One thing I have growing right now from store bought fruit is dragon fruit seedlings, which are now finally starting to resemble a cactus, I have several hundred of them (Oops LOL). I've also got ginger roots and onions growing. I also tried a mangoe seed but that didn't turn out well...

How did you start your dragon fruit seed??? Ive tried before but had no luck

How about a pic? :)

Tuck

My neighbour started kiwi from the fruit - he just sliced it & put soil over slices; my son started blueberry from seeds (just planted seeds from fruit too soft to eat-photo above); and I had some palms grow from date seeds. And just recently put leftover horseradish root in pot and it is growing.
Rina

This post was edited by rina_ on Wed, Mar 27, 13 at 0:34

Asleep. Since you're 'up for anything,' lol, I got out my plant book called, Starting from Scratch.'

I'll jot down names SFS lists..BTW, the book explains how each are rooted and cared for as they mature.

Common trees: Maple & Elm
Juresalem artichoke (Sunchoke)
Common fruits: Apple, apricot, cherry, peach, pear and plum.
Herbs
Mango
Pineapple
Sugarcane
Taro
Avocado
Citrus fruits: Grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime and citron
Coffee
Grapes
Kumquat
Loquat
Macadamia
Papaya
Quince
Tamarind
Banana
Coconut palm
Date palm
Fig
Ginger
Guave
Kiwi Fruit
Litchee
Passion fruit
Persimmon
Prickly pear
Sunflowers

My Aglaonemas, 'mostly green,' flower and berry from late summer until autumn, but I've never tried propagating.

Are berries green or red? Red berries are ripe.

Tuck, do you have birds? You mentioned sowing bird seed.

Rina, were date seeds from bagged dates or fresh?

I like your pink-hue Kiwi. Do you know if it's cold-hardy?
I'm assuming the two front plants w/pink leaves are kiwi?

Toni

Toni,
The berries are ripe and i have 21 of them. from what I've researched thus far they are best started in sphagnum moss so eventually I will add that to the mix which is for now a ten gal aquarium with glass on top which has been a playground for other humidity lovers(philos,scheffsmore cuttings of the strange fig,a piece of african mask,a colocasia illustris that I hope doesn't rot,a monstera obliqua,orange seedlings,a cryptanthus and another noid brom)for quite a while now. The sphag may assist in germination(is that true?idk) but I wanna watch the seeds and not a pile of dead moss,right? Also from what I've read so far it would seem that best case scenario it'll be two weeks minimum before I can expect to see any action from them.

...Went looking for roots and came home with exiting red berries instead.

One door closes,..another opens!
Thanks for the list! It refreshes the memory and is going to come in handy next time I venture out of my "eerie" green room...or so it's been described. :)

Asleep. Good luck,

I Googled, sowing Aglao berries for you, but couldn't find any info worth-while.
Still, seeds were free, so you've got nothing to lose, right?
Good luck.

Funny, I have a 10-gallon aquairum used for odds and ends..Some root/germinate, some don't.

Many people recommend sowing/rooting in Sphagum.
But, some suggest adding Sphag on top of mature plants, too. I disagree.
When I worked at a plant store, many plants delivered to our store were covered w/Sphag.. 98% had fungus gnats.

I've never rooted/sowed in moss, so I can't say.
Maybe someone reading this thread can help.

Asleep, are all the plants you mentioned rooting in your 10-gallon tank? lol. WOW!!!

Why is your green room, 'eerie?' Is it haunted? lol.

We feed wildlife...birds and squirrels.
Last summer, my dh decided to sow peanuts.

He used one of my, no-drainage flats and straight garden soil. Results.

Starting to germinate
{{gwi:76074}}

Germinated, planted in window boxes

{{gwi:76075}}

From mid-summer to fall they sprout tiny, yellow flowers.

Another option for you to experiment. lol. Toni

Does your aquarium have ventilation?
If so, cuttings shouldn't rot.

Sealed but as often as I'm poking around in there the baby gets burped often enough,but yes I do have to keep an eye on the starchy critters,after all...it's a jungle in there! Everyone in there is either rooting or on vacation. Sometimes a little pampering in the humidity will perk up a depressed bummed out plant like my little aloe vera who insisted on being a brat til it got its way. lol

Room's haunted alright...by me! I never get out much :D
A friend told me that it looked eerie from the highway but the reality is merely that it looks like a greenhouse. I'm sure she was only teasing. :)

I recommend Lemon Grass too.

