How To Regrow Food Scraps

An article by Subpod

Composting your kitchen scraps is awesome, but you know what's awesome-r? Regrowing a whole garden from them. Here's everything you need to know to start a food scrap garden!

First up, let's talk veggies.

Heaps of different vegetables can be re-grown from scraps, but we've selected some of the easiest ones. Many of these are pick-as-you-grow, so you'll be able to harvest 24/7!

Our top picks:

Lettuce

Celery

Herbs (coriander, mint, parsley, etc.)

Spring onion

Potatoes

All of these vegetables are staples in the kitchen, so they're probably the ones you buy the most (hellooo~ savings)!

If you just hang onto the stems, eyes, and roots of these veggies, you'll have a thriving scrap garden in no time. Best of all, these plants can all thrive indoors with full sun. Who doesn't love edible houseplants?

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lettuce and celery

Both of these veggies re-grow from scraps in the same way. When making a meal, save the stem of the celery or lettuce and set it aside. You want about the width of 3 fingers of the plant left, including the base!

Next, thinly slice the top off of the root area. You'll only want to take a sliver off, just enough to trim away the dried out stem and open it up for growth. Once that's done, just pop it into a cup or jar with enough water to fully submerge the stem area (only about ⅓ of the whole base).

You can add liquid fertiliser in small amounts if you like, but even the most basic attempt will have you growing green life in no time!

spring onions

The steps for spring onion are pretty similar to above. The only difference is that you should leave the roots of the spring onion alone! Just trim the ends of the spring onion off as you're cooking like you normally would, and then place them all root first into a jar of water. Easy as that!

Herbs

Again, re-growing herbs is very similar to sprouting lettuce or spring onion. Take a whole stalk of the herb of your choice (leafy herbs like basil, parsley, and coriander work best) and remove the leaves from along the stem - leaving just the big ones right at the top.

Then, place it in a glass or jar with some water, and watch as roots slowly begin to appear! Once the roots reach around 2 inches (5 cm) in length, you can transfer your plant into a pot and keep it inside where it will get full sun. Enjoy never having to pay for herbs again!

Potatoes

Okay, potatoes are a little different from leafy greens – but they're still so easy to grow, we had to include them. Just a single potato that's grown 'eyes' (those little root-like nubs that appear on older potatoes) can grow you 3 or 4 more!

Take an old potato that's grown eyes and cut it into chunks, leaving one to two eyes per piece. Lay the pieces out on a paper towel to dry overnight – this will prevent them from rotting once in the soil.

The next day, fill a few 5-gallon pots (or otherwise large) containers with potting soil halfway, and plant your potato chunks! Use one to two pieces per pot, and cover them with the soil. You'll need to build up the soil as your plants grow and produce more potatoes, so make sure you keep potting soil nearby.

Subpod Tip: We recommend growing potatoes in pots, regardless of available garden space, at least for the first few times you grow them. Potatoes can be a disease-carrying crop, and it's easier to prevent them from compromising the rest of your garden if you've separated them in pots. Read More at Subpod