16 fruit & veg that you can grow from scraps

Woodcarver

rickymouse
I use potato peels to grow potatoes sometimes. I bring them into the woods and potato plants have been coming up all over the place for years now. They are real small potatoes though, I do not know if they could be made to grow big potatoes anymore, but all you have to do is dig them up and keep putting out the peels. The potatoes need to be peeled thick anyway sometimes, they are so crappy. I also plant garlic in planters from some old cloves that are dried out. The outside cats seem to eat those for some reason. I have some traveling onions, they reseed themselves and come up every year. A friend has a whole small hillside of garlic, it started from a few garlics he planted years ago.

If you try that in some very loose soil they will grow much larger. All root veggies need extremely loose soil to grow large. The resistance of clay soil can stop them.

Actually, the potato needs sand to grow well. It seems that this plant can break down rock well. I do not have much sand here. I have hardpan soil here, a lot of clay in it. The soil is rich but the minerals are not available unless it is limed. The problem comes in that potatoes need an acid soil and with the present soil I have there are many potatoes on the plant but they are all smaller. The potato plants get robust and six feet long, falling over at about two feet and crawling all over the place like pumpkin vines. Well, at least they are shorter than the tomato plants, the tomatoes grow about eight to ten feet long and you can't stop the suckers from growing. There are about twenty five potatoes to a plant when this happens but they are all small. They taste great though, they warm your belly. I add a little 6/24/24 organic fertilizer to the soils to make sure they do not get deficient.

reply to post by keenasbro


This is a very good thread. Some amazing things can be accomplished with a minimal amount of space, a little time, and some "scraps." With food prices soaring, it would be prudent to become more food self-reliant, and as you and many others have shared, raising a few vegetables can be a rewarding experience.

If space is an obstacle for some, perhaps finding a few like-minded people and have each person grow a few items could help alleviate that? Much like a small-scale co-op or farmers market? Having grown up in rural Appalachia, trading food has always been common practice.

My parents would grow veggies and trade them to my uncles for game, say some venison- that way everyone received what they needed. Sometimes, some would use their skills in canning and preserving food for others in return keeping a portion of the result. If there was nothing to trade, and one had excess (veg, game, etc) they would just give it away. I used to feel embarrassed by this, but as I've matured, I realize what a great thing it was.

reply to post by benrl


I'm a reformed mad scientist. Was a botany major once upon a time til I was ordered out of the sun like a vampire. I still do a little gardening regardless while coated in sunblock and wearing a sunblock laden hat but it's minor. My botanical mad scientist days are long over. From hereon out, I will live vicariously through your mad scientist endeavors, benri.

rickymouse

Woodcarver

rickymouse
I use potato peels to grow potatoes sometimes. I bring them into the woods and potato plants have been coming up all over the place for years now. They are real small potatoes though, I do not know if they could be made to grow big potatoes anymore, but all you have to do is dig them up and keep putting out the peels. The potatoes need to be peeled thick anyway sometimes, they are so crappy. I also plant garlic in planters from some old cloves that are dried out. The outside cats seem to eat those for some reason. I have some traveling onions, they reseed themselves and come up every year. A friend has a whole small hillside of garlic, it started from a few garlics he planted years ago.

If you try that in some very loose soil they will grow much larger. All root veggies need extremely loose soil to grow large. The resistance of clay soil can stop them.

Actually, the potato needs sand to grow well. It seems that this plant can break down rock well. I do not have much sand here. I have hardpan soil here, a lot of clay in it. The soil is rich but the minerals are not available unless it is limed. The problem comes in that potatoes need an acid soil and with the present soil I have there are many potatoes on the plant but they are all smaller. The potato plants get robust and six feet long, falling over at about two feet and crawling all over the place like pumpkin vines. Well, at least they are shorter than the tomato plants, the tomatoes grow about eight to ten feet long and you can't stop the suckers from growing. There are about twenty five potatoes to a plant when this happens but they are all small. They taste great though, they warm your belly. I add a little 6/24/24 organic fertilizer to the soils to make sure they do not get deficient.

Your right some varieties prefer sandy soil, as long as it drains well. I live in the middle of tennessee so i have lots of rock and clay to deal with but i have always imported mushroom compost into my pretty large garden. I spend about $40 for each pickup truck load at the local nursery and till it in at the beginning of the season. I also regrow lots of scraps and i hunt the woods for wild herbs and mushrooms and a variety of dif plants.

I read somewhere that if you are going to reuse fruit or veg, it is best to buy the produce from an organic shop, (buy big healthy specimens) apparently the big growers sterilise the plant to stop people reusing the plant and growing their own produce.

I have tried to find the link but to no avail.

Thanks for sharing! My newest project is creating a container garden of vegetables this summer. You just saved me some google time because my next bit of research was seeing what I could grow besides lettuce and green onions from their scraps. S&F for you

We just started our first big garden. I'll be using this. Thanks.