Last week I started sprouting whole oats using Sprouting oats‘ first study as a model.

• Oat seed variety was Thunder Acres Organic Oats Lot# DEC 07 2022, sized .3 cm x 1.1 cm. That’s a large seed by criteria of large not passing through a 2.65 mm x 8.33 mm sieve.
• 100 seeds weighed 4.2 grams. There were almost 600 seeds per 25 g batches.
• Oat sprout batches were processed the same way I do broccoli sprout batches. A new batch started soaking to start germination every 12 hours, then was rinsed three times every 24 hours on a 6 hours – 6 hours – 12 hours cycle. The model also soaked seeds for 12 hours, but watered daily.
• Temperature was 21°C (70°F) compared with the model’s 25°C. Relative humidity was lower than their 60%, probably between 30% and 50%, because it’s winter outside.

A few sprouts were similar to the model’s radicle length of 6.47 ± 0.22 cm after five days of germinating in darkness:

Didn’t achieve anything close to their 100% germination rate:

Not sure why 78% of seeds didn’t overcome dormancy. Different oat variety? Half the model’s relative humidity? Four degrees cooler temperature? Too frequent watering?

I decided to continue on to 6-day-old oat sprouts. A few sprouts had a growth spurt and started greening:

Just a few, though:

Didn’t generate enough data to confirm significant differences in germination rates between 5 and 6 days, or between a.m. and p.m.

---

Removing each batch’s sprout hulls was tedious. Now I can cut my fingernails again.

I ran another trial Sprouting hulled oats using oat seeds from a different company and Degree of oat sprouting as a model.