I do intend to try my hand at lemongrass here shortly. Chris mentioned it upthread. was a good idea then and it is a good idea now. :)

Asleep, would you happen to have a picture?

Funny, creepy from the highway..Like the Bates Motel? lol.

Hey Marguerite!! How ya doing? Long time no talk.

Toni,

I have no birds, but I do have about 10 bird feeders. So I have all types of seed around.

Anything nature...I love it lol. Thus all the houseplants, they make me feel as though i'm outside, even when I'm on the inside.

Tuck

Bates' Motel eh?
...if you keep that up I will have to tell my mother on you. ;)

Pics to come but sadly the camera situation hasn't been resolved yet so they will be those darned tiny things that you can't enlarge w/o them getting all grainy and hard to make out. Really wish I had a decent camera. One day ...one day...

My gardening club is going to buy sweet potatoes and grow them. me myself planted garlick in my garden recenly

Tuck, I see.
Which bird seed grew and bloomed?
I've sowed seed, for my indoor birds,' which grew but never bloomed. Seeds sprouts are healthy for birds, and mean seed is fresh, not stale.

Wow, 10 feeders! Yes, you have quite a few feeders, and probably a lot of birds, too. :)
Bird watching is so comforting.
Plus, you never know if a rarer bird will happen by.
I LOVE Hummingbirds, but rarely see them.
Last summer, a hummer came by and drank from my citrus blooms. A fascinating sight!!!

Tuck, I agree, nature is amazing, out and indoors. I live in a jungle, too. lol. 300+ plants, birds and an Iguana. Oh, can't forget our pooch, Coco. :)

Asleep...As long as your mother isn't Mrs. Bates, telling her is okay..lol.

Sorry, I didn't know you were having camera problems. Hopefully, you'll get it fixed or buy new.

What about Ebay? If you're looking for a good deal.

To get back to lemongrass, the year before last had quite a little harvest from a single stem that I rooted in water, it cost me all of 17 cents in the Asian grocery store. Malanga and eddoes I have grown, basically Elephant ears. Also have tried sugar cane, litchi, kiwi, mango, avocado, citrus, guava, horseradish, carambola, passionfruit and many others. There is a big selection to chose from in the produce section today, and I always like to try something new.

Christopher

hope,

i honestly cannot say which type of seed resulted in a flower, but many of them did. Yellows, blue, purple and even white flowers.

As for humming birds, put out a humming bird feeder or two and you'll be very surprised at what shows up :)

Tuck

Toni

The dates were bagged, not fresh. Actually, I threw out bunch of seeds/pits from dates into compost pile. Few mo later I noticed some plants growing, I ended up with 16 (!) little date palms...

Rina

Morning,

Rina, we usually buy pitted dates, but next time I'm going to get datesw/pits..

Don't know if IL summers are long enough to sprout pits, but I'll give it a try..
Heck, I'll even toss a few in the compost. lol.

16 palms..very good. Can't wait until you fix your camera, I'd like to see your palm collection.
Would you say they're slow-growers? Toni

I was in a groger's today(not ethnic)and although nothing struck me as too fascinating until I suddenly remembered the dates that would be in the back of the place in these bins that you self serve from so I got ONE date,ate it and then dropped the stone in the tank with the rest of the guys.

This is so cool! :)

Toni

I don't have any of them left, gave away (even sold few). That was few yrs. ago. I didn't even think of taking photos of them. They grew to approx. 10" that year.
I believe the reason they sprouted was the compost heat. The pits are very hard. And our summer is not long enough either.
I remember my mom growing some from pits too...Rina

Hi Guys
I've Done Lychee and Passion Fruit....
I'm ALWAYS Looking to Do More..... ***Crazy Laugh***

Asleep, you bought ONE date? lolol.

Did you rinse the pit before tossing in your tank?

Yes, it is cool. Please keep us posted on progress.
If you have time, can you jot down length of time, from day 1 to germination?

Wonder if figs would work?

I'd like to find a coconut, but husks, 'whatever they're called,' are removed.

Rina. You didn't save one for yourself? Wow! lol.

10" in a year's time IS quick.
You said, 'a few yrs ago.' Just think, it'd be 30" tall.

Rina, do you recall how deep the pits sat in your compost? You mentioned heat, so I'm assuming pits were not lying directly on top to keep warm.

It's nice your mom was interested sowing.

Hey NineCrow. Do you still have Lychee and Passion Fruit plants? If so, can you post pictures?

