Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Growing Plants from Kitchen Scraps


Our 2011 indoor gardening projects:

Grow an apple tree from a seed

Grow a tangerine tree from seeds
- Maintenance

Grow a potato or sweet potato plant(should have "eyes" or buds)

Grow beans, onions, garlic, and anything else that has sprouted(or the potential to sprout) in the pantry and catches our fancy.

Tomorrow I'll go searching for a long table at the thrift store to fit under a south facing window. This will be our indoor garden table. We'll experiment with different vegetables and fruit seeds from the kitchen and see what happens. I know some of these plants we plan to start will have pretty blooms once they grow larger, and if nothing else, will make pretty house plants.

If we stick with this, I may purchase this retro gardening book Don't Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scraps. Read the reviews to get detailed information on the content. One of the comments mentions that this book was originally published in the 70's under the title "The Don't Throw It, Grow It Book of Houseplants". You may be able to find this at your public library. Update: I found the originally published book at our local library under the author Selsam, Millicent Ellis. They didn't have the new edition.

I have fond memories of my older sister growing potato vines and starting avocado plants in the kitchen window sill during the 70's. Having a house full of plants was much more popular back then. I grew up with plants in every room, some hanging from the ceiling in homemade macrame plant holders.

3 comments:

Eliza Rae said...

Can you grow a regular potato with the sweet potato instructions? It doesn't say so on the site so I was wondering. We have LOTS of extra potatoes right now and I'd love to do this project with the kids.

Alexandra said...

Yes you can. I should probably find a better link because it also fails to mention that the potato should have eyes or buds.

Here's a another link for just sweet potatoes. It's the same method, but explains things better:

http://www.suite101.com/content/grow-a-sweet-potato-vine-a8452

:)

Elizabeth said...

This brings back memories...I think I will use one of my windows to sprout some stuff..I wonder if the tips of green onions would grow....?