Does anyone do kitchen scrap gardening? Planting, not composting

[Marianne]

I have one firm rule here when it comes to food: Nothing goes in the trash. We have cats, more cats outside, dogs and chickens. What they don't eat, goes in the garden. A lot of us do that.

But, do any of you plant your vegetable scraps? I have tried onion ends, potato peels (now I know I didn't have a thick enough peel) with no results. I did have success with garlic, but I think that's about it. Even the sweet potato slips that I babied produced nada.

What kitchen scraps have you planted that actually produced edibles?

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

lettuce. i know it's dumb, but my FIL buys those fancy lettuces in a plastic box, with the roots still attached. I take his leftover root end and plant it... i've got one in a pot right now in my kitchen, doing great! Our compost heap grew great potatoes last year too, and a tomato plant... but that wasn't on purpose...

 

[i_am2bz]

I've never heard of this...!

 

[rebecca100]

Mostly potatoes, and the stuff already listed. The potatoes go great, as do tomato volunteers. The onions grew but didn't really do good, but I don't think I gave them enough time. I have started carrots with the same results. I think at that point that they just go to seed if they grow. We have had a few volunteers of other things in the compost, but nothing really exciting.

 

[Marianne]

i_am2bz, a kitchen scrap garden is just taking the roots, seed or tops of any fruit or vegetable and planting them to grow more food. I used to have a little book that told how to grow about anything from what you brought home from the store, even how to get the little banana seeds - she said it was pretty difficult, but could be done.

I bet the original veggie has to be a non-Mansanto variety and the stuff from the grocery store wasn't. This year I bought organic seed so I could try seed saving. Even if I don't save seed, at least I'm not sending money to Monsanto. The veggies I grew up with are not the veggies we have today, for sure. So if I start out with organic seed, then maybe a kitchen scrap garden will do something.

I remember reading someone's post years ago, that you could buy those little green onions one time, keep planting the roots and never have to buy them again. I got nothing....

My aunt has a lemon tree under a skylight in her family room that she grew from seed. One year when I was visiting, it had a lemon on it! It must be 15-20 years old by now.

As a kid, I sprouted sweet potato and avacado seeds. Last year when I grew the sweet potato slips, I just used a sweet potato from the grocery store. I bet that's why I didn't get anything, it wasn't organic. My mother saved seed from cucumber one year. The next year she had what she called 'bastard squash'. She thought it had cross pollinated with the neighbors squash plants. It probably was a Monsanto seed, too.

Last summer I had tons of volunteer tomato plants that produced. It was an odd gardening year around here, practically no one had tomatoes until October, but then I had buckets of those Romas. The Celebrities that I bought? I had a bunch of green ones when the frost hit, and that was it.

 

[sufficientforme]

I feed our chickens and other animals pumpkins and watermelons when they are in season and I had both grow out of the compost pile last year. They only made it to about 6 inches round before the animals discovered them but we thought it was cool. Not sure if that counts I thought I would actually throw a packet in there this year and see what happens.

 

[calendula]

Hi, I just joined this forum yesterday, and am loving all the interesting topics you all discuss! I too have had tomatoes, pumpkins, and squash sprout in my compost pile. I have planted the tops of pineapples, and they did take root. It died of course (I live in Wisconsin), but I just wanted to see if it would start to grow.

 

[kcsunshine]

I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes I don't eat onions fast enough and they will start to rot. Those can be planted and you'll get onions (the new onions are already starting to grow anyway).

 

[savingdogs]

This is a super interesting thread! Welcome Calendula! I think you will fit in here amazingly well.

I want to try this!

 

[JRmom]

Yes, interesting post! I've also had potatoes and onions sprout in my compost - I'd say about 50% of them produced after I planted them. I've planted garlic also that started sprouting on me - some of it grew. Never hurts to try is how I look at it. I've got a partial bag of potatoes that are starting to sprout - I'm going to try them in a potato basket this weekend (another great idea I got here!).

One time, years ago, I noticed a sprout working its way up in my kitchen sink drain. I dug it out and it was a sprouted pea - from canned peas! I was shocked that it would sprout after all that processing.