I've never tasted lychee, heck never tried passion fruit either. lol.

There are quite a few foods you can grow.
Scroll up and select, More to Do! lol.

Hmmmm...
My last post would probably make alot more sense(gramatically) if I removed the word "although".
....Must have been pretty wiped out...funny what a lack of sleep will do,eh?

Toni,
...yes just one date(cost me a total of 36 cents).
Ummmmm....no,..I didn't rinse it,..and omg I hadn't thought about that at all until you mentioned it!

... I'm going to have to fish that critter back out of there and rinse heaven knows what kind of bacterial cultures off of it. UGH! lol

Good point about keeping a log. I certainly made a note on the calendar as to when I put the aglaonema seeds in because I know it's gonna be a couple weeks minimum before I should see any progress and without keeping notes,the likelihood that I will forget is on up there.

Like you,I too wonder if starting a grocery bought fig from seed would work. Off the top of my head I can't think why not(but then again I AM the guy who didn't rinse his date pit,right? lol).

I wanna assume that a fresh fig and a dried one would have the same chances of seed germination but then again I have yet to research it. The list you provided from your book (starting from scratch) included figs so that means someone has been successful at it,right? ....so I suppose I shall have to look into that as well.

...*looks for a pen to mark his calendar*

Fraid Not....
***CRY***
If I can get some Lychee Fruit Heck YES I'll be growing some More as The New Growth is a Bronzey Colour...

Have some Passion Flower Seeds on the Go Now.... Not 1 up Yet....
***SIGH***

Toni,

I just tossed the pits in compost pile, didn't think about growing them. Kept piling everything else on as usual.
Thinking of it, it must be about 6yrs now.

My mom loved plants and had to be very 'inventive' to get any exotics. We had dates once a year, at Christmas time. She grew oranges & lemons from seeds too - didn't really have any fruit but she had beautiful plants. Also coffe plant (easy to buy today).

Howdy,

Yesterday, I typed a long post w/info from Starting from Scratch and Google.
My mistake was naming a plant nursery.
GW deleted the entire message!

Asleep. Yep, I'd fish out the seed, wash then place back in the tank.

I once heard seeds/pits can rot when fruit is attached. Don't know if there's any truth, though.

I've kept plant journals for years. The last 10-yrs or so, I've purchased a daily planner from Birds & Blooms.

The first section, to the left has monthly calendars w/large boxes.
In the boxes I jot down dates plants were fertilized, Superthrived, repotted, etc.

On the right side are line where I write, newly purchased plants, nursery name and date.

Asleep, once you get your camera fixed, you'll need to download a photo site such as Photo Bucket or Flicker, in order to post pics here on GW.
You can store plant info on these sites, too.

About Figs. My books reads, place fig seeds in a glass of water. Fertile seeds sink to the bottom; infertile seeds float.

Lack of Sleep....my middle name. lol

Nine..The nursery I mentioned yesterday sells Lychee plants, and oh, they are nice.

The site states, when sowing lychee seed, germination is slight, if at all.
Of course, they want people to buy their plants, lol.

I sowed Passionvine seeds long ago. I have a terrible memory, but some things stick, lol.
It took about 8-months for seeds to germinate.
Once they do, they grow like weeds.

Rina, like they say, a watch pot never boils...guess the same applies to seeds/pits.

It's so nice having a mother who cares for plants.

Funny, how parents/grand-parents grew greens w/o thinking about special soils, fertilizers, etc. Yet, their plants did great.

I'm not a coffee drinker but love its scent. I thought coffee beans were roasted???

Stores we shop sell coffee in cans, so beans are ground.

One store, had bins w/various coffee beans and a machine to grind.
Do you know if these beans, prior to grinding, would have germinated?
We don't shop at this store much, so don't know if they still sell coffee beans.

Nine..Forgot to say, Lychee trees/flowers are gorgeous. Hope you find seed or a plant.

Not roasted coffee beans, you need to find 'green' ones!

Lol...I think of a tropical island whenever I look at this thread, lol. The "Isle of Ethnic Grocers ". Cute.

I've experimented with a few plants from the produce aisles, but haven't been as bold as some of you.

I'm so stoked!

Remember the aglaonema seeds I put in the terrarium? WELL,everything I've been reading tells me that it should have been at least two weeks before I could expect any action out of them but it would seem that I have an exceptional batch here! Less than a week into my waiting and of course I can't help peeking in on progress secretly hoping for precisely this. The tips of roots!!

