As requested, cross posted from GD...

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Learn to grow food from kitchen scraps!

Take a chunk of onion & stick it in some water...

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A couple days later it’s growing!

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Now stick it in the dirt, cover about 1” deep & it will send up green shoots. Supposedly each ring inside will send up shoots that each produce their own onion. Some cut these into separate pieces to give each onion more growing room. The one above has two growth rings.

ETA: Onion cutting update

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I waited way too long to plant them, but they should do ok. These two plants are from the one cutting, one has one growth ring/shoot, the other has two (one shoot was real small & is burried below the soil).

Bonus: growing onions this way will produce seed the first year. Alliums are biennials – plants that flower & produce seed in their second year of growth.

This trick is rumored to also work with most root vegetables like carrots, parsnips & beets (also biennials), but I’ve never tried it. For these you need the tops with an inch of root.


Now for sweet potatoes. These take a lot longer. Sweet potatoes sprout slips, which are then rooted & planted into the beds. Stick an old sweet potato in some water, and about 6-8 weeks later...

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When the slips get 6” long pull them off to root in another jar of water, then plant in pots or the garden bed when it’s warm – mid to late spring – unless you’re waaaaayyyy south.

You can do this with potatoes that sprout by planting directly in soil about 10-12” deep.

I’ve got a good jump on next year’s garden. Who else lives in a trash can?


TIPS FOR SWEET POTATO SLIPS:

If you use the water method, change every 3-5 days at first or when it gets any floaters or discoloration. As it grows you’ll need to change the water more often & cut off the bottom end if it goes soft.

You can also plant the sweet potato sideways one soil & keep lightly damp to grow slips as well. Be careful about over watering as it will foster an environment for fungus gnats that lay larvae that will eat the roots.

If you don’t have a window with good sun exposure they will benefit from a small fluorescent or wide spectrum LED lamp.

@Kitties-with-Sigs

Yes. Most of my reasoning is contingencies for if (when) I can’t (or don’t want to comply to) get things at a retail source or if my own seed isn’t viable.

To have systems in place where I know I can produce food on my own without resupply & it’s one less thing I need money for to feed the beast.

This way if all other options are gone (buying seed, sets, or my own seed is no longer viable I've got a backup & can still eat.

I tried with two red onions from the store in the last week & neither have sprouted. I think they may be too old, probably close to a year old if they won’t sprout. These onions that sprouted were Stuttgart I harvested about 4 months ago. They had roots overnight.

That was for the roots only. The Stuttgart onion cutting rooted overnight, but it’s been about 8 days without any top growth. I may be able to see a tiny section of light green in the center of the growth rings today, but it’s too early to tell.

The red onion root section was just mushy & brown.

In years past I've dumpster dive'd grocery stores for thrown out produce which my chickens eat.  I've gone entire years having full gardens from nothing more than volunteer plants from this process.

The thought that store bought fruits/veggies have seeds which 'will not come true' is largely over blown in my opinion.  Some visible changes will come from volunteer plants, some will not do as well, but especially if you're not putting in time to nourish the plants,  who cares if yield is a bit less,  or the produce a bit different...?

Good idea. We throw all kinds of kitchen scraps in with our chickens, it’s amazing how it all disappears.

It’s not that they won’t produce food, but some may have a wide variety. If it’s survival or a low effort garden, anything is better than nothing.

Green onions will do the same.   Buy a bunch, use all but the last half inch, soak to rehydrate, and plant.

Dont forget potatoes as well.  

Horseradish root can be gotten cheap and will take off.  Warning, its invasive.   Ginger is similar.

I’ve had ginger take root that fell off the compost pile, but I’m not sure if it will make it through the winter.

Turmeric is also a rhizome like ginger & is sold at Whole Foods occasionally.

We do this, I just jam them in the dirt. When we need green onions we just go out with a pair if scissors and cut what we need. We never yank them up so they just keep throwing up fresh greens. We have a bunch so we will just take a few growths from each onion. They regrow fast too.

