fasthowto.com

Have you done the thing where you grow a vine from a potato or a plant from an avocado seed? You can get some really decent sized plants from produce - here’s how:

Sweet Potato - Get a nice firm sweet potato. Using four toothpicks, suspend the sweet potato on the rim of a jar or mug filled with water. Make sure the bottom half - the pointed end - is under water. Place in a sunny spot, and change or add water as needed. You should get roots in a few days and in a few weeks you should get leaves. Continue to grow the plant in water or, after a month or two, pot the sweet potato in potting mix. Keep the soil moist. The stems will vine so you will need to tie them to a wire or stake. Feed once a month with a balanced water-soluble fertilizer such as 20-20-20. As the vine grows, cut it back a few inches to force the plant to grow bushy. If you live in a mild climate you can plant your potato outside.

Pineapple - First, cut the leafy top from a fresh pineapple, taking about an inch of fruit with it. Then, let it sit out of direct sunlight for a day or two (it needs to dry).

Next, get an 8-inch pot filled with potting soil and bury the fruit part in it and water it thoroughly. Move your pineapple plant outside in the summer, and in the winter, keep it indoors near a sunny window. If you live in a mild climate you can keep it outdoors unless the temperature drops below 45 degrees. I live in the South and I just stuck my pineapple top right in the ground and it grew.

It takes a couple years to bear fruit but while you are waiting you still have a very pretty plant to look at.

Avocado - Cut into the avocado carefully, so you don’t damage the seed. Carefully remove the pit. Wash the avocado pit gently, removing all avocado flesh. Holding the pit “narrow” (pointed) side up, stick four toothpicks into the middle section of the pit at even intervals, to a depth of about 5 mm.

In a small container (preferably glass), add water until it reaches the top. Set your avocado pit (with inserted toothpicks) on the top of the container. The toothpicks should rest on the rim of the container, so the pit is only half-submerged in the water. Make sure the pointed side is up while the rounder end is in the water or your avocado will not grow.

Set the container near a window or other well-lit area. Change the water every 1-2 days so no bacteria form in the water. Make sure the base of the avocado is always submerged in water.
Over the next 2-3 weeks, the avocado’s brown outer layer will begin to dry out and wrinkle, and will peel off. The pit will then split open at the top and bottom. After 3-4 weeks, a tap root should begin to emerge at the base of the pit.

When the avocado plant has developed a few leaves you can put it in a bigger pot with soil. Be sure to remove the toothpicks and keep the upper half of the pit above the soil line. When it gets bigger you can plant it in the ground if you live in a climate with mild winters. If you have cold winters you will have to move the plant indoors in the winter.

Lima Bean - Soak the seed overnight. Get a container and cover the soaked seed with about 1/2″ of potting soil and keep damp but not soggy-wet. Seeds in soggy-wet soil will rot. The seed needs warmth to germinate and then sun to develop leaves so put in a warm sunny spot.

Lima bean plants usually vine so you’ll need to tie the vines to some support.The plants are not likely to fruit up unless they are in a rather big container and are watered and fed regularly. You can transplant your plant into the ground. We put ours in the ground and had a really huge plant after awhile.

Garlic - I took a garlic bulb from the grocery and took each clove and planted in the ground. The plants look a bit like tall grass but they are pretty and will have white flowers in the spring. You can also put the clove in a pot and grow inside by a sunny window.

Ginger - A guy at the grocery store told me you can take the ginger they sell there and plant it. I tried it and he was right. I cut up the ginger and planted the pieces and sure enough plants sprouted. These plants are quite large so you can start them inside in potting soil but after awhile you will probably need to move them outside.

Corn - The squirrels in my yard have been busy and in additon to planting acorns which are sprouting baby oak trees all over my yard, they are planting corn. Each day I give them an ear of hard corn and they have buried some of the kernels. Those kernels sprouted and I have corn plants in my potted plants and in my flower beds. So I guess we can include corn and if you don’t have squirrels to do it for you, you’ll have to bury it in the ground yourself.
Visit us at Cheapskateliving.org and see our post on Free Plants For Your Yard

free plants,free outdoor plants,get free plants,how to grow an avocado,how to grow a pineapple,how to grow a sweet potato,growth of plants lima bean,how to grow ginger,how to grow garlic

Technorati Tags: free plants, free outdoor plants, get free plants, how to grow an avocado, how to grow a pineapple, how to grow a sweet potato, growth of plants lima bean, how to grow ginger, how to grow garlic

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!