Soaking Seeds - wheat, pea, sunflower, mung

2 cups of each seed in jars

Starting to sprout soil sprouts!!!  Wheatgrass, pea sprouts, and sunflower sprouts! As well as hydroponic mung bean sprouts!!!
Here we go!
In preparation for coming home from HHI, I purchased from the HHI-store one pound each of black oil sunflower, mung bean, hard red winter wheat, and peas for shoots seeds.  With 10% "member" discount, I paid the following: $4.46, $5.36, $3.15, $3.56, respectively.
I was hoping to get these all started right away but, I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find the correct sprouting trays, which I forgot to purchase from the HHI-store.  At any rate, I found them at Greenhouse Megastore and I think they will be arriving soon!
So, I'm getting ready.  I've soaked the seeds today and will be starting the rinsing cycle this evening.  Mung bean, pea, and wheatgrass have an 8 hour soak time; and, sunflowers have a 6 hour soak time.  Doing things together, they're all going to get about 8+ hours soaking.

start of soak

According to the HHI sprouting info, to plant 10"x20" sprouting trays of wheatgrass, sunflower, and pea shoots, 2 cups of each are to be used.  So, I put 2 cups of each into Ball jars and nearly filled with distilled water to soak.  Mung bean spouts are hydroponic and won't be soil grown but I'm starting 2 cups anyways because I love them...  this may be a mistake if I don't find a sufficiently sized container to sprout them...
So, what I noticed when I took 2 cups of each of the sprouts out of the one pound bags is that some bags had more seeds remaining than others.  Obviously, some seeds weigh more than others.  It was just a little surprising to me that, except for the sunflower seeds, the other one pound bags of seeds are now essentially gone after taking 2 cups for one each 10"x20" tray.  I guess I didn't expect that.

nearly done soaking

Of the four types of seeds, they all sunk to the bottom of the water except for the sunflower seeds.  I'm assuming they're mostly floating because of the air inside their shells.  I hope this doesn't affect the soaking process...  I swooshed them around and turned them upside down at least a few times during soaking.  Now nearly 8 hours later, they still float...  See "nearly done soaking" photo.  Also notice in this photo that the pea seeds are nearly coming out of the top of the jar!  I've kept adding water to stay on top of them but they're bursting.  I need to get them another container for the rinsing stage, which should only be about 1 to 1.5 days for these seeds.  Time to start looking for other sources of seeds and comparing...  I know the HHI staff recommend using the HHI seeds because they've already spent years finding the best seeds, particularly for the wheatgrass... but, I'm still curious... They must be getting them from somewhere...  stay tuned for price comparisons.