Step 28: Kitchen Scraps Up-cycle
Lots of things from your kitchen scraps pile can become beautiful or edible plants. I have grown several pineapple plants from the discarded tops of pineapples. One year one of the plants actually went to fruit and I grew a real pineapple. It was delicious!
Pineapples once planted, take 2-3 years to fruit. When you water your pineapple plant, pour water in the crown (center).
Here's how:
a. save the top of a fresh pineapple, leaving an inch or so of flesh intact below the crown
b. set aside let dry for a day or so
c. put builder's sand or potting soil in a Styrofoam mushroom tray or other shallow container, punch a drainage hole
d. place pineapple top in sand, water
e. put in a cool semi-shady spot
f. forget about it--remembering to water occasionally
g. after several weeks it will grow roots
h. pot up
i. feed occasionally with liquid sea weed or fish emulsion
j. water occasionally
k. forget about it
l. pot up as it grows--they grow into large spikey plants
m. bring inside or into a greenhouse for the winter--they can't take the cold!
Other "scraps" I have upcycled included but are not limited to -- seeds from store bought Texas grapefruit. I now have several small (1-2 ft) grapefruit trees in pots. I plan to plant them in the ground soon.
I was given a Myer's lemon tree and it fruited. I saved some of the seeds and planted them. They took forever but now I have 2 tiny lemon trees.
I have also saved seeds from store bought tomatoes and grown cherry tomatoes.
There are lots of plants you can grow from "scraps" as well as save seeds from your garden and yard. For example, every year I grow moonvines. I save the seeds in Fall to be planted the following Spring. Upcycling at its best!
Pineapples once planted, take 2-3 years to fruit. When you water your pineapple plant, pour water in the crown (center).
Here's how:
a. save the top of a fresh pineapple, leaving an inch or so of flesh intact below the crown
b. set aside let dry for a day or so
c. put builder's sand or potting soil in a Styrofoam mushroom tray or other shallow container, punch a drainage hole
d. place pineapple top in sand, water
e. put in a cool semi-shady spot
f. forget about it--remembering to water occasionally
g. after several weeks it will grow roots
h. pot up
i. feed occasionally with liquid sea weed or fish emulsion
j. water occasionally
k. forget about it
l. pot up as it grows--they grow into large spikey plants
m. bring inside or into a greenhouse for the winter--they can't take the cold!
Other "scraps" I have upcycled included but are not limited to -- seeds from store bought Texas grapefruit. I now have several small (1-2 ft) grapefruit trees in pots. I plan to plant them in the ground soon.
I was given a Myer's lemon tree and it fruited. I saved some of the seeds and planted them. They took forever but now I have 2 tiny lemon trees.
I have also saved seeds from store bought tomatoes and grown cherry tomatoes.
There are lots of plants you can grow from "scraps" as well as save seeds from your garden and yard. For example, every year I grow moonvines. I save the seeds in Fall to be planted the following Spring. Upcycling at its best!
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They still can make beautiful plants though so if you don't mind that they won't bear fruit then that's cool too.
But the point I was making is that--with a little imagination and a little work, you can grow stuff from "scraps" of fruits and veggies. Some of these throwaway plantings you can eat, some of it you won't...but like you say, you will usually get a nice plant.
But anyway, thanks for the comment.