Auto Sprouter - Introduction

Step by Step Instructions  Creative Usage  Q and A 中文


If you like to grow your own vegetables and are big on organic food - but have no time or the space to exercise your green thumbs, Auto Sprouter may be the right tool kit for you.

Product description：
Auto Sprouter is a tool kit made up of plastic bags, straws, tubes, clips, a drip and other ready-made objects.  The main incubation bag has four layers.  The top layer is for water storage.  The three layers below are for sprouts incubation.  By adjusting the drip, you can control your water source strength and irrigation frequency. When water drips into the top layer and reaches a certain level, it trickles down to the lower layers via the syphon principle.  This is how this tool kit irrigates the sprouts without the use of electricity.

In order to give the sprouts more horizontal space for growth, each layer has a spring.  This also helps to prevent the sprouts from soaking hence rotting in the water.  Depending on your preferences, you can grow 'white' sprouts by minimizing photosynthesis.  This can be achieved by covering the incubation bag with a piece of black plastic sheet.  For certain sprouts, such as wheat, the use of a black sheet is unnecessary.

To grow the bean sprouts, place the beans in the punched bean bags and place two bean-filled bags in each incubation layer.  The bean bags help to prevent sprout roots from blocking the straws and make harvesting easy.

For more information, please check out the step by step instructions.

Benefits：

• The drip allows automatic irrigation without electricity and minimizes watering labour.  As long as the water flows smoothly and the temperature is appropriate for sprout growth, you can harvest in 3-5 days.  
• You can harvest at most 6 bags of sprouts at a time - enough for a family of 4 to enjoy 3-6 meals. 
• In growing your own preferred sprouts, you have no worries of growth promonants such as antibiotics or chemicals added to make the sprouts appear more pleasing to the eye.
• Consider this a form of hydroponics.
• Auto Sprouter takes up little space (length 132cm, width 31cm, depth - dependent on sprout growth). It's suitable for any home.
• Auto Sprouter can also be used to grow flowers making it a funky window art.
• When vegetables get expensive during typhoon seasons, bean sprouts are a healthy alternative source of fibre and vitamins.
• Sprouts may not need sunlight to grow; thus you can incubate them in dark places.
• If Auto Sprouter is damaged, it is inexpensive to replace.
• When you lack fridge space, you can temporarily place vegetables (if they still have roots) in the incubator to keep their freshness.
• Auto Sprouter has patents from Taiwan, England, USA, Japan, Australia, Canada and South Africa.

Note：

• The best water source should ideally be a little higher than where the Auto Sprouter is hung so that water can be induced by the syphon principle.  It is also possible to just connect the water drip to a tap but it is important to keep the joint socket tightly around the tap as strong water pressure may force the socket to come off.  Some people use water of toilet tanks; but if the tanks contains bleach or rust, then it is better to avoid using them as water source for growing your sprouts.
• If the water source is unstable, the sprouts grow irregularly.  Parts may shrivel up or start to rot.
• After harvest, the incubation bag can be tricky to clean.  Sprout growth can degrade the incubation bags.  Thus when Auto Sprouter no longer produces good harvests, it is better to throw it away.
• The resulting sprouts tend to appear slenderer than the sprouts in the supermarket.  This is because the supermarket sprouts are incubated in stacks of boxes - forcing the sprouts to grown thick and short.

Product comparison：

	Box incubator	Auto Sprouter	Round incubator
I m a g e s
I r r i g a t i o n	Very few allows automatic irrigation.  Manual labour is needed.	Plus! Automatic irrigation via a drip control - no electricity and no hassle.	Manual labour
C l e a n i n g	Cleaning of the container post harvest is preferable.	Not suitable for cleaning. Inexpensive to toss away.	Cleaning of the container post harvest is preferable.
S p a c e	35*25*28 cm (two layers)	Plus! length 132 cm， width 31cm，depth is dependent on sprout growth.  It is quite suitable to be hung against a wall to save space.	Depends on the product.  Some are stackable bowls and some are 1 litre bottles.
P r i c e	Around US$20-40 depending on how many layers.	Plus! To be decided - will be cheaper than the competitors for sure!	Around US$10-50
M o b i l i t y	It's heavy - around 1-3 kg.	Plus! Auto Sprouter is light and easy to carry.  You can even hang it in your caravan and it won't take up much space.	Weight depends on the container material.  Plastic ones are lighter than glass bottles.  It may require to be disassembled when moved.

Product story：
Auto Sprouter was invented by Mr. M. K. Chen, a Canadian South African Taiwanese entrepreneur back in the 80's.  During that time, many countries were against apartheid policy in South Africa.  To keep the economy going under boycott, South African government encouraged foreign investment and immigration. For those Taiwanese who ventured there, they did not find a wide local range of vegetables; thus Mr. Chen started making a kit to grow bean sprouts at home. Bean sprouts are popular and common in Chinese food. Although there is no longer a need to grow his own bean sprouts as they are readily available in most supermarkets, Auto Sprouter proves to be a great tool kit for growing organic vegetables and a fun hobby for green thumbs.