21 Awesome Foods You Can Easily Re-Grow at Home

ByChristina Sarich Hours Published on Hours Updated on

Buying organic food is often a little more expensive, but you can make your budget stretch farther with just a little bit of effort. Since produce is one of the most expensive items you will buy, why not grow your own at home? There are many healthy foods that you can re-grow right in your own kitchen, some with nothing but water.

Here are 21 foods to grow at home to save money and enjoy better health:

  • 1. Almost any Leafy Green that still has the lower stalk attached will re-grow in water. This includes romaine lettuce, Bok Choy, cabbage, and more. Use the leaves off the top of the stem, and then place the stem in a bowl of water in a sunny place in your kitchen. In a few days you’ll start to see new shoots coming through the center, and in a few weeks, you’ll have re-grown that delicious leafy plant to harvest for dinner.
  • 2. Celery grows again very well from the stalk. Just put the base in some room-temperature water near sunlight, and watch it grow. In about a week you’ll see new celery begins to grow along the base.
  • 3. Lemongrass is easy to grow. Simply use the top stalk, and place the root back in a glass of water. Once your lemongrass has been in water for about a week and you see new roots forming, transfer it to a pot with good organic soil. It will grow like any other grass, and then you can enjoy this flavorful and nutritious herb numerous times.

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  • 4. Bean Sprouts – These little delicacies are wonderful in so many dishes, and you can grow them easily in a clear jar with a little water or a shallow dish. Just be sure to drain them and add fresh water every few days so that they grow without becoming slimy.
  • 5. Avocados – Don’t throw the pit away! Instead, replant the seed and sooner or later, you’ll have new avocadoes to eat. This is one of nature’s most complete foods, but it can often cost as much as much $3 for a single organic avocado – so it’s worth growing your own. Here are some health benefits of avocados.
  • 6. Potatoes – Whether you crave sweet potatoes or Idaho, you can re-grow them in your own garden! New potatoes can even be grown from the peelings – as long as they have eyes on them.
  • 7. Ginger Root – Ginger root will grow well too. Just place your roots with the buds facing up in a pot of soil (with sunlight and water) and you can have ginger on hand for all your recipes year-round. Check out these health benefits of ginger for motivation to grow.

Read: 5 Foods You Can Grow from Store-Bought Produce

  • 8. Turmeric Root – Turmeric will grow just like ginger. Just plant the rhizomes in the ground and watch them grow. You can use 90 percent of fresh turmeric root, and use the rest to grow a new batch.
  • 9. Pineapple – By cutting off the top of the pineapple and replanting it, you can re-grow a new one. It may take up to an entire year, but since you were likely going to throw that part out anyhow, why not attempt to grow a new tropical fruit?
  • 10. Garlic – Have some garlic that’s been lying around awhile that has started to grow new shoots? Simply plant them and you’ll have fresh garlic in as little as three months.

  • 11. Tomatoes – Another plant to re-grow from seed is tomatoes. If you’ve tasted a wonderful organic variety from a grocer or from the farmer’s market, simply save the seed and regrow them. Tomatoes require lots of sun and water, but they usually provide a bumper crop from just a dozen seeds.

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  • 12. Pumpkin – You don’t have to wait for Halloween to grow your own pumpkin. The next time you have some organic, dried pumpkin seed to nibble on, simply plant a few in a pot with organic soil, place near a window, and water every three to five days. When you start to see a green plant grow and the roots are well established, you can transfer the plant outdoors.
  • 13. Mushrooms – Although this isn’t a growing project for first-time gardeners, you can re-grow mushrooms in a pot with well-controlled temperature and moisture by cutting off the head from the stalks and replanting them. By sticking about ¾ of the stalk in the soil and leaving just the top sticking out, a new mushroom will grow.
  • 14. Peppers – Another plant you can grow from seed is peppers. Simply save your seeds and find a sunny spot in your garden to transplant the seedlings you start indoors.
  • 15. Fennel – By keeping the roots in tact of the fennel plant, you can transplant them to your garden and grow a new batch.
  • 16. Onions – Red, yellow, orange, white – any kind of onion can be grown from scraps. Just make sure that you keep at least a half inch of the onion as well as the root to replant. You can grow some new onions to replace the ones you eat in no time at all.
  • 17. Citrus Fruits – You can re-grow citrus plants even if you don’t live in a warm climate by saving your seeds and planting them indoors. Enjoy lemons, oranges, grapefruit and more.
  • 18. Basil – You only need a glass of water and a piece of basil with at least a four-inch stem to re-grow a new plant. Just place the stem in water and change it every week or so, with the new leaf in the sun. Soon you’ll have roots that can be transplanted to a semi-sunny spot in your garden, or by a light-filled window in your home.
  • 19. Cilantro – An amazing spice which helps to detox the body, cilantro can also be re-grown with just a small piece with a four-inch stem. Follow the same instructions as for basil.

