Grow Fruits & Vegetables From Scraps
Recycle your kitchen scraps and reduce your grocery bills by growing fruits and vegetables from the scraps you usually throw away. It's simple, easy and you can do it indoors.
Potatoes: Potatoes can be grown from scraps. Allow a potato scrap with 1 to 2 eyes to dry thoroughly. Plant it in a small container and cover with a few inches of soil. As more roots appear, cover with additional soil.
Romaine lettuce: Place roots in a dish of water without fully submerging the entire plant. Place in the sun and spray with water once a week. You don’t need to put romaine lettuce in soil, but if you do the leaves will grow to twice the size.
Celery: Place celery in water with the stalks cut back to about an inch above the roots. Add sun and spritz with water once or twice a week.
Cabbage: Place cabbage roots in water with standing water kept away from the rest of the plant. Place in a sunny location and water twice a week.
Garlic: Plant a garlic clove with its root facing down. As it grows, cut back its shoots to end up with a fresh, new garlic bulb.
Lemongrass: Lemongrass stalk bottoms are too tough to use in cooking, but you can avoid throwing out half the plant by placing the stalks in water. Once roots develop, plant the lemongrass in soil and place in a sunny location.
Onions: Cover an onion root with soil and place it in a sunny location. Water as needed.
Pineapple: For those with patience, a pineapple can be grown from scraps in 2 to 3 years. While you’re waiting, you’ll have a unique indoor plant. Remove all fruit and green stalks from the top of the plant. Cut sections horizontally from the crown until you see the root buds. Leave about an inch of leaves at the base and plant in a warm place. Water often until established, then once a week.
Basil: Basil can be grown from basil cuttings by simply placing them in water. Change the water often to keep the plants from getting slimy.
Mushrooms: Mushrooms are one of the more difficult produce to re-grow. Mix soil and compost in a pot. Remove the head of the mushroom and plant the stalk in the soil with only the top exposed. Place in an area with filtered light by day and cool temperature by night.