I tried to get my piece of crap webcam down in there but it wasn't easy and lets face it,the end result would have left much to be desired so I'm not going to worry so much about it right now. Suppose I could gently remove them and arrange them for some close ups but it still wouldn't do justice to this.

....never grown an ag from seed before!
...THIS IS THE BEST!! :D

Morning,

Rina, lol, I know roasted coffee beans won't work, lol.
Our store 'at one time,' sold unroasted coffee beans?
Would red/brown unroasted beans work?
Since I'm not a coffee drinker, I didn't pay much attention, but the scent was incredible.
The store also had a grinder..
Can't find green, beans here.

Rhizo, funny pun, too. lol.

Asleep, Congrats, to early germination..lol

Don't touch those seedlings.. You're right, a pic wouldn't do it justice...wait until roots are established.

Can you describe seeds? Were they round, red berries? Or is the actual seed in the center?

Mornin! :)

The seed itself is about the size and shape of an olive pit and the fruit was a rather thin layer of flesh covered with a fire engine red skin. The seed under the flesh was a medium green if i recall correctly,but they seem to have taken on a boston baked coloration now. Before adding them to the terrarium I had taken a paper towel to them and wiped off the skin and fruit before dropping them all together in a neat little grouping.

Now there are 21 seeds here and right now I would say that about maybe a third of them are already pushing out the very beginnings of a root tips(which are pretty much the same medium green that they only a few days ago).

The floor of the terrarium is bare glass except for a film of moisture,and the seeds are not beneath any soil or sphagnum and it would be easy enough to get a clear view of them if it weren't for all the company they have in there with them. Most of the population is in some kind of small container or another but the seeds are just laying on the floor which it appears was just fine with them. Meanwhile my little babies are not so easily seen for all the stuff that is crowded around them and it can't help the curiosity when they are grouped in the back behind everyone else but I will allow them some privacy and only peek in on them from time to time and try not to disturb them too much.

I wonder if they will be true to their parents or if I can expect any of them to stand out in some way that is not like the others. Anyone know what the odds are of such a thing happening?

This was the tread I was trying to get the new pic into(naturally this didn't work out lol) It was going to be an update of sorts even if the pic woulda been crappy as usual at least it would have given some idea to my progress thus far.

Admit I've not been following this closely, but thought someone else might have an interest in this celery. After I broke off the stalks we wanted to eat, I buried the stump/crown. That was sometime in Dec/Jan. I don't know if we'll get any edible stalks before it gets too hot or makes flowers, timing may be off. Fun though, will be good compost fodder if not edible. This spot only gets about an hour of sun, so this would probably be do-able inside, for some people who keep their house cool, well below 70, or have a cooler room.

To the left is an Aglaonema our dog stepped on...

I am WAYYYYYY pleased to report that while poking around in the terrarium I noticed a crisp chunk of white snaking out the center of my medjoul date stone!

SUCCESS!!!!!

*Dances*

BTW...Purp,..I looked to the left but...ummmm.... :)

Next experiment involves turkish figs.
Went to the co op and got more dates actually spelled medjool I find out(they taste like carmel OMG)but also I got the aforementioned figs...so that's a handful of date pits and yasee,what i did was open a fig and scoop out seeds and pulp and put it in a jar of water and shook it up seperating seed from pulp in a quantity that sank to the bottom,gently poured off the excess leaving only those seeds and a film of water. Then I kinda whipped the jar around until the seeds were in tight-knit little groups...presto! If these are at all viable,then some percentage will germinate. Pretty psyched about this one...hopes are perchance a touch too high maybe. we shall see. In the meantime I KNOW that I can expect good things from my date pits.

Anyone ever germinate seed from dried figs? I've read it's possible. :)

The figs didn't turn out.
I'll have to try that experiment again another time. :)

On the upside,the dates are doing great! =)

MEANWHILE,..tomorrow I'm getting a coconut intent on germinating it. Saw this guy on youtube do it so I know it can be done.

Wish me luck! LOL

asleep, i germinated coconut once by sitting it on a radiator for 3 mo! heat mat will be simpler, of course. it produces 2 thin leaves in a yr after which i got bored with it ;).
your best bet is latin/filipino/asian stores - they cary most of the roots mentioned.
the var names in diff regions for the same root are confusing.
here's a pretty good primer.

Here is a link that might be useful: central american edible roots

Excellent link Petrushka!

