A while back, I mentioned I had been resprouting vegetable ends and I had a few interested parties wanting to know more. The basic premise is that you keep the root ends of certain vegetables and put them in enough water to cover the bottom without drowning the stump and they will resprout new growth. This growth will not manifest itself in an exact replica of the original plant but you will get some extra food or vegetation out of them. At a certain point, you will/may need to put them into soil but it can begin in just water.
As you can see above, these are the Leeks I have going currently. Since posting these pictures, they have both grown quite a bit.I have tried this with Beetroot (which grows you new edible leaves, not a new beetroot), carrot TOPS (in their case not roots, you get carrot greens you can make into pesto), cabbage, chicory, Pak choi, Spring onions and leeks. I have had most success with the leeks and spring onions but I did get some edible Beetroot leaves. My mum has had lots of success with the beetroot leaves.
Here are a few examples of what I have grown over the year and hopefully you will see various stages. They are not chronological...
Here is also a blog post about it with more ideas about it.
It may not be glamorous and requires changing of the water and occasionally touching slimy ends but it really is miraculous and fascinating to watch and appeals to my Zerowaste wish! And, at a time of year, where there isn't much to grow, it is a nice project that you can do for free! I made use of these little glass yoghurt pots from Milk and More but you can use any little ramekin.
And here, we had a full-sized Leek....well, not as fat as regular leeks but this looked proper!
This is what there like on February the 6th
These were what sprouted on December the 13th. Sadly, after I cut the beetroot leaves off, all the rest got a bit soggy and moudly so they didn't go any further
These above were December the 6th. The Cabbage stump was doing so well. These were in September: The Spring onions looked so healthy!
HERE ARE SOME Spring onions THAT WERE BIG ENOUGH TO PLANT OUT:
And here, we had a full-sized Leek....well, not as fat as regular leeks but this looked proper!
This was that same one on July the 6th:
I also used some sweet potato sprouts as well- these looked pretty healthy in July:
And here's some early Leek and Spring onion and chicory growth from July 11th:
Back in May, this Leek grew 2 ears in a completely different way from all the other leeks I have sprouted!
