We give the birds a few different types of food, one of which is birdseed. It appears to be a combo of black oil sunflower, striped sunflower, and maybe millet(?) So, in parallel with our microgreens efforts, we’re seeing if we can extend our birdseed supply by foddering it. This basically means germinating the seed and then letting it grow another handful of days beyond that. The shortness of the growth period is such that the sprouts don’t need any nutrients from soil and really don’t even need light. Basically just air, water, and reasonable temperatures (eg room temperature). So for little to no input costs (amount of necessary temp control would be seasonal) we can essentially double our supply of birdseed via this method.
The sample Elissa has in the photo was “harvested” this morning. It was originally 117 grams of birdseed, started germination on January 12…. and grew to 234 grams of fodder in the subsequent week. So, exactly 2x. Supposedly, the nutritive content is actually higher (I assume per unit weight), but I’d like to find some more info on that. The birds gobble it up pretty quickly.
