Even though buying organic food over the genetically modified or pesticide-exposed versions is good for your health, it can be too expensive. You have to pay 20-100% more for an organic food because of the limited supply and the additional labor and maintenance required to produce them.
Here are 20 vegetables and herbs you can grow indoors using parts of the produce you would throw away to save you some money.
Romaine Lettuce
Keep the base of your romaine lettuce in a bowl with a ½ inch of warm water same as to celery. You have to leave it under the direct sunlight for a week or two. Then your lettuce stem will produce fresh, and you can have new lettuce leaves for all your great salads. In order to continue growing, transplant your lettuce to soil. In three to four weeks they should be full grown. You can do the same method for Bok Choy as well.
Garlic Sprouts
Green shoots are the long green things growing out your garlic. You can put them in a little water, under a lot of sunlight and grow a bunch of garlic sprouts. They are very tasty than garlic cloves, and you can add them in salads, pastas and as a garnish.
Carrots
Take some chopped off carrot tops and place them in a container filled with a bit of water. They will begin to sprout delicious greens from the top that are tasty to add on your meals. Then take a deeper contain with more water, keep carrots halfway in the water using toothpicks and wait until they root. Once they root, for a continuous supply you can plant them in your garden.
Turnip
First cut off turnip tops and put them in a shallow container with water until they start growing roots. After a couple of weeks they’ll sprout and then you can plant them outside.
Sweet Potato
Sweet potatoes start by slips or shoots. First, you have to clean them and then cut a sweet potato in half, then place it half in/half out of a jar full of water using toothpicks. Keep it for a few days and your sweet potato will begin to sprout slips at which point you remove them and place them in water to grow roots. With a week you should have rooted slips. Next, in the first week you have to plant them in loose, well-drained soil and water every day, and do it same the way in every other day (or as needed) the following weeks.
Ginger
In ginger, you can see little pieces growing out of them and they are called a “rhizome”. Then cut those as they’re the key to growing new ginger plants. It only takes a minimal effort to grow this food but it needs the right conditions. You can keep this in warm, slightly humid places like kitchens. Plant the piece of ginger about 3-5 inches in the soil with its rhizome pointing upwards. Water it regularly. It will take up to ten months to get a sufficient amount of ginger. But it has a lot of worth health benefits.
Pineapple
To grow this, it needs a few years. But if you have the time and right climate, you can try it. Take a pineapple and cut the flowery “crown” off about an inch below the leaves. Trim around the bottom until you see little brownish bumps which are the root buds. You have to dehydrate pineapple crown to prevent rotting soon before planting. Then place your prepped pineapple cutting in a shallow container of warm water. When the cutting begins to root, replant it into a container with soil and be sure to water once a week. Try to keep it in a bright, warm place with as much direct sunlight as possible.
Rosemary
Same as the other herbs, you can grow rosemary from 5-6 inch cuttings. Place them in water for a few weeks, and there should be enough that have rooted and not rotted. In a 4″ pot filled with damp potting soil, make a 3″ hole with a pen or pencil and place the rosemary cutting gently into it. You should only water it when the soil starts feeling dry as this herb is so delicate. It needs light to flourish so, keep it direct sunlight for 6-8 hours per day. You can give them a quick mist if the soil isn’t dry yet.
Potatoes
You need potatoes with a lot of eyes or slip growing on it and cut it into 2-inch squares with each piece having a couple of eyes. You need to leave them out in room temperature for a couple of days to stop rotting. Keep the cubes in a deep pot in 8” deep with the eyes facing upwards and cover it with another 4” of soil. Then more roots will start to grow and you need to add more soil and water. You can have a few potatoes in like 70 days.
Celery
You need to cut off the celery and leave it in a bowl with a little bit of warm water to grow this healthy snack at home. Keep the bowl under direct sunlight for a week and you can see celery base will start to grow leaves. To grow it, transplant the celery in the soil.
Cabbage
Same as the celery take the bottom of your cabbage head and leave it in a container with an inch or two of water in a well-lit area and wait. You’ll see it regrow without planting over time.
Avocado
This one is also like pineapple. You can learn to grow an avocado tree from a single pit by how to so in eight steps right here.
Mint
Get a clipping of mint and plant it 3” deep in a 5-8” pot of damp soil. You need to keep the mint plant in a slightly humid, sun-exposed room. In every few days, rotate the pot to allow for the plant to grow evenly. After a few weeks the mint plant will start to flourish and you can add for the delicious dishes and drinks.
Lemon
Take an organic lemon with non-germinating seeds, nutrient-rich potting soil, a planting pot that’s 6” wide and 6” deep, a seeding pot that’s 24” wide and 12” deep and a sunny growing location. The next steps for growing a lemon tree from seed explained clearly, right here.
Mushrooms
You need spores to grow this. A certified Urban Agriculturist, Bonnie Grant explains everything at Gardening Know How. If you want to learn how to grow mushrooms at your home, this is what you have to do.
Peppers
Off The Grid News say that it’s not too hard to grow peppers at your own home.
“Seeds should be planted in a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite and sand (roughly equal parts of each). Place two seeds in each pot near its center, and push the seeds just below the surface of the soil. Keep soil moist but not wet, and keep pots in a spot where they will get sunlight throughout the day.
It is possible to keep your pepper plants fruiting the entire winter – but you will need to keep them toasty warm and give them sufficient light if you are to be successful. Ideally, the room that they are in should be a constant 65-75 degrees. Using very bring fluorescent lighting or a combination of sunlight and fluorescent light is best. Peppers tend to need more light than other plants, so if you want fruit you should plan on leaving their lights on for 14-16 hours per day. Some people control this using a timer, but it is also fine to leave the lights on 24 hours a day. Once plants have flowers, they should be fertilized on a weekly basis… Watering may be done whenever the soil is slightly dry.”
Scallion
In five days you can regrow scallion, (green onions). You only need to leave at least an inch attached to the roots of your leftover scallion. Then put them in a small glass of water and top up the water it if evaporates. Then your scallion will flourish.
Basil
Take some basil clippings at least four-inch stems and put them in a glass of water under direct sunlight. You can put in some soil in a pot and grow your own basil plant when the stems grow two inches long.
Onions
When it comes to onions, you need to put them directly in the soil to grow. Take the bottom end of the onion and plant it in a pot or directly in the soil outside and water it when it needs. Leave the onion more of a bottom. In like three weeks onions will develop roots. And in the fourth week, it will sprout leaves.
Most of the procedures are the same such as a container of water and direct sunlight. And it is very easy and saves you a lot of money. It also ensures that you take only fresh, organic food in your meals.