Stranded away from my NYC home in SoCal, I’ve been saving dinner scraps to see what will grow.
Well, apparently a LOT will, some obvious, some not so much and very interesting.
I’ll upload pics from my phone later, but here’s some of what’s regenerating from meal trimmings:
Beets - top in water, greens popped up within a few hours - we are amazed! Need to look up when to put them in a pot
Brussels sprouts - I saved a few whole, plus the bottoms trimmed from the rest of the bag we were roasting; placed in water, several have sprung tiny roots, and others are showing signs of growth like bumps at the flat-cut face. Will keep them in water for a bit longer.
Romaine and butter lettuce - 2/3 replanted stubs are flourishing: the ones we left a bit more of the base on regenerated within a couple of days. It will take some time to grow to a full head, but the lush babies are gorgeous!
Scallions: They are growing from stubs, but slowly. I may stick the rest of the bunch in water because they seem to grow faster when sadly left at the bottom of my vegetable drawer…?
Lemongrass: I put the cut stub from the WF package into water, and it did actually start regrowing (slowly) but roots are taking a bit longer (I usually have stalks from the Asian market that sprout roots and leaves quite fast in a glass of water)
Open to any advice as to how best to turn these regrowths into flourishing plants!
Wow! Thank you for this. I am particularly interested in restoring beet greens, our favorite part of the plant. Keep your experiments and your reporting, please.
Brussels sprouts - I saved a few whole, plus the bottoms trimmed from the rest of the bag we were roasting; placed in water, several have sprung tiny roots, and others are showing signs of growth like bumps at the flat-cut face. Will keep them in water for a bit longer.
Romaine and butter lettuce - 2/3 replanted stubs are flourishing: the ones we left a bit more of the base on regenerated within a couple of days. It will take some time to grow to a full head, but the lush babies are gorgeous!
Scallions : They are growing from stubs, but slowly. I may stick the rest of the bunch in water because they seem to grow faster when sadly left at the bottom of my vegetable drawer…?
Lemongrass : I put the cut stub from the WF package into water, and it did actually start regrowing (slowly) but roots are taking a bit longer (I usually have stalks from the Asian market that sprout roots and leaves quite fast in a glass of water)
In the “Jumpstart” thread I posted yesterday, they showed things like starting seedlings in a used teabag, or a banana. Might be a bit easier, for small scraps, than the toothpick/water method.
Some of the ideas are great - like the paper towel folded and rolled up as a “seedling mat” and then rolled back out in the planter.
I do find the banana idea a bit wasteful at the best of times, though, and especially at the moment.
I’m very intrigued by the idea of pureeing a mushroom and having new ones grow out of that - I have some maitake and king oyster at the moment, and it would be a lot more cost effective than buying more, lol.
Mr Bean is famous for spitting pits. Back several years ago, before grape tomatoes were everywhere, he bit a couple of them in half and stuck them in a pot. Low and behold we got several tomato plants out of them that bore beautiful fruit. My nephew got married at a peach orchard and we all went peach picking. They were some of the best peaches ever. Mr Bean ate one and stuck it into a pot. The next spring there was a weed growing in the pot. He pulled it out and found the peach pit attached. Here it is now:
I grow green onions after I’ve used the green part. I just pop the root parts into a glass of water and they start growing within 3-4 days. I just keep adding to the glass as I buy and use more onions, so I usually have some at different stages of growth. The warmer the kitchen, the faster they grow.
I just bought some celery and was going to do the same with the root end, as I’ve heard celery grows in water pretty quickly too.
My green onions have been very stunted in their regrowth - they seem to grow better in the fridge
Any tips?
I’ve actually taken all the scallions out of the fridge and put them in a jar of water to see if the whole plant regenerates better than the stubby bit.
The romaine is doing really well; the Bibb was not as happy to regrow despite an initial show.
I killed the poor brussel sprouts from round one because I covered them. So there’s a round two
The beet tops are in soil. The greens are alive, because they get droopy when it’s hot and perk up when I cool them down - there’s a conversation there
I added garlic - we had some past-prime bulbs in the fridge that I separated and stuck in a pot, and the shoots have popped up. I do love garlic scapes!
The onion bottoms were promising with new roofs and some top growth, but I may have moved them to soil too soon. Well, there’s another round started.
I’ve got some ginger buds saved to go in a pot next.
I somehow missed this thread. I’ve tried regrowing scallions during the winter and spring when I can’t cut from my garden. They do pretty well on the ledge of my kitchen window.
I haven’t tried other scraps but I’m always fascinated by the possibilities. I now have a nice area in a small closet that has a sunny window, and I might be able to experiment with other plants and scraps. I’ve been really interested in growing ginger and lemongrass. I don’t think the ginger will work in water (never tried) but would love to try the lemon grass. The beets are a fun idea, but my mind boggles at how they will grow in water.
