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Growing plants from the supermarket?
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Author:  earthbound [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 12:15 am ]
Post subject:  Growing plants from the supermarket?
It can be very simple to get your growing stock from the supermarket, so often overlooked yet so simple.

A quick trip to our local fruit and veg shop gave me turmeric, galigal, ginger, two varieties of locally grown ginger, three varieties of sweet potato, an unusual potato (kipfler) and pineapple.
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With all of these I'll be able to eat a percentage of them, then plant whats left. I was hoping to get some Jerusalem artichokes but I guess they aren't in season yet, I do like being able to buy things once, then grow them myself again and again..

Other ways to save? Buy seeds from the supermarket. I once lived in a pretty bad share house and the backyard was a sandy mess of weeds. I bought a box of sunflower seeds meant to be parrot feed for about $2 and spread them all over the backyard. Sunflowers came up everywhere, the whole backyard was blanketed with them and the display was quite stunning when they all flowered. This was enough to motivate the guy who owned the house, he then got right into gardening after that..

I've also planted coriander seed from the herb section, and some others that I can't think of at the moment. Anyone else done this?
Author:  dufflight [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 8:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
Green manure crops are cheap from the supermarket. You do have to watch out with some of the veg. I tried to get the purple sweet potato to grow but worked out that they were cold storing them. I harvested some paw paw seeds the other day and was going to give them a try.
Author:  chillidude [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 11:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
earthbound wrote:
It can be very simple to get your growing stock from the supermarket, so often overlooked yet so simple.

Anyone else done this?

Yeah, but only with potatoes, garlic, onions and once a japanese pumpkin.

I'm already fired up about the pineapple from the BYAP forum though so will be doing that one soon. And next time I hit the greengrocers I'm pretty sure I'll be looking at things with a different perspective.

Good post Joel.
Author:  Faye [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 11:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
Quote:
I've also planted coriander seed from the herb section

What the? Joel-coriander, that sounds like an oxymoron.(You hate coriander)

This morning I planted my turmeric, galengal and kipfler potato tip which was starting to shoot.
Author:  earthbound [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 1:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
One of the sweet potatoes has shoots already, the other two, dunno...

Yeah hard to get pineapples with tops on them nowadays.

Me? Coriander? well, yeah, I was just trying to see what I could grow from the spice section of the supermarket.
Author:  Granny Smith [ Fri Jan 22, 2010 9:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
A couple of years ago I got 60 kilos of jap pumpkin from one seed out of one from the supermarket - 15 @ 4kgs each. Kept us going right through the winter.

With garlic, it's best to grow the purple ones. The others are Chinese and probably fumigated.

A lot of fruit and vegetables are dipped in something so that they WON'T sprout before they're sold.

Oh yes, and I have a Pink Lady apple tree from a seed that had sprouted inside an apple I was eating. I know it's a gamble as to whether it will fruit or not - and how long that will take - but I'm enjoying watching it grow while I nurture a Granny Smith and a Jonathan as backup, both of which have fruited this year.

I also have a pineapple that has sat in the ground for two years but it now has a second 'head'.

Chokos are supposed to be easy to grow, but mine was planted in too much sun and died.

I planted some chickpeas this year, just to see what would happen and the answer is not much. More likely my fault than anything else. My giant passionfruit seed didn't grow either because it's a hybrid, I'm told.
Author:  dufflight [ Sat Jan 23, 2010 7:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
I've got a couple of Chokos growing. They make a great shade area for the chooks. If they will stop eating the leaves. :bash:
Author:  earthbound [ Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
Chokos took over my mulberry tree, and pear tree, and almost the avocado tree as well, they can be huge. They should grow above your chook height pretty quickly Duff.
Author:  chillidude [ Sun Jan 24, 2010 8:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
I hate chokos with a vengeance - used to have to eat them plain boiled as a kid and even back then I would rather have eaten a bowl of hair than the chokos. :yuck:

Rip 'em out now and put in something good, which is pretty much anything else for me. The only other thing I've found that I won't eat are boiled chicken feet cold the next morning for breakfast !!!
Author:  earthbound [ Sun Jan 24, 2010 9:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
I guess the plants make good mulch... :D
Author:  chillidude [ Mon Jan 25, 2010 11:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
earthbound wrote:
I guess the plants make good mulch... :D

+1 Joel.
Author:  dufflight [ Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
A lot of older people don't like chokos cos of there use in the depression. Was a cheap and easily grown food. I never liked them till I worked out they take on other flavours so well. Most apple pies are chokos, canned pears etc.
Author:  earthbound [ Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
Yeah, they are a good filler... Definitely hold a place in a sustainable situation.
Author:  chillidude [ Wed Jan 27, 2010 10:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
Yep, I know you're both right, they're easy to grow and fairly productive, and I should pull my finger and cook them properly to try it - just gotta get over the memory hump of plain, boiled chokos.
Author:  Simo [ Mon May 24, 2010 9:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Growing plants from the supermarket?
Below are pictures of avocado and pear trees grown from seed from supermarket fruit. I am also attempting chestnuts, white sapote, tamarillo and pomegranite, and is the past have grown pepino from seed.

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