How to Grow Mung Bean Sprouts for the Best Taste? Master These Growing Tips

Mung bean sprouts are a traditional nutritious food in China and many other East Asian countries, rich in protein, vitamin C, and a variety of essential trace elements and amino acids for the human body. So how do you grow mung bean sprouts for the best taste?

1. Soaking and treating the mung beans

Pour the selected beans into a vat, fill it with water, then stir up and down. Use a wire skimmer to keep rotating the water and beans in the vat, skimming off the bad beans and other debris that float to the surface. Keep skimming until the water is clean. In summer, soak the mung beans in cold water for 4 hours; in other seasons, soak them in 37°C warm water for 2 hours. Cover the mouth of the soaking vat with a lid or a clean burlap sack, and turn the beans once every half hour so they absorb enough water.

Pour the soaked beans into a pre-sterilized container. Plug the drainage holes of the container with a sterilized bamboo steamer rack, so that the beans do not leak out but water can still drain freely. Smooth the beans out evenly. Fill the mung beans to a depth of 8 cm. Do not fill too much or too little. If you fill too much, the beans at the bottom of the container will grow slowly or not at all due to the greater pressure; if you fill too little, the sprouts grow under less pressure and grow too fast, becoming thin and long, which affects yield and quality.

2. Rinsing the mung beans with water

The heat produced by respiration when the beans sprout must be dissipated promptly. Rinse with water in time to dissipate heat, lower the temperature, and add moisture. Otherwise, the sprouts will rot and spoil and give off a sour, foul smell.

The frequency and amount of rinsing should be increased or decreased with the seasons. In summer, when temperatures are high, rinse once every 4 hours, rinsing twice each time. In spring and autumn, rinse once every 4 to 5 hours. In winter, keep the room temperature at 22°C-25°C and rinse once every 6 hours.

Each time, rinse with warm water, and do not let the temperature fluctuate. If the water is too hot, the sprouts will grow faster, the heat will not dissipate in time, and the middle part of the sprouts will turn red and rot; if the water is too cold, the sprouts will grow slowly, become curved, and take longer to grow. The rinsing water temperature should ideally be 22°C. Use a thermometer to measure the water temperature; do not guess.

It is best to rinse with a watering can, just like watering flowers, sprinkling the water evenly. Do not pour or splash carelessly, as this can overturn or break the sprouts and affect their growth. Rinse thoroughly, letting the water in the container flow out through the drainage holes as you rinse. In addition, during the first 3 days before growing, wash the beans once a day in the vat to help them sprout evenly and uniformly.

3. Treating mung bean sprouts with a liquid solution

From soaking the seeds to the sprouts growing 1.8 cm takes about 3 days. For mung beans, use NE-109 plant growth regulator mung bean sprout powder. Using the rinsing method, soak the sprouts for the first time for 1 minute; when the mung bean sprouts reach 4 cm, treat them by the rinsing method, soaking the sprouts for 1 minute. Alternatively, soak the whole mat of sprouts in the solution. After the solution treatment, wait 2-3 days. Before eating, put the sprouts into a water vat at 22°C, stir up and down, and skim off the seed hulls and beans that did not sprout. Do it gently and slowly; do not rub or knead them. Once they meet the eating standard, they are ready.