grow fresh grass for pets

This pet grass growing kit comes complete with everything needed to grow fresh greens for your pet. These are marketed for cats but I wanted to grow these for our rabbit. The set comes with 3 growing trays. Each tray has a insert that can be used for hydroponic growing and a vented top which allows the pet to eat the grass without getting into the soil or pulling out the roots of the plant.  Both the insert and the lid come in three colors. There is a blue set, a pink set and a green set. You can grow the same type of grass in all three trays or colored code the trays to represent the different types of seeds so that you will know which type of grass is growing in that colored container. I used my label maker to quickly create labels for the trays so my daughter could use them as a science lesson and chart how each seed grows.

The kit also comes with 6 soil disks, a sheet with 24 non-skid pads for the bottom of the trays, an instruction sheet and three packets of seeds. Each packet contains 40 grams of grass seeds. There is one packet of wheat, one packet of oats and one packet of rye. The seeds can either be grown hydroponically or in the included soil.

We decided to try both growing methods to see which worked the best. The first step was to soak the seeds for 6-10 and then drain the water. I chose to grow the wheat seeds in soil. I added water to the soil disk and let it expand, next I sprinkled a teaspoon of wheat seeds over the soil, then I covered the seeds with a paper towel and moistened it with a spray bottle of water. I made sure to check it regularly and keep the paper towel moist. In about 3 days, the wheat seeds began to sprout and most of the seeds sprouted. I choose to grow the oat seed hydroponically so after soaking the seeds, I put an insert into the tray and filled the bottom with water until it was almost touching the insert.  Then I carefully spread the soaked oat seeds out on the top of the insert. I also covered them with a paper towel and moistened it with a spray bottle. It took about four days for the oats to start sprouting and only a few of them sprouted.

After the seeds started to sprout, I removed the paper towels and put the trays in the windowsill to get sunlight. The seeds started growing very quickly and were almost to the top of the vented lid by day 5. By day 7 the wheat grass was ready to be eaten.  By day 10 the oats were ready. Usually, plants grown hydroponically will grow faster than those planted in soil, so I plan on getting some nutrients to add to the water the next time we try growing the seeds hydroponically to see if it will help them grow quicker. As soon as our bunny ate the grass tops, I will be able to rotate the trays to keep them growing so she can always have fresh grass to eat. I really like this growing kit and am planning on buying another set to be able to have a tray ready for her every day.