Growing seeds collected from floral arrangements.
I bought a few stems of Crested Cocks Comb (Celosia argentea var. cristata) that had already gone to seed, and when the blooms were done in the house, I scattered the seed in the hell strip before throwing the rest on the compost heap. Unfortunately I'd forgotten I'd done this, so I think I might have pulled a few. However, I have a few coming up that managed to escape my weeding!
Saving date seeds and growing palm trees!
I ate off as much of the flesh as possible, soaked the seeds in water for 24-48 hours (changing it occasionally), stuffed them in a baggie filled with damp perlite, and then potted them up once I saw a root growing! You can find more here. Tasty and fun! I told my neighbor about this, and she's doing it as well.
Growing pineapple plants from pineapple tops!
I'm bringing this one back because it's something I'm quite proud of. I just removed all the flesh from the pineapple, removed the lowest leaves which hide the primordial roots, and let them dry out for a week, turned upside down, in the shade. Once dried, I planted them in pots and watered.
More to come!
We're good for growing avocados trees from the pits (as indoor plants -- though they're outdoors for summer vacation currently). Though we call them guacamole trees. If you ever have the chance, and I'm not saying you should, but dried avocado leaves, burned, smell EXACTLY like a dried herb many have smoked (but not inhaled) in their college days. Try it sometime.
ReplyDeleteI am doing a pineapple too! Mine was looking shaky but just started to look like it got a little umph and as doing fine now. After Halloween I threw all the pumpkins along the fence line and they are all growing- had lots of blooms so hopefully some pumpkins- I threw all kinds over there so will be interesting to see what (if any) grow. I think I accidentally pulled some up though when weeding.... I think it is so fun to grow things like that though- can't wait to see what else you've done. The date is very cool. Would not have thought that!
ReplyDeleteI love dates! I am so going to do this. I like to tell kids about celery and carrots from the stuff you put in the compost. I even had a potato peel start to grow in the compost once.
ReplyDeleteJim - I'm kinda scared to try it! I don't want to deal with a search warrant. :P
ReplyDeletekacky - I love volunteer produce! It gets me all giddy. And isn't it funny how certain things don't occur to you? I was eating dates and thought, "Hm, I wonder if I can grow this." So I ran a search and discovered that I could. So I did!
Tufa - You definitely should especially if you already eat dates. A potato peel? That's CRAZY!