Below are some great tips from Chef Freddy on how to reuse vegetable seeds from vegetables you buy at the market. Don’t panic! There will be loss of plants, as not all will take, so the more you plant the better odds you will have.
Ginger
Ginger plant - You will need vegetable potting soil and a 1-gallon pot of your choice.
- At the grocery store or local market, pick up a piece of ginger (with up to 3 fingers no matter how big or small it may be).
- Fill pot 3/4th of the way to the top with soil, place you ginger root in the middle of the pot with all of its fingers flat on the soil’s surface, and then cover it with 2-3 inches of soil.
- Water the seedling well, and keep the soil moist and well drained.
- Place the pot in a full to partial sunny location and be patient. Within two months, sometimes longer if it’s in its dormant time of year like winter months, you will see growth. After six months or longer you will see many new growths you can harvest and start the cycle over again.
Sweet Potatoes / Sweet Potato Vines
Sweet Potato Plant - You will need vegetable potting soil and a rectangular deep planter, and in this case, you need a large surface area for the vine to cover all the surface of the soil, while not allowing it to hang off the edge too much.
- Find a sweet potato (or more) with as many dimples and eyes on the skin as possible (nothing larger then the palm of your hand).
- Fill the planter with soil to the top of the inner rim and saturate the soil with water and make sure it drains well.
- Then in the middle of the planter, place the sweet potatoes on the surface of the soil and press down gently creating solid contact between sweet potato and the soil.
- Keep in a bright light area until you have vines of at least 6 inches, then move to a sunny location. And as the vines grow, make sure they grow on the surface of the soil. As they grow, the vines get thicker creating new roots, which is what you want. The new roots eventually swell up into baby sweet potatoes.
- Please note: Each length of vine can be cut at 2 foot intervals to create new clone plants and faster growing potatoes. After six to eight months, a good vine should yield a couple pounds of young sweet potatoes. Be patient!
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