Regrow Fruits Vegetables & Herbs from Scraps
Return to DiscussionsIn the past, I have grown red potatoes from the eyes that developed on the *over-ripe* potatoes in the bag. Sometimes it worked great & other times it did not. There were two peach trees & one citrus that rooted themselves in my old compost pile; they have been transplanted and are currently sprouting green leaves. Maybe that counts. I hope yours works well.
I'd call this 'from scraps' ~ we're doing seed propagation under lights this year for our garden and I realized as I was planting that I didn't have enough sweet peppers with the seed packets we'd purchased. So I took a few fresh seeds from an orange bell pepper we'd had in our dinner and put them in dirt and just like that they sprang out of the soil like nobody's business! Paying $2 a packet for a few dozen seeds starts adding up and I was happy to see how easy it was. Not all seeds will, and some need special care to make it work (as in some seeds need to be dried, some need to be put int he fridge for a while, some need to be soaked, some need to be scarified, etc.). There's a good book for doing what we're taking about called "Saving Seeds". Go figure, hee! Good luck on your endeavor.
During lockdowns I started spending more time in the garden and grew some veg for the first time. Nothing too crazy and easy beginner plants. I quite enjoy eating food youve grown yourself but the big thing for me was the propagation of the plants the following year. I have a number of veg plants and flowers where I harvest the seeds at the end of the season and then grow them the following year. Its not scraps exactly but a similar theme. Theres something about looking at a number of flowers and knowing theyre the 3rd generation youve grown from an original single parent plant. Sweet peas are my favourite! Same with veg, eating tomatoes and runner-beans which all came from a single plant a few years ago is very satisfying. This year Im going to try courgette and cucumber as well.
Rock on with your bad ass, Jayne! Saving seeds is quite a pleasure and I'm glad the lock-down wasn't all negative for you like it was for so many others. Got to appreciate the positive when the negative gets thrown at us sometimes. My only question at this moment is, do all those plants get to see your sweet boobies pointing at them when you're gardening? I know if I was a tomato I'd grow up a whole lot faster if those pointy things were above me encouraging me, oh yeah! Look at me, making gardening sexy! I do hope you can garden nude because it is one of the finest things to be growing things barely! I'm having great luck with pepper seeds I harvested right out of an orange pepper from the fridge and going to try cucumber seeds straight from their fruit in a few weeks too. Keep us informed - and take a pic in the garden showing off your melons if you can :) I'll show you my cucumbers if they grow, I promise!
I grow garlic from last years' cloves, and I use the sprouting tubers from potatoes and sweet potatoes. For most of my main crops, I save seeds from the best fruits from the best plants to plant the following years. I have some Amish Paste tomatoes that I have been growing for the last 20 years or so.
Notanlines, that's impressive propagation! Twenty years ~ the Amish would be proud.
Off 'scraps' topic but this thread is most active so I'll brag here about finally getting some plants in the garden yesterday, grown from commercially-purchased seed though, in our barn under lights. Cabbages and collards are in the dirt and all the seeds I planted there last week have at least a few sprouts out now. Here comes the lettuce and peas oh yeah! Next on my list of gardening duties is putting the second round of veggies from seed into bigger vessels, using 4" peat pots for the tomatoes and peppers that will head to the garden next month. If I get lucky with the frost staying away, I hope to get the early Girl and Independence Day 'maters in the ground in another week or three. Getting exciting here! Easily amused? Shit yeah, and proud of it ~
I have tilled the garden in late summer and had squash that was no good. I tilled it under and had a massive crop grow everywhere. We also replant garlic we pull up and put back a few smaller ones for next years harvest.