Thanks bunches! :)

was browsing maranta and found this:
maranta arundinacea (arrowroot) - west-indies. the only edible maranta? saw pics of a variegated variety - very pretty! but am not sure if it's ornamental? or both?
so, same latam/caribbean markets. sold as tubers.
i think you can find it in fl ethnic groceries - but it's not wide spread.
many other plants are called 'arrowroot' - so again some confusion.

Here is a link that might be useful: diff 'arrowroot' plants

here's a pretty comprehensive guide to tropical root/tubers -history, growing, cooking, etc by university of FL. the pics fro each are at the very end - so you need to drill down.
I have a grocery near me in jersey city with most of these - may be i can take pics with whatever 'local names' they have on labels. because there are many varieties and whatever i see on the internet is not always the same that i see in the store!
i am familiar with a lot of them, but def not all ;).

Here is a link that might be useful: tropical edible tubers

i think this is the last one:)
found a site - grower in homestead, fl - they distribute all over US.
some wholesale, some retail - you can search for store names by state.
they have 3 types of malanga ..with pics.

Here is a link that might be useful: jctropicals

.. and i just remembered asking about smth unusual, it turned out to be an elephant yam mentioned here:
http://www.vahrehvah.com/indianfood/elephant-yam-kandagadda/
i think they are expensive to get on ebay - but if you can source it from an indian grocer - that could be a steal!
apparently it is also used in japan and china and many other places in asia.

Here is a link that might be useful: elephant yam crop by the gas station

This post was edited by petrushka on Mon, Jan 27, 14 at 20:28

anybody there?
just came by this list: xref of common root names/origins to botanical.
quite useful

Here is a link that might be useful: edible roots - bot names

Hi all! Just thought I'd add what I have sprouted. Right now I have several baby passion vines started from old dried seeds no less (used paper towel/baggie). Have had papaya germinate, no plant yet. A friend has lemon grass sprouted, too. Wanda

Morning,

Happy to see this thread is still alive.

Yesterday I made tacos...I like avocado on top, so as of last night, two 'cado pits are sitting in the sink.

I'm debating whether or not I should 'try' sprouting the pits.

I have a question.

Why are some pits larger than others? The two in the sink are minis. What's with that?

If they sprouted, grew, would they be dwarf avocado plants?
Are larger pits and cado's filled with steroids and/or other chemicals? Is that the reason they're so much bigger?

I mean a huge difference in size.

Wanda, why are the passion vines dried? You said they're old....how old is old?

I used to receive a catalog from a seed vendor. 'Don't know if the name can be mentioned.'
On the front of the back cover were lists of plants/seeds with itemized care details.
According to the company, passion vine 'fresh' seed takes 90+ days to germinate.

I can't recall papaya, but someone here might have sowed papaya seeds, and a general time.

Good luck, Toni

Hey gang,..haven't been by this thread in a while.

Update on my coconuts is that they failed...and badly at that! lol

Meanwhile I just got back from an asian grocer's that was across the street from where I was working today.

Something tells me I'm gonna have far better luck with these! :)

Edited to say thanks to Petrushka,who I now notice was here a bit while I was computerless for a while.

I've got some catching up to do! :)

This post was edited by asleep_in_the_garden on Tue, Apr 22, 14 at 16:05

those look like eddoes (taro/dasheen) ..that is Colocasia esculenta.
i have a pretty good latin root section in one of my near-by super-markets. and i've also been cooking some of the roots - like batata/boniato and even yucca. but never tried eating eddoes :).
lets see a pic when they leaf out for you - i am curious.

Me too!

For now I'm starting them off in with the aglaonema seeds..hopefully I didn't squish anyone.

Once I start to see roots,I'll take 'em out and pot them or bed them if it's warm enough outside.

I might just purchase a polyethylene liner and set up a little pond for them.

All five of these guys cost me all of two dollars and nineteen cents. Heck,..I may have to get more!

Dragging out old thread...back in May 2013 I mentioned growing palms from date pits.
Today, using some of my semi-finished compost, I came across couple of seeds that sprouted.
Here is photo of one of them - tossed into compost, I believe that warmth of compost pile helps to crack it open (they are really hard, my mom used to crack them with hammer) & here are 2 sprouts.
Hope they didn't get too damaged, they are now potted & hopefully they will grow. At least one.

Asleep, did you plant all of those tubers?
Rina

Sadly they all rotted on me.

One of them had a green point emerging too,but just turned to mush underneath it.

Total failure. lol

Nice going with the date pits though...good work!

I've had success with dates myself. :)