@fas2c

I’m interested what‘s the oldest patch you have growing? More than two years?

I know alliums will send up flowering stalks in their second year for seed, but I’ve got some chives that are at least two years old & when they do I just cut off most of the flowers & they keep growing. I don’t know if they’ll die off after the second year or keep growing. I’ll find out for sure next spring.

Yeah, for years. Definitely over 2 for sure, I would hazard a guess over 5 . We just stuck them into pots and ignored them.  We had 10-12" pots filled with them. My wife and I would cut about a handful when we needed them. They never grew any more bulbs, but would continuously throw up greens.

We looked at it as why kill the cow when the milk was free

Awesome, thanks for the reply. I didn’t think they’d grow new bulbs, as they need a new seed for that. Tricks like this help make the most of what you’ve got.

Cool, that’s what the tutorial I saw on growing from the cutting said. Mine has three green shoots, two further along over 1” & another just popping out. I love been procrastinating putting it in a pot. I should do that this weekend.

LOL, IIRC that was a direct quote from Bohr_Adam. It was too choice not to use. I’m always on mobile so I forget about it sometimes.

Updated the OP with onion progress & some tips for growing sweet potato slips.

Some of my potatoes this year were volunteers from a “compost pile”. They didn’t produce very well, but they didn’t have much light or soil over the top. Mostly under a couple small trees with partial sun.

If tossed out in a good sunny spot after growing eyes, topped with 6” of soil every time they grew above the ground until they were 12”-18” deep, letting them grow out by May & fertilized they should produce quite well.

My onions both rotted as the base, so I’ve got to start over. I waited too long to transplant.

Plant them as soon as you see a few roots into light soil with a little sand & don’t over water.

I’ve tried three more store bought onions so far with no luck getting them to sprout. I’ll keep trying, I expect it’s because they’re old & have been in storage for months, if not longer.

I’ve been a lazy fucker & haven’t gotten around to doing any sprouts yet. I haven’t forgotten.

Update: I’ve been slightly less of a lazy fucker lately. I haven’t gotten around to the sprouts, but here’s a quick and easy one...

It’s been awhile, but I just pulled some carrots for a pot of soup, and wanted to see if I could root the top for seeds this year. IIRC, this is a Danvers 126 heirloom, I think it’s similar to the Danvers Half Long. Good for shallow, rocky or clay soils, and resistant to cracking.

Just cut the top of the carrot off leaving about an inch of the root, and put it into a glass of water up to the shoots.

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It should take a couple weeks before it sprouts a root. I’ll update the thread when it shows some growth.

Carrots is a lot of work. The seeds are tiny and one can sow millions in less than a minute. My SIL does bib lettuce, and other high dollar lettuces like that and has good results. Just peel away the larger leaves and leave the center trim the cut dip in Root-tone and put it in water.

Sweet potatoes work well, and I am sure potatoes work the same. Where every there is an eye with a root stem popping out you can cut into a chunk and bury it a few inches or more.

We did this in the front flower bed in our old house. It got low amounts of sun, the soil was mostly clay and needed amending and breaking up. We pulled up the leggy azalais which where originally planted and needed something to fill in the open voids where they were no flowers. We had a bunch of forgotten sweets that began sprouting roots so my wife cut them up and sporadically planted the around the area.

They popped up nicely and began giving the soil some green coverage so it didn't look so sparse. When fall/winter rolled around she dug them up. Some where huge. She missed a few and volunteers popped up next spring and they kept growing, and growing. They did the job of helping break the soil up too and made the flower bed look filled in.

My best friend growing up had a grandmother who was in her 90's he lived with. She always had a garden and we were her mules I learned a lot from her though, just by looking. She used to harvest all her plants but a few and let them go to seed. Then she would cut the tops and put them into a paper bag to hand and dry. The next year she would use those seeds to plant her garden. She would use clear plastic 2Lt soda bottles a miniature greenhouses by cutting the bottom off and covering them with the bottle. Pretty cool, I thought. This was in the late 70's just after glass 2ltr bottles were replaced from production.

