Growing Wheat Grass and Juicing

(Please read updated version first at https://ranjan.in?p=74 )

Recently I came across benefits of drinking wheat grass juice and I was amazed with what nature has in store. I searched extensively (as usual!) on net and went through lot of material to understand the complication of growing it. In USA lot of support from commercial entity is available to support those, who want to grow it. There are kits available and supplies along with various tools are available to make it easy. I thought I would still write out my experiences in trying to grow and giving other people a hope that one can do it without much problem in India as well. I am very lazy person and If I can do it, so can you!

Some one may ask why wheat grass is so special. It turns out that it is not so very different from many other grasses. For example, maize or barley grass are also quite good and so are many others. However among them what grass juice is more beneficial. I would not want to go into those details since there is plenty of material available on net.

Let me try to put rest of the information in form of FAQ!

  1. How much time it takes to grow what grass for juicing? – It takes about 6-7 days to grow to about 6 inches, when it should be harvested for juicing. This depends on climatic conditions and so on.
  2. How to organize this so that I can get juice every day? – What is important is to have this juice fresh. Ideally it should be consumed within 20 minutes of juicing.  So what is best is to have seven containers in which to grow this. It should be sowed every day in a different one so that after six to seven days, you start to get fresh grass every day. Once you harvest from one container, you can reuse that and continue doing that. It is also possible to reuse the same plant once or twice more.
  3. What should be the size of container? – For one person the round pot here seems sufficient, whereas the larger rectangular one is sufficient for three persons(see my comments in the next Blog on this).
    Pots for one person
  4. What should be depth of soil in the pot? – One to two inch depth is enough. So one could have more shallow pot. My larger rectangular pots are better that way.
  5. What soil to add ? – One can add good gardening soil. First time I went to local nursery and asked them to fill it in the pots and had some extra too. While buying the larger pots, I got it filled with the persons selling the pot itself. Soil should not be soggy and should not stick together. One can spread it to dry faster before using it. One should add compost fertilizer before sowing. It has been suggested to not use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides etc.(See my comments in next Blog about this)
  6. Which wheat to use? – I bought it from local grocery shop. They did not have any choice so used whatever they had. If there is choice, one can use bigger grains.
  7. What quantity of seeds should be used? – I use two and half table spoons full of wheat for smaller pot and six table spoon for larger one.But you can adjust as per your experience, this is just initial guess.
  8. What preparation to do before sowing? – Wash and soak wheat for about 12 hours or overnight. Then tie it in thick damp cloth for another 8-10 hours. In Indian warm weather, you should see wheat sprouting by this time. Once is has sprouted a little, it is ready to be sowed.
  9. How to sow? – Spread the wheat in single layer touching each other so that it is as dense as possible without overlapping. Spread a very thin layer of soil on the top of this. Now spray very small amount of water to just make tit damp. More water can be bad here. Cover the pot with damp newspaper sheets so that damp environment is maintained inside. If it  is too hot cover with a plastic sheet or some other thing to keep the seeds in damp environment. Respray twice a day or so to keep it damp. Once you see little sprouts coming out, you can start to expose it to fresh air. Direct strong sunlight for long time may not be good for plants in early stage.
  10. When it is ready to be harvested ? – Keep spraying water every morning and evening and plants should keep growing. Once it has reached a height of 6 inch or so, it is ready to be harvested.
  11. How to harvest? – I use a pair of scissors with long enough blade to cut the wheat grass as close to soil as possible. I bought a sturdy Tailors all metal scissors for this as cheap ones with plastic handle do not last long.
  12. How to Juice? – Wash the grass properly and juice it in spice grinder by adding little water. It would become like a paste in this and now one can strain it through a thin cloth to get juice out of the pulp. It is suggested to use a low RPM machine to do this to keep temperature low during this. Higher temperature destroys  some beneficial enzymes.  One could use other means of extracting juice as well. I could not find a low RPM machine in India, but they are available abroad though expensive. I am using normal spice grinder for the time being. However I have ordered a hand juicer from eBay (India) for something that looks like this(one below that is on Amazon.com) :
  13. How to drink? – It is best taken in morning on empty stomach. It is suggested to not gulp it down at once but consume it slowly as if you are eating it.
  14. What to do after harvesting? – One can reuse the plant couple of times more after which it starts to get little harder. I am still experimenting with this.
  15. Can I freeze grass? – One can keep it upto 2-3 days in freeze but Juice should be consumed within 20-30 minutes of making it.

