With as much as people talk about gardening, it can seem overwhelming at times. Sometimes though, it’s just a matter of not throwing away your old food scraps.
Here are 17 vegetables that you can regrow from the scraps:
1. Potatoes
If you’ve ever wanted to know how to grow potatoes indoors, it’s pretty easy. Cut chunks of potatoes out that have one or two eyes and leave to dry for 1-3 days then plant in rich soil about 4 inches deep with 4 inches above to keep covering it as it grows. You can transplant into the garden when weather permits.
2. Ginger
Be sure it has some nubs on it. Press into the soil similar to planting an iris. Keep moist but not damp. When you need it in the kitchen again, just cut off a chunk leaving nubs to regrow. Pretty much all there is to growing ginger from scraps.
3. Garlic
How do you grow garlic from scraps? Simple. Take leftover cloves and press root side down into the soil and keep moist. I personally haven’t done this and the instructions vary from letting the top sprout and grow to nipping off the top so that all the energy goes into the root to regrow the bulb.
4. Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are awesome to grow from scraps. They are vines are often grown as an ornamental in northern climates, but will also produce new sweet potatoes. Cut the potato end so that you have eyes. Stick toothpicks in and start it in glass of water. When roots develop and eyes are leafing out, plant in rich soil and keep watered.
5. Onions
Ever buy a bag of onions and have small ones in it? Well, if you want to regrow onions, just stick in soil and keep moist and they will grow larger. When you cut off the root ends of onions, just press into the soil leaving the cut end up and uncovered and keep moist as they too will regrow.
6. Lemongrass
Growing lemongrass indoors is a cinch. Put in a glass of water and watch it grow! You can repot into moist soil. Harvest as needed.
7. Pineapples
When you’re all done with the pineapple, here’s how to plant a pineapple top: Cut off the top leaving no fruit on the plant. Look for the roundish root buds. Cut leaves to within an inch of the top. Stick in a pot with rich soil and lots of moisture. Once the roots begin to develop and the top begins to grow reduce watering to once a week – this may take 2-3 months. Harvest a fresh pineapple in 2-3 years – yes, YEARS. Because of the time requirement needed to grow pineapple, it’s probably a good idea to slot them into your garden layout someplace on the periphery, or elsewhere out of the way.
8. Mushrooms
Mushrooms are tricky. Cut the stem off and place it in pot of compost rich, moist soil. They tend to like warm filtered light during the day and cool nights and you will know in just a few days if it takes and will regrow a new head or rots in the pot. Just set it on the floor at night in a cool room. And boom, that’s how to regrow mushrooms!
9. Carrots
This one comes with a slight caveat…. there’s not really a great way to grow carrots from carrot tops. Yes you can regrow them, but the root will never truly grow back. Great for greenery or if you have rabbits or chickens.
10. Leeks
11. Spring Onions
12. Scallions
13. Fennel
14. Romaine lettuce
15. Celery
16. Bok Choy
17. Cabbage
For the green group: Press root ends into moist soil and let them grow.
For the blue group: There are several ways to do these. Cut and set them in a cup of water on a windowsill and watch them grow, harvesting as needed. Or start them in water and when roots appear transplant to moist soil. Or press into moist soil, keep the soil moist and watch them grow (this is my personal favorite, as I forget about things). Spritz with water weekly.
Ok so pineapple isn’t really a vegetable, but you get the point. It’s so easy to grow these, that throwing them away should be a sin! Remember, with anything started in water you must replenish water as needed and change on a weekly basis.
Here is a fun little video to get you thinking:
I love this a lot. I am going to get right on it. I already have the celery going and will check out her site. Thank you Bev!
Really enjoying this “unique” style of gardening or garden-starting! I’ve got 3 Romaine’s growing now, one is about 2 inches tall. Not sure how much further I’ll be going since we’re not putting in a garden this year & I don’t have room (nor windows) here to put in pots etc. But…it’s a good experience, and it’s good knowledge…especially since our experience 3 years ago with Romaine didn’t turn out well at all. We had lovely plants…but didn’t know “what” to harvest because none of the leaves etc., looked like Romaine :-( We turned to Swish Chard and spinach these last 2 years and have been very satisfied with those results and taste alternatives.
Hi Bev,
You might imagine how excited I am to start my homestead garden(moving to BOL soon)in the next few weeks and I run across you, sharing this great information! I have cataloged much of Seasoned Prepper and this article really has me motivated. Please share more throughout the season.
g
A weird (but delicious) “other way to restart onions”. If you have big onion bulbs in fall that are starting to get soft, because they didn’t get dried enough, (like that 10lb bag leftover from a chili cookoff….), leave roots intact, peel off the papery skin, and plant them pretty close together, and let overwinter.
Pretty early in the next growing season, you end up with what look like fat scallions. Pull, wash and grill over hardwood. When they start to char, wrap in newspaper and let them steam about a half hour. Serve with Romesco sauce (just toss almonds, red bell pepper, roasted plum tomatoes, garlic and olive oil in a food processor and buzz smooth.) Traditionally served at late Spring festivals with an amazing amount of red wine in rural Spain. I had no red wine, and only saw this on Anthony Bourdain, but it’s delicious :)
Boy, talk about taking an idea and running with it…
I’m going to have to try the mushroom sprouting, as we eat a lot of mushrooms. I don’t think Karen uses the stems anyway.
Was watering the asparagus bed this afternoon and found several small sprigs. Too small to harvest, really (but I did anyway). With the warm days we’re having, it might take off this week. We also have lettuce coming up in the raised beds outside, along with the spinach, and I think I saw a pea sprout today, but will have to have Karen look at it to confirm.
Bev, it looks like you’ll have a full salad garden on your windowsills before long. Thanks for the ideas.
I’m so glad you guys and gals are enjoying this – I sure am!
Good to hear from you Greg!!! Congrats on moving to the BOL soon.
Anyone interested in hydroponic gardening in leftover water bottles hung in a window? There is a whole movement out there around the world – windowfarming! If interested I will put together a post as I’m considering putting a window together – lots of Pepsi bottles from Bob here, might as well use them!
:) Windowfarming is a GREAT idea.
My only suggestions/caveats from old attempts are:
1) Spray-paint the outsides of the bottles. They are much more attractive clear, but the algae will grow like crazy, and eventually out-compete the food plants. Krylon Fusion brand sticks to the plastic. :)
2) Air-lifts are a brilliant idea. The core of many under-gravel aquarium filtration systems. Like many brilliant ideas, they are temperamental as all get-out. On a lift higher than about a foot, they’ll stop working, just because it’s Wednesday, and the moon is almost full, and the dog next door is barking at just the right pitch.
I’d go with heavily aerating the bottom collection vessel normally, and use a small submersible aquarium water pump (maybe on a timer) to do the water lifting. YMMV. My opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it. :)
:-) What’s next!? Hang on pards, me thinks this place is rockn! Window farming in water bottles? Can’t wait Bev, gonna do some searching for myself :-)
Wow! Great information! Will be giving this a try. I live in CO and have a couple of south facing windows. Am hoping these ideas will be able to grow these in cooler temps. (65 at night)
Junipers, shouldn’t be a problem as my thermostat is at 65 in the day and 60 at night trying to save money – 60 all day was just too cold…
My problem is low light being in Minnesota and only have an east, north or west window. They are in the east window and growing fine. :)