Many of the ingredients you buy from the fresh fruit and vegetable aisles at the supermarket or grocery shop are bursting with potential energy, ready to grow and reward you with delicious edible crops if you provide them with the right conditions. All you need to do is bring your groceries home and give them the right environment and some TLC to enable them to grow.
Plants have three basic requirements in order for them to start growing. These are warmth, light and water. If you can provide plants (including many of your groceries) with these three conditions, they should thrive. The good news is you don’t need a garden to grow many of the plants I’ve included in my book Grow Your Own Groceries.
In many cases, all you need is access to a tap and a sunny windowsill. Some of the larger plants will need larger pots to allow them to get bigger, but that’s basically it. Nothing tastes better, in my opinion, than a tomato picked fresh from the vine that has been grown in your own soil and warmed by the sun, and they are so easy to grow.
Enjoy the taste of the Mediterranean – starting with tomatoes from your local shops. Tomatoes are usually either ‘cordon’ types or bush types. All the tomatoes I’ve grown from the supermarket have been the former. Each cordon plant will need a stake to support it as it grows. Pinch out the tops when the plants get to about 2m high to encourage a bushier plant below (and more fruit).
Your tomatoes will be ripe from midsummer onwards. If you’re lucky enough to have a greenhouse or conservatory, you can grow your tomatoes there, and you’ll have a far longer growing season than if they were outside.
How to grow tomatoes from groceries
Don’t be put off if you think supermarket tomatoes don’t taste that great; this is usually because they are picked too early and kept in storage for too long. The varieties themselves (of Solanum lycopersicum) are delicious. Getting tomato seeds to germinate is practically foolproof using this method. You might think it’s a bit like adding tomato toppings to an earthy pizza – and the technique really is as simple as that.
You will need: A tomato, a sharp knife, old grape container or other vessel, peat-free, general-purpose compost, plant pots.
1. Cut a few tomato slices about 3mm thick. If you look closely you will see all the tiny seeds contained within each slice.
2. Fill a container with peat-free compost to a depth of 3cm. I used old plastic grape containers. Whatever you use, make sure there are some drainage holes in the bottom.
3. Place a couple of tomato slices on the compost. Cover the slices with more compost to a depth of about 2cm.
4. Place on a warm sunny windowsill and water regularly. Soon you will see lots of seedlings poking up through the compost.
5. When the tomato plants have formed “true” leaves, they can be transplanted into individual pots. True leaves are different to the first pair of leaves you see when seedlings germinate. You’ll notice that they look distinct from the first leaves.
6. Keep the tomatoes in a warm sunny position until they are about 15cm high. Tomatoes are tender, so can be planted outside once the risk of frost is over. You can grow them in a container or two per growbag; I like to grow them directly in the soil.
Simon Akeroyd is the author of over 30 gardening books and is a former garden manager for the Royal Horticultural Society. His next book Way to Grow (DK) came out on 9 April this year. From Grow Your Groceries: 40 Hacks for Growing Plants from Your Weekly Shop by Simon Akeroyd, with photography by Jason Ingram (DK, £16.99)
