co/, Jim passed away Sept. 1, 2023 (born Dec. 27, 1933) but this website is still maintained
https://mmstestimonials.co/, Jim's database of testimonials.

ClO2 is a harmless (actually beneficial) water disinfectant when properly used. It can be used as a wound disinfectant and it does not inhibit wound healing. Many disinfectants like hydrogen peroxide, diluted bleach, iodine solution or alcohol do disinfect wounds but they inhibit also tissue re-growth and healing. Pure ClO2 (not MMS!) in water is different. I is very aggressive against mold and bacteria but it does not damage plant or human cells.

Pure ClO2 is a gas at room temperature that dissolves easily in water. You can buy kits with a Sodium Chlorite solution and an acid to produce this gas. The pure ClO2 gas dissolved in water at a calibrated concentration is known in the alternative healing community as CDS. We can add a few drops of this CDS solution to the seeds during the 24h soaking period. This resulted for me in massive improvements. I had no more mold in sprouting greens. Not a single moldy batch in several month.

Here is how I make non calibrated CDS (distilled ClO2 in water):

Fill a small test tube about 2cm high with Sodium Chlorite solution and the activator acid, set it inside a jar with 1oz of water. The two components inside the test tube will react and produce the ClO2. It will distill at room temperature.

After a day the concentration of dissolved ClO2 will be the same in the outer jar and the test tube. You can see this because the color is now the same. Take the test tube out and discard the liquid inside the test tube (it's safe to pour into the sink). The outer liquid contains now a very pure (no residual chemicals) solution of ClO2. Note that ClO2 is a very small molecule. It can not penetrate glass but it can slowly evaporate through the rubber seal of the jar. Keep it in the fridge to reduce evaporation.

Add about a table spoon full of the above CDS solution (pure ClO2 in water) to the water for soaking the seeds. It will destroy mold spores without damaging the seeds.

Make sure that your equipment is always clean before you start. Wash jars, lids and stands before starting a new batch. I believe also that if your indoor air is contaminated with mold then disinfecting the seeds will help but it will not eliminate the problem.

Very important: MMS and CDS (distilled ClO2 in water) are not the same at all. MMS is basically Sodium Chlorite and acid activator used directly (without the distillation process). MMS has therefore residual acid and residual salts in it. MMS is not suitable for wound disinfection as it will impair wound healing and if you apply it to seeds then they will not sprout at all. Make sure you use only pure ClO2 gas dissolved in water even small amounts of residual acids and salt can ruin your seeds.

Citric acid is the better acid activator for making CDS (distilled ClO2 in water) as it does not evaporate. Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) is also a gas dissolved in water and will distill with the ClO2 making the final solution acidic.