I finished a 3-lb. bag of hulled Avena sativa oats used in Sprouting hulled oats after starting 20 gram batches twice a day. Amazon said that Montana farmer’s products were “Currently unavailable. We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.” I went to their website and emailed an inquiry.

Turns out it’s Amazon’s problem in restocking pallets that are already received! I placed an order directly with the farmer.

In the meantime, I’m trying another oat species, Avena nuda, from an Illinois farmer. I’ll reuse Degree of oat sprouting as the model, since it was also an Avena nuda oat variety.

• Oat seed size was 7-9 mm x 2-3 mm. The model used “huskless oat ‘Gehl’” which may be a different variety.
• 100 seeds weighed 2.9 grams. There were close to 700 seeds per 20 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.
• Temperature in my kitchen was 21°C (70°F) because it’s snowing outside. The model findings included “Temperatures between 20° and 25°C yielded the most dramatic changes in properties of sprouted oats.”

I evaluated germination results per the model’s Degree of Sprouting finding:

“Length of the coleoptile [shoot] was selected as a criterion of categorization of degree of sprouting. Grains of degree 0 do not show any radicle [root] or coleoptile growth. Degree:

1. Has visible embryos (small white point), while radicles and coleoptile are not visible;
2. Shows a developed embryo emerging from the seed coat;
3. Coleoptile lengths of at least half the oat grain length;
4. Coleoptile lengths between half and a full grain length; and
5. Coleoptile longer than a full grain length.”

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Here’s what this hulless oat variety’s seeds and 3-day-old sprouts looked like:

The tedious part was evaluating degrees of sprouting. I took as large a bottom-to-top sample as I could tolerate sorting (160 seeds / sprouts, about 23%), with these results:

A 91% germination rate. 🙂 Average weight of 3-day-old batches was 42.5 grams, for a 213% weight gain. That wasn’t as much as 3-day-old hulled oats’ 97% germination rate and 260% weight gain.

For degree-of-sprouting comparisons, here are my eyeball estimates of the model study’s 3-day-old hulless oats:

These 3-day-old hulless oat sprouts taste starchier with less enzyme aftertaste than 3-day-old hulled oat sprouts. Will extending their growth to four days increase degree-of-sprouting categories 4 and 5, and change their taste?

An extra day from 5 to 6 didn’t make a difference in Sprouting whole oats germination rate. I don’t expect non-germinated percentages to change from 3 to 4 days, but we’ll see.

I expect similar overall increases in antioxidants, GABA, phenolic compounds, protein, amino acids, β-glucan, and polyunsaturated fatty acids as hulled oat sprouts.

Update: Four-day-old hulless oat sprouts have a little more sweetness and enzyme aftertaste. Their degree-of-sprouting and germination rate didn’t change much, though.