spiceoflife's Blog

Here I go again...
May 29, 2008 | 6:59 PM PST
Tags: grocery , store bought

So now that I have my new book, Don't Throw It, Grow It! 68 Windowsill Plants From Kitchen Scraps by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam, I'm trying a few new ones and a few that I have tried before.

Retries:

A
Avocado - Last time I managed to get three plants that got to about 18" -24" after about a year, and then kill them. I think I overwatered them, so I'll be careful this time.

Pineapple - I have tried this one before a few times and the stump just rots before the roots start. Hope springs eternal.

Passion fruit - tried it before and I now have four vigorous vines growing in my living room. I'll be putting one of them outside this week to see how it fares. I bought the fruit this time mostly as a treat, though. Really tasty! Love 'em .

Mango - When I tried this before I managed to get only one to sprout and it quickly expired, probably again due to over-watering. This time I have one sprouted already, but it's from the larger, green and red kind of mango. It's not my favorite. The book says that although it's not the best eating mango, the seed germinates much easier than the yellow one and the houseplant it produces is still terrific. I'm really hoping to get one of the yellow mangos to germinate! I've tried three so far. Two rotted in the cup I was soaking them in, and one rotted in the potting soil. I have two more in the fridge.

New ones

Prickly pear - I was surprised and excited to find some prickly pear cactus leaves (nopales) at the produce store. So I bought one, cut it into thirds, let the pieces dry out for about a day and a half, and stuck the pieces into some slightly moist potting soil. We'll see what happens. The leaves were only about $2 each.

Mamey Sapote - The sign said Names, but I think the sign got switched with another. After doing some research, I'm pretty sure it was the Mamey sapote.

Chica Zapote - Not totally sure what this actually is either. I bought three, but none of them had any seeds. They looked sort of like brownish green persimmons with roughish skins. Again, research is the word of the day. I think it's actually a sapodilla.

Litchis(Lychees) - I got about a dozen of these. They're similar to the longan berry and I had good success with those. They're still in the fridge next to the mangos.

Kiwis - I've been enjoying these brown furry treats for years and just never bothered to try the seeds. Looking forward to these, even though this particular type isn't hardy this far north. The vines are still supposed to be nice to look at.

Sweet potato - supposed to be a nice vine, and I'm hoping to get a couple of sweet potatoes out of the deal.

OFF THE RAFT

Cherries - Just to see what happens I saved some cherry pits from fresh cherries that were really good. (You know how sometimes you get cherries and they just have NO cherry flavor to them at all - I hate that.) I'm soaking them and then I'll throw them in some dirt.

And just for fun, I bought a 4" sassafras seedling. Maybe there is gumbo in my future. I also picked up some salsify because I've read about it in a bunch of my organic gardening books, but had never seen it in the grocery store. Well I found some seedlings at Lexington gardens and decided to give them a try. And lastly, some lemon verbena just because it smells so dang good.

Rhubarb flower update - Pretty impressive stalk. It's taller than I am! I'm glad I let it grow out. I'll try to take some pictures before it totally goes by.

Regards,

Rober
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