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

Old people can be a wealth of knowledge. Back before people gave away all their independence, buying seeds was pretty rare. People grew varieties that were handed down in the family or village for hundreds of year, if not more. Everything grew well in your area because it was made for it.

Great tip on the 2L bottles. They can extend the growing season in the spring or fall if it gets too cold or rainy allowing a decent harvest.

Update:

Took about a week to sprout some small roots.

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Here’s a tip: make sure to clean any soil off the top where the root meets the shoots. Also remove any dead, dry or dying leaves, and stems. If they’re left too long they’ll get soggy, and rot.

Notice the wet dark stems at the base, I removed those after I took the photo.

When life seems jolly ro’en, there’s somefing you’ve forgo’en...




Edit: Sweet potato slips didn’t fair too well when it dropped below 28°F outside two nights in a row. I’ll probably lose a couple, gotta pay closer attention.

If you live in a cold climate, look for Japanese purple sweet potatoes. They’re suppose to do well in cold environments.

Ok, I finally tried some sprouts.

The rice I tried last week didn’t go well. I’m not sure if it was too old, dried out or I didn’t give it enough time. I’ll have to do more research.


This is a mix of black beans, blackeyed peas, barley (I think), red lentils, quinoa, and mung beans.

In a pint mason jar with a stainless screen lid, I soaked them in filtered water for 4 hours, then drained them, and rinsed them twice a day.

Within 8 hours most of the legumes had cracked and had tiny root curls protruding. The larger beans had only broken the outer skin after 12-24 hours. This stage (24-36 hours) is enough to greatly increase the nutrient value prior to eating or cooking.

These photos aren’t that great, I’ll try to get some more in better light in a couple days when they’re more visible.


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I tried another Stütgart onion with much better success this time (ideally I’d have cut it in half to grow the two shoots separately, but didn’t want to risk it), and some small white onions I harvested green.

I planted the white onions from a bag of pearl onions from the store last October, they’ve been growing in a greenhouse all winter. Also trying a small beet that i pulled up on accident.

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Also trying to sprout more rice, but it may be too old. I bought some more rice to try, and some other seeds and grains; flax, kamut, and ferro.

I had some green onions on which I left about 2-3 inches and left them on the windowsill in some water for about a week.

Planted them in a pot which had mostly coffee grounds (sticking with the kitchen scrap theme) and a little bit of dirt I was able to  scrape up from my frozen flower beds.

They appear to be doing really well!



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You will very likely not get bulbs from those but you may very well get flowers and if you can pollinate them, seeds.

Yeah, I'm just planning on cutting the tops as I need them.  Not expecting to get bulbs from them.

I finally got some rice to sprout, it took about 5 days to see the rootlet tails. Probably because it’s so old.

These are way to old to eat. You want to use them before they turn green, and ideally after the rootlets are just visible. Rinse twice a day and keep between 65-80°F, I think 72°-75° is good for everything but cool weather seed like beets or brassicas. You’ll also need to remove as many broken pieces as you can so they don’t grow bacteria.

In my experience the black wild rice didn’t sprout. Get pure brown rice, or some other grain.

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I did some more research and it says to soak longer and use or refrigerate after 2-4 days for most grains.

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I also finally got a store shallot to sprout roots, and I’ve got 5 more Stütgart onions regrowing, and 5 more rooted carrots I just planted outside.

Awesome, here are mine from above. The beet is doing well also, but hasn’t grown much. I need to transplant them into the greenhouse soon.

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These were harvested green, but they were grown from a sack of white pearl onions bought at the store that sat on the counter all spring and summer. I planted them at the complete wrong time for onions, the end of summer/beginning of fall, but they still did great for how little direct sun they got and how cold it was.