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I have heard a lot about growing vegetables from scraps e.g. using potato eyes, or sprouted garlic/onions to grow new vegetables.

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with this? And which vegetables were the best to do this with?

Niall C.
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queenslug
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1 Answers1

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I do this all the time, especially with green onions. Use the tops, plant the bottoms and within a few weeks I have more onion tops. I have a few pots of scallions going, and only buy a new bunch when I need a whole lot at a time, or the onions are mostly spent from constantly pushing out new leaves.

Garlic cloves can be planted sprouted or not.

Potatoes skins can too, but it's better to cube the potatoes for ease. Or if you have some potatoes already sprouted you can plant them.

If you buy fresh oregano, you can often root the cuttings. Any herb that grows a stem rather than a stalk (like dill, celery and fennel are heart stalks and can't be rooted), can be rooted.

I save seeds from tomatoes and melons and squashes, especially if I really liked them, they don't grow true to fruit, but at least you know half the parentage tastes delicious.

Pepper seeds also.

Escoce
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  • Yes to cubed potatoes. The bigger the chunks the better. In my experience, the ones from peels with eyes looked the same while growing, but at harvest, barely anything was underground. – J. Musser Apr 11 '15 at 23:36
  • Yeah the potato gives the plant food while its developing good roots, a slip (borrowing from sweet potato growing) doesn't work as well with regular potatoes (regular meaning not sweet potatoes) – Escoce Apr 11 '15 at 23:46
  • Just to update you - my potatoes and onions are growing beautifully, thank you for your help! – queenslug May 14 '15 at 09:20
  • Keep the potato vines covered as they grow, you want to keep the sun off the young potatoes that sprout along the vine, otherwise they'll turn green and can make you very ill. – Escoce May 19 '15 at 23:18