How to Grow Barley Grass in Australia

Barley grass is the young leaf of barley (Hordeum vulgare, family Poaceae), grown thickly on a shallow tray and cut to be juiced raw. It grows like wheatgrass, but its blades are broader and a lighter green, and its juice is less sweet, sharper and more grassy. Most trays are ready 6 to 10 days after the soak starts, and most failures were sown too thick and kept too wet.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Sowing the grain in a heap. A mound of grain holds water in its middle, and mould starts in that wet, airless core. Spread one layer, as Soaking and Sowing describes.
2. Watering over the top. Water poured over a thick stand pools among the grains and blades, where still, damp air favours mould. Once the roots grip, water from below, as Day by day describes.
3. Cutting down at the mix. A low cut drags hulls, spent grain and roots into the juicer, and the juice tastes of them. Cut well above the grain, as Cutting and Storing describes.

When to sprout

Barley grass grows indoors in any month. Barley grain germinates best at about 15 to 20°C, and a room near 20°C suits the grass. In one laboratory trial at 5°C, seedlings took about 10 days to reach a 1 cm shoot. Germination fell as warmth rose above 20°C and failed at 35°C.

Above about 30°C, soak and grow the tray in the coolest room you have.

Food safety

The warm, damp tray that sprouts the grain also grows bacteria, and bacteria carried inside a contaminated grain cannot be washed out.

• Sow untreated whole barley with the hull on, sold for sprouting. Supermarket pearl barley has had its outer layers polished off and will not grow. Barley for sowing a paddock can carry fungicide, as which seeds to sprout explains.
• Wash your hands before handling grain or grass. Wash and rinse the tray, jar and tools, juicer included, then sanitise them before the first batch and between batches. Use a dishwasher that can sanitise, usually its longest, hottest setting. Otherwise soak them in very hot water (77°C for 30 seconds). Or use plain unscented household bleach at 25 mL to 10 L of cold water for 30 seconds, made up fresh each day. Air-dry everything.
• Soak and rinse the grain only in drinking water.
• Potting mix can carry Legionella bacteria. Follow the bag's warning: wet the mix down, wear gloves and a P2 mask, and wash your hands afterwards.
• Keep the tray, grass and juicer away from raw meat, poultry and seafood. Store cut grass above them, in a fridge at 5°C or colder. Anything cooked for someone at higher risk is eaten straight away, or cooled, refrigerated, used within a day and reheated until steaming hot.
• Mould on the grain, slimy brown roots or a sour smell end a tray: compost the grain and mix and wash the tray. Grass can carry harmful bacteria while looking, smelling and tasting normal, so none of those is a test of safety. Sprout problems and safety covers more signs.

What you need

Set a shallow tray with drainage holes inside a solid tray that catches water. A third tray with a few holes or slits, upside down, is the cover. Fill the tray with 1 to 2 cm of seed raising mix or lay a coir mat. You also need clean scissors, a spray bottle and untreated barley grain. For the rinses before sowing, use a sprouting jar, a jar with a mesh lid or a colander.

For any tray, spread dry grain over its empty base in one even, dense layer, and soak that amount. In a humid kitchen, sow about a quarter less.

Soaking and Sowing

Start the soak in the evening; the grain is usually ready to sow a day or two later.

1. Rinse off dust and chaff, and pick out stones and broken grains.
2. Cover it with two to three times its volume of cool drinking water. Soak it for 6 hours in a warm kitchen, up to 12 on a cold bench. Grain left longer in warm water can sour.
3. Drain, rinse and drain again, and do not soak it a second time. Rest the jar upside down, or the colander over a bowl, so the grain drains and gets air. Rinse every 8 to 12 hours until most grains show a tiny white root tip.
4. Water the mix or mat until it is damp right through, then let it drain.
5. Spread the grain in one dense, even layer and press it gently onto the surface without burying it.
6. Cover the tray and keep it dim until the shoots reach 4 to 6 cm. That usually takes about 2 days, or 3 on a cold bench.

Under the cover, mist the grain once or twice a day until the roots bury themselves in the mix. Due to quarantine restrictions and our shipping policy, we cannot send barley grass seeds to Tasmania.

Day by day

A good tray stays damp at the grain and dry on the blades, with air moving over it. Days count from the start of the soak.

To water from below, pour water into the catch tray, give the mix about ten minutes to drink, then tip out the rest. A fan on low or an open window nearby stops humid air settling over the blades.

Cutting and Storing

Barley grass is ready once the blades stand 10 to 15 cm tall and still upright. Grasp a handful and cut it with clean scissors 2 to 3 cm above the mix. Cut only what you need; the rest keeps growing.

To store a cut, keep water off the blades for the last 8 to 12 hours so they are dry. Seal the grass in a clean bag or container and refrigerate it as Food safety describes. It keeps for up to about a week, though a fresh cut juices best. Rinse it under cool running water just before use.

Common problems

White fuzz at the base. Root hairs form an even white fuzz along the roots only, collapse when misted and return as the tray dries. Mould can be white too, but it spreads in cobwebby patches over grains and mix, stays when wet and smells musty. If it is mould, end the tray as Food safety describes rather than cutting above it.

Sour smell or slimy roots. The tray sat too wet. Throw it out and fix the watering, as in Three mistakes that matter.

Patchy or no germination. Grain sown dry or left to dry out, and old grain, are the usual causes; a cold bench only slows it. If nothing has sprouted in a week, with no roots in the mix or shoots once uncovered, compost it and check the room temperature.

Yellowing or flopping blades. Grass left well past cutting height in a small tray tends to yellow and wilt. Cut it sooner.

Tips

1. Sow a small tray every two or three days for a steady supply.
2. Store dry grain sealed in a cool, dark, dry cupboard, where it can keep for about two years.
3. The grain grasses article compares barley, wheat and oat grass.