Harvesting seeds from the grocery store – Update
Feb 18, 2008 garlic, growing challenge, potatoes
I definitely can’t complain about the current results of the garlic and potatoes I planted from my original post Harvesting seeds from the grocery store Every clove of garlic I planted has come up and seems to compliment the onions well and is supposed to keep the slugs away which I can always use help on. The potatoes have finished developing above ground just hope my soil is not too nitrogen rich and they keep growing foliage and forget to complete work below ground making some actual potatoes.
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May 18th, 2008 at 10:46 AM
I have sprouted potatoes and garlic in my pantry. Rather than throw them away I was just wondering if I could plant them. Looks like you’ve had great success!
May 18th, 2008 at 12:31 PM
Yes definately that is exactly what I did with my potatoes and for garlic presprouted definately works as well. For more info on growing your own galic check my post How to grow garlic in your garden and this one for potatoes. Everything seemed to go pretty easy for me hopefully the same happens for you.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:31 AM
I tried this last year with potatoes and ended up with scabby ones–a condition that doesn’t affect nutritional value but does effect their value in the marketplace. Since I’m not trying to sell them, it wasn’t too big a deal, except that they also look awful. Apparently the condition persists in soil for three years. After this ill-fated experiment (of course), I learned that the word around here (here being Montana, the seed-potato growing capital of the US) is–don’t plant table potatoes. But if you’ve done it successfully, more power to you!About the nitrogen-rich soil–add some potassium. Potatoes love potash/potassium. If you have a wood-burning stove, you can use ashes as a light top-dressing (unless their alkalinity will throw off your soil pH.)Hope they do well! (Mine are only just sprouting, sigh.)
May 21st, 2008 at 11:22 AM
My dad always said you can’t plant potatoes from the store only seed potatoes- wel being the kind of kid you shouldn’t tell something like You can’t I planted store potatoes and had a fantastic crop of red’s! I would imagine that organic potatoes would be no different!
May 21st, 2008 at 11:49 PM
That’s an interesting project. I am planting some Vivaldi potatoes from my supermarket, the seed potatoes from the supplier were 10 times the cost.
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:45 PM
themanicgardener, I definately agree I would definately recommend using seed potatoes if available. Given I only was planting on growing a couple plants and I had some already sprouting in my pantry was a good science experiment for the girls. Unfortuinately I am not a wood burner but there is a fire pit down at a local park might need to bring a trowel and pail next time I walk down with the kidsRobj98168, glad you had some sucess mine look good above ground guess just have to wait to see what is going on below ground.matron, other than online I have only seen one variety of potato seeds around here and given I only needed 2 of the 40 in the bag seemed like a waste in my opinion. Hope to your big harvest.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:29 PM
I tried growing garlic from my grocery store garlic and it grew long stalks but it didn’t develop a bulb. But I have heard that other people have better luck. I had better luck with garlic from the farmers market.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:18 AM
In most cases unless you buy organic garlic, it’ll shoot but it won’t bulb out. They are sprayed with a hormone to prevent that from happening in ones pantry. That maybe why you’re not having much luck with getting a good bulb on your garlic plants, notsocrafty.com
March 20th, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Can I buy strawberries organic at the grocery store and plant the seeds? Will strawberries grow?