Oats grown at home, rich in vitamins, minerals and nutrients, are loved by pets, and sprouted grains of oats are useful for people. There is no difficulty in growing this grain crop at home.
Methods of growing oats at home on the windowsill (grass for pets)
There are three ways to grow oats as a healthy treat for pets.
In vermiculite
Vermiculite is a mineral substance often used by gardeners as a material for growing. Its main positive feature is the ability to absorb a volume of water 5 times its own mass. Vermiculite is sold in gardening stores.
The technology for growing oats in this way is simple:
- Grains and vermiculite are soaked for a couple of hours.
- The mineral substrate saturated with moisture is poured into the prepared for germination dishes so that about 3 cm remain to the edge.
- Sow oats.
- The dishes are wrapped with packaging film, left on the windowsill.
- After germination of the grains, the film is removed.
The appearance of the first seedlings can be expected after 3 days, and after a couple of days a pet treat can eat a vitamin treat. Sprouts are watered 2 times a week, non-absorbed water is drained.
In the substrate
Growing oats in a substrate is just as simple, you just need to buy a standard soil for seedlings in a gardening store. You can take fertile soil on a personal plot.
Sowing Algorithm:
- Capacity for growing is filled with a thick layer of soil, watered.
- Oats are sown with grains close enough to each other.
- Soil is poured on top so that it completely covers the seeds. You do not need to fill the container to the edge, otherwise when the seedlings appear, the soil will spill out.
- Re-water the soil with barely warm water, but not abundantly.
- The container is wrapped with a film to create a greenhouse effect, put in a shaded, but warm place.
- After biting the sprouts, the film is removed, the container is rearranged on the windowsill.
After 5 days, the pet can enjoy a healthy herb.
In gauze
This method of growing oats is suitable for those who have plastic petri dishes at home. You need to take two: one (wider) will be a pallet, the second - a capacity for growing. The bottom of the second must be pierced several times with an awl. The perforated cup is placed on the pan tray.
To accelerate germination, the oats are soaked: pour the grains into any dish, cover with moistened gauze, wrap it with a film, leave it in a warm place until the sprouts are biting. Hatching seeds are sown according to the following algorithm:
- Fill cheesecloth in 3 or 4 layers.
- Put in a perforated Petri dish.
- The gauze is wetted. Grains are laid out on it.
- The design of the cups is covered with a film.
In gauze, oats are grown for a week. Therefore, so that the pet always has fresh grass in the diet, sowing is carried out every 7-8 days. The gauze in the cup should remain moist. Chopped greens are crushed, added to the feed.
Do not give animals oats that have grown from seeds treated with agrochemicals. Do not collect cereals on the field, buy from farmers. Raw oats for germination are sold in specialized stores and on the Internet.
Sprouted oats contain vitamins and mineral elements necessary for the body of cats and dogs, making strong bone tissue, restoring the shine of the coat. The grass normalizes the digestion of the animal, helps with diarrhea and constipation, removes lumps of swallowed wool from the digestive tract. Oat greens for pregnant cats are very useful.
Germination of oat grains at home
Oat seedlings are suitable for eating not only animals, but also people. This useful ingredient is added to salads, pastries, diet smoothies, cereals. Sprouts are a rich source of proteins and minerals that strengthens the immune system and improves blood composition.
You can eat only the earliest seedlings, stretched no more than 4-5 mm, have not yet had time to grow greens. After a three-day cultivation, oats become unsuitable for consumption, acquire a bitter taste, are difficult to digest in the human digestive tract, and can cause bloating, poisoning.
For germination, they buy the same oats in a package that is used for growing for pet food. It is not treated with chemicals, unlike grain sown to produce crops.
Oat germination algorithm:
- Sort grain, wash under the tap.
- Poured into a deep container, poured with water a few centimeters above the surface of the grain mass, left to swell for 10 hours.
- Swollen oats are washed again, poured into a wide container with a flat bottom. The layer thickness should not exceed 2 grains.
- And under the grain mass, and on it they put moist gauze folded in several layers.
- The container is placed in heat until the sprouts are biting, then rearranged in the refrigerator. In cool conditions, the seedlings will grow more slowly, which will allow them to be consumed longer.
It is advisable to store sprouted oats in a glass bowl. Daily seedlings must be ventilated so that their rot does not begin.
It is contraindicated to use oat seedlings with peptic ulcer, gastritis in the acute stage. In these diseases, a fiber-rich product is poorly absorbed, does not leave the intestine, which causes inflammation to worsen.
The process of growing oats at home for pet food or as a mineral and vitamin supplement to the human diet is simple and does not take much time. You should choose the most optimal way to get juicy greens or sprouted grains using special planting material.