There is lot of material on the web and you can go through it. I am a learner and not an expert! See my comments in next Blog on this.

Author: Prabhat Ranjan

Prof. Prabhat Ranjan is Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil International University, Akurdi, Pune. He was heading India's Technology Think Tank, TIFAC(tifac.org.in) as its Executive Director since April 2013 to April 2018. Earlier he was Professor at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute for Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar (DA-IICT) since 2002. He was educated in Netarhat School(near Ranchi), IIT Kharagpur and Delhi University. He received his Ph D from University of California, Berkeley where he carried our research on “Nuclear Fusion” at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory during 1983-86. He immediately returned to India after this and carried out research in Nuclear Fusion area at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta and Institute for Plasma Research(IPR), Gandhinagar. He played a major role in India’s Nuclear Fusion program and was Project Leader of the largest operational Indian Fusion Reactor, ADITYA, at Institute for Plasma Research from 1996-2002. His current interests include applications of Wireless Sensor Network to Wildlife, Planetary Exploration (Chandrayaan mission), Nuclear Fusion, Healthcare, Agriculture etc. He has received National Science Talent Search Award, IBM Faculty Innovation Grant and HP Innovate 2009 award, NPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Award 2012, Bihar Gaurav Samman 2012 etc. In March 2022, he was also honored with EduStar India’s Most Impactful Vice Chancellor Award for 2021-22. He has been recognized by outlook among few visionaries, who can lead India towards 5 Trillion Dollar Economy. He has been also honoured with Maharashtra Ratna Gaurav Puraskar by Shalini Foundation in 2024. He is also recognized among the top “100 Great IITians : Dedicated to the Service of the Nation”.

69 thoughts on “Growing Wheat Grass and Juicing”

  1. Great one sir. This is so unexpected to read here but very nice. I’m for sure going to give it a try. 🙂

  2. I also did not expect to write such things here and my writing skills are poor too! But many people were asking question so I wrote it up in hurry today morning! I hope it would help some of them start it. I already have 4-5 people who want to start it this weekend.

  3. Hello Sir,
    Seems you have put in good effort here!! even i would give it a shot. thanks for this detailed analysis.

  5. Nice and very well narrated.I will spread this among my group.I am sure this would help them for their better health.

    Thank you sir !

  9. I want retail name of the shope in Bangalore (india)for above product of Juice Cutter Machine. if you having details pl send us details

  10. As of now I do not have the name of supplier myself. One vendor on eBay is trying to procure a sample today and he would let me know, if it works as expected. If it works, I would put up the info at this site.

  11. Its really good to know and one can trust on by your personal experience. Thank you very much for sharing this information.

  14. Could you please post some reliable sources from where the Wheatgrass juicer can be procured? Thank you.

  20. Growing pure Wheatgrass at home is only half part done.
    To get real benefits of your own home grown wheatgrass, you need a dedicated wheatgrass juicer which extracts all the minerals, vitamins, active enzymes and chlorophyll from it, without destroying them.
    We provide dedicated Manual Wheatgrass Juicerin India at Indian Price.
    This Juicer can also be used to juice up other leafy vegetable and fruits.
    You can have further information from
    http://www.addywheatgrass.com/html/wheatgrass_juicer_india.html
    or call 08285643316

  23. We are manufacturer for SPROUTING MACHINE like 50kg/day,100kg/day 250kg/day and so on .. let me know anyone intrested… and IT’S WITHOUT SOIL 😉

  26. We can give door delivery of Certifide Organic Wheat Grass Powder. It will have almost same quality of the fresh grass and helps to get more fiber. 30 g of fresh wheat grass converts to 3 g of powder making it easy to consume

    if anyone interested kindly call or email for the need we can deliver it to your homes with out any extra charge

  28. I’m not able to find a wheatgrass juicer which works efficiently since I work n mornings r so hectic . Does the manual juicer work easily .
    Which juicer did u purchase ??
    R u happy with the juicer u have been using??
    Pls share yr experience?

  29. I did try to purchase a juicer and placed order as well as paid money to a UK based company 2-3 years back. But it never arrived. For last one year I have moved to Delhi and I am not growing it any more. I just take wheat grass powder in morning. I am working on supply of fresh wheat grass juice also.

