Kitchen Scraps to Regrow into Plants

kitchen scraps to regrow

There are a number of kitchen scraps to regrow. Regrowing vegetable scraps gives you entirely new plants you can put outside in your garden and harvest all summer long. These days we are all trying to find ways to make our veggies go a little further. Why not take what you would normally throw away and regrow them into entirely new plants? Why *wouldn’t* we all do this?

1. Lettuces

The easiest way to regrow lettuce is from hydroponic lettuce which has the rootball attached.  You can put that right in the soil in your garden after using the lettuce leaves. However, you can also regrow lettuce from a regular head of lettuce. Cut the leaves off about an inch from the bottom of the head. Put the stem in about a half inch of water on a sunny windowsill.  In about a week you’ll see some new roots and leaves growing.  At this point you can put it into moist soil.  This same procedure works for cabbage, too. 

Leafy greens like their growing conditions to be a little bit on the cooler side, so your best bet is to do this in late winter or early spring. Then, when you move the newly growing lettuce outside, the transplant shock will be lower.

2. Onions

After you use most of the onion, don’t throw away the base of the bulb with the roots attached. You can replant that right into your garden. Try to leave about a third of the onion, or at least a half inch, and ensure the soil you plant it in is moist and well draining. Cover the entire top with your soil. The partial bulb will divide and produce new onions.

3. Potatoes

Everyone knows potatoes can regrow. Here’s how. Cut the potato into pieces, with about 2-3 eyes per piece. Allow the pieces to dry overnight. Now just put the pieces in your soil. Keep consistently moist but not wet for the first couple of weeks. Soon you’ll see sprouts growing through the soil. As the leaves grow, the potato tubers will divide and produce new potatoes.

In some instances, I’ve had potatoes start to grow new baby tubers before I could get them into the ground. These guys really want to reproduce for you!

The same process works for sweet potatoes, too.

4. Celery

 Celery Scraps can regrow pretty easily.  The procedure is similar to lettuce. Cut off the root end of the celery about two inches up. Put that in a shallow dish of warm water in bright sunlight.  After a few days you should see small leaves growing from the center of the top of the rosette. After roots appear, plant in your garden.

5. Avocado

Memories of putting that avocado pit in a glass of water as a kid but it never grew? I’ve done some side by side testing, and the absolute most foolproof method is different than you learned. Here’s how to increase your success rate. You’ll need a ripe, soft avocado with no brown spots to jumpstart the growth process. When you cut into the avocado, try not to touch the pit with your knife, as this could introduce bacteria. Clean the pit with fresh water. Peel the brown skin off to expose only the creamy center.

Forget the toothpicks and cut 10mm off the bottom of the pit, and about 5mm from the top. Use a clean, sterilized knife to prevent bacteria. Put the now flat bottom end into a shallow, clear bowl or dish. Use distilled water in the bottom of the dish. The water should cover the bottom half inch or so of the pit. Keep on a sunny windowsill, but out of direct sunlight. You should add more water as some evaporates. If the water develops a filmy substance, change it and clean the bowl. After about 6 weeks you should see a root growing.

You can put the avocado in the soil now, but you can also let it continue to grow and maintain the water level – the root should never dry out. If you keep it in the water, cut the leaf stem back to about 4 inches to allow the roots to further develop. After the leaves grow back again, plant it in some well draining potting soil and keep the pot in a sunny spot. You can move the pot outdoors to a patio in the summer.

Just be aware – growing an avocado from seed will take many years before you will see it actually produce avocados.

6. Ginger

You can easily replenish your ginger root supply. Just save a scrap piece and put it in potting soil with one of the buds facing up. Keep the ginger well-watered and out of any cold or frost. It wont take long before you see new roots and new shoots.

7. Pumpkin

After Halloween, dig a hole and bury the entire pumpkin in it. As long as there’s even just a little rain over the winter, you’ll have a few new pumpkin sprouts in the spring. Sometimes I just toss the pumpkin on the top of the compost pile and even then, almost always we see pumpkin babies in the spring. The benefit of burying the pumpkin is that the seed will grow where you want them to grow, rather than needing to transplant them from the compost pile.

For some more tips on growing pumpkins from seeds, check out this post on tips to grow pumpkins from seed!

8. Carrots

Lastly, one of my favorite, easy kitchen scraps you can regrow is carrot. Rooting a carrot is the same as lettuce – save the end of the carrot (sorry, a baby carrot has the top shaved off so cannot be used) and pop it into some water. Soon you will see it growing roots. Once the roots appear, just put the carrot into your soil.

The great thing about the carrot is that it will not get mushy In the water as quickly as lettuce, so even if you leave it inside a little long, it should still be viable for transplanting.

Carrots are actually biennials. The first year they grow the roots, and the second year they put a lot of their energy into producing seed. So, this method is primarily for collecting carrot seeds and growing edible green carrot tops. If you want to encourage more root growth, make sure to trim the carrot tops off prior to flower production. Use the carrot tops in this great Carrot Top Pesto recipe. Or, feed them to your pet bunny!!

There are plenty of other kitchen scraps you can regrow, but these are some of the easiest. What are some of your favorite kitchen scraps to regrow? Let me know in the comments down below!