Rather than throwing your scraps in the bin or the compost, why not grow new vegetables?!
Here's your quick guide to growing root veg from scraps!
Here's your quick guide to growing root veg from scraps!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Reducing food waste has never been more important but did you know you could be
00:10using your veg scraps to grow your own? Here's my quick and easy guide to grow
00:15your own root veg basics using nothing but leftovers. So first of all the humble
00:20potato it's a staple of most UK dishes and it's really simple to grow your own.
00:25All you need to do is get some peelings they need to be about two inches across
00:28and crucially they need to have eyes on them. All you need to do let the peeling
00:33grow out and then plant it so it needs about four inches of deep rich soil and
00:39you need to pop them in a sunny spot so you pop them in with the eyes facing
00:44upwards make sure you've got the four inch depth otherwise they won't grow
00:47properly and then about ten weeks after planting you'll notice potato plants
00:51growing and that's when your potatoes are ready to harvest. Now sweet potatoes are
00:56a little bit more tricky to grow but it is possible so it's worth having a go.
01:01Basically you need to cut a sweet potato in half and it needs to be suspended in
01:05water like this to allow shoots to grow. Now my potato fits perfectly in this glass
01:10jar but say you had a wider container if you insert toothpicks around the side it
01:16will suspend the potato in the water and allow those shoots to grow. So once they
01:20start sprouting out the top all you do is twist the leaves off and it's very
01:25similar to lettuce which we talked about growing last time. So you pop the leaves
01:29into some water and they will begin to sprout and grow roots. Once those roots
01:33start to grow they're ready to pop outside in soil. Now sweet potatoes love
01:38sandy soil they love really sunny conditions and they're not very social
01:41bit like us at the moment so make sure you space them out well. Finally onions
01:46literally you cannot go wrong growing these they're really easy to grow
01:49inside or outside all you need to do is cut off the root that's the bottom bit in
01:53case you're wondering leaving about half an inch of onion with it.
01:57Then you simply place it in some soil this way down so root down into the soil
02:03and it will start to grow new roots. Once that happens this bit will actually
02:07die off so you can remove the onion leave those roots and then it will take a
02:12couple of months and your onions will be underground ready to harvest. So if you
02:16manage to grow your veg from scratch with scraps then share your pictures with us on
02:20Instagram using the hashtag so real homes