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  • 20. Turnips – Save the tops of your turnips and place them in a glass of water to establish new roots.
  • 21-23. Peaches, Nectarines, and Plums – These fruits can all be grown from the seed – or pit – in the center of the fruit. Just save it and plant it in quality organic compost. You’ll be able to grow your plant outdoors if you live in a warmer climate or in a greenhouse if you have harsher winters.

Related posts:

  1. Grow a Garden from Garbage: 5 Plants to Grow from Food Scraps
  2. Grow Your Own: 5 Easiest Vegetables to Grow Without Gardening Skills
  3. New Dirty Dozen: 12 Fruit and Vegetables to Always Buy Organic, Plus the Clean 15
  4. Don’t Forget About the 2017 Dirty Dozen List: Most Pesticide-Tainted Produce

Featured at over 3,000 different alternative-health and consciousness-raising websites over the past decade, Christina Sarich has written over 10 books on curing cancer without chemo, brain hacking, habit formation, nutrition, yoga, positive psychology, brain entrainment with binaural beats, and meditation. She is an India-trained yoga teacher, technical writer, and author of Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.

6 Comments

  1. freedomdove says:

    Keep in mind that when doing the “re-growing” of produce such as lettuce and onions, the regrowth won’t have as much nutrition as the first cutting unless you’re adding nutrients to the water. Also, even though seeds will sprout if you save them, understand that the plant might not be identical to the parent if it’s a hybrid. It will likely perform okay but the fruit might not be the exact same as the one purchased.

    Reply
  2. Kyla Scott says:

    I’d be wary of the tomatoes and others. Many do not grow to be the same as the parent plant. I had some tomato plants that grew from some scraps in the compost. The produce from those plants were cherry size (we never buy cherry tomatoes), orange and tasteless. If you’re going to do it, get heirlooms. Some stores sell heirlooms and the fruit of the seeds is the same as the parent.

    Reply
    1. Diane Huff says:

      Heirlooms are the only way to go, and even though not as pretty as hybrids, taste so much better!!
      I had some potato scraps that grew in the compost pile that turned out tender, tasty little ‘new potatoes’ when we were surprised at turning the compost pile time.

      Reply
  3. azlibrabbit says:

    Some of these are pretty bogus. They take years and years, and likely will not produce true to form, since most varieties are hybrids or grafts.

    Avocados? Really?

    Reply
    1. Diane Huff says:

      Yeah, you’ll never get an Avocado from sprouting a seed.. A pretty little spindly tree, maybe, but no fruit. Like most fruit & nut trees, they must be grafted to a already fruit producing tree, and it’s even more complicated than grafted, which isn’t easy. There’s precise pruning that must be done at just the correct time, same with feeding and the years it takes to mature.

      Reply

  4. I’m going towards self sufficiency, the cost of food is rising and the food from corporate identities is poisoned now and so is the drinking water, on my quarter acre section I can grow near to all year round and with a tank I can collect rainwater for drinking; I want to have 2 years supply of food in my home in case corporate identities run out of fuel or electricity or a number of reasons and can’t stock supply the dependence that society has grown on them for their food. A healthy understanding of medicinal plants and weeds is worth having because the healthcare has to be taken with self perseverance in mind and a healthy immune system really does booster the brains ability to maintain the body and soul optimally for brain is the king in body and mind and much more, so with governments and corporations leading a globalised race to control society’s but lack the care and attention of a bio-diverse understanding they really don’t have anymore answers or miracles to the world economic climate when alls the answer is, people need to unlock themselves from dependency and reliance on the current systems and prove to itself that nature and man acting as God is itself greater than any government corporation or institution and can heal and live in a harmony with nature and develop its higher understandings being in tune with its elemental environment.

    Reply

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