  32. Our NGO Manav Hitkari Sangh is cultivating organic wheat grass in Jaipur with home delivery facility.As far as wheat grass powder goes as far as my knowledge goes it is not even half as useful compared to the fresh wheat grass.Prabhat ji we face a lot of problem in cultivation in extreme hot or humid conditions and the growth speed goes down significantly.Can you please suggest some ways,
    thanks and regards,
    Dr.Alok Mehra

  33. It’s certainly a very useful information. But I tried to look for wheatgrass seeds online and couldn’t seem to find any, especially organic ones. I wonder whats the difference between wheat and wheatgrass seeds.
    I would like to ask Dr. Alok Mehra, whether you sell and ship it to other parts of India, like in Sikkim. It would be very beneficial and possiblely spread the goodness of this wonder grass far and wide.
    Response appreciated.

  34. i am looking for a mannual wheat grass juicer. Could you please suggest or help me how and where to buy it.

  35. Amruta,
    I have not been successful with a manual wheat grass juicer so far. I ordered one from UK but it did not arrive after receiving payment. I ordered from Addy Wheat grass referred to in the comments by Mr Gautam Upadhyay at Rs 3000 but it was not working well. So as of now I have not succeeded!

  36. Dear Ranjan:

    You have mentioned that you tried the wheat grass juicer from Addy and it was not working. Can you please elaborate on what did not work. Was it the quality of the product (like base material, coating,..etc.) or the efficiency of the juice process.

    Appreciate your feedback. This will help me in my decision to buy the Addy juicer.

  37. I said it was not working well. There was poor juicing efficiency as well as there was more back flow of juice if kept on flat horizontal surface. Over all I could not use it for more than one week and it is lying with me unused.

  40. Dear Sir,

    My daughter is suffering with osteomylitis .I want grow wheetgrass at home.
    Please guide where from I buy the seeds for this.

  42. where to find wheat grass powder .? is it more useful, nutritional than juice?? what u say ?

  44. I do not know how you grow wheat grass for bulk use. I used to grow for my personal use and solved problems that you mention. Temperature has to kept below 25 degree Celsius by proper shade. For humid condition, I used technique of bottom watering to avoid fungal growth due to wet surface.

  45. Inspired by you I have started growing organic wheatgrass hydroponically .
    I’m interested in scaling it up for commercial application.Plan to market fresh wheatgrass juice.
    Any process you know through which its shelf life can be increased without adding preservatives.

  46. Hi sir,
    Last 2years we are supplying organic wheat grass in Bangalore. we are making fresh wheat grass juice in double road gate in side lalbag. If any one need wheat fresh organic wheat grass. If we need wheat grass contact to this no 8884029909,9000992464.
    We are having wheat grass nusery in jp nager.

  47. Mr Ranjan I can see fungal growth above the soil.Can you please guide me to what is it for and how to avoid that.I live in hot and humid climate in middle east.Did you get any hand on best wheatgrass juicer.

  48. Dear Prabhat Ranjan,
    My comments are in reference to your comments about Addy Wheatgrass Manual Juicer.
    1. Wheatgrass being thin green blade has very little juice in them. So unlike citrus fruits there will be less juice from wheatgrass and may it it what you mean by juicer being less efficient.
    2. You observed that there is juice coming out at back. Wheatgrass juicer works on single augur which presses out the juice which happens near end of juicing tunnel nrar end vent. So intially every juicer in this world have some juice coming out of back vent. But it don’t go waste as same is re entered from top.
    We have many satisfied customers who are using it and got it bought for friends and relative.
    We advice prospective buyers to see video demonstratuin of it available in Youtube and our website juicer page.
    The video is true demonstration of juicer working and efficiency.
    Link to juicer page
    http://addywheatgrass.com/addy-manual-wheatgrass-juicer/

  49. Dear Sir,
    I want to start wheat grass powder production please give me brief information about wheat grass powder.

  50. Thank you for the helpful information you have provided Sir. We started consuming wheatgrass juice from the wheatgrass we grow from organic seeds and have seen excellent benefits in the health of my uncle who just recovered from cancer. Our full family takes it for general health. Now after constant prodding from friends we are delivering organic, cold-pressed wheatgrass juice in kolkata. Anyone in kolkata interested may contact us on 9831956298 and http://www.juicy.moustache.com

    Regs Prema

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