Many of us prefer organic foods over genetically modified ones but the cost of organic diets could get through the roof, especially since there’s only a limited supply of it.

Thankfully, there are other, inexpensive ways to constantly have organic foods lying around. Below are a number of effortless and cost-free ways you can grow and cultivate some organic vegetables in home conditions.

Romaine Lettuce

Put the romaine lettuce in a bowl with about half an inch if warm water and let it sit in sunlight. After a couple of weeks the lettuce stem will have new lettuce leaves. Afterwards replant the lettuce in soil and in about three to four weeks it should be fully grown.

Garlic Sprouts

The long green shoots growing out the garlic can actually be put in a little water and under direct sunlight and eventually they will produce garlic sprouts. They are excellent for salads, pastas, or as a garnish.

Carrots

Put chopped off carrot tops in a container with a little water and soon enough they will start producing sprouts which can be excellent addition to meals. You may even use a deeper container and more water until the carrots root and plant them in a pot of soil or in your garden.

Turnip

Similar to carrots, leave cut off turnip tops in a small container with a little water till they start to root, which may take a few weeks. After they start sprouting plant them where there’s a lot of sunlight, preferably a garden.

Sweet potato

Clean and slice up a sweet potato in half and use toothpicks to put it half in/half out of a glass jar full of water. After several days the sweet potato will produce sprouts which you remove and place in water to root.

After one week you should have rooted slips which you should plant in soil and every day the first week then every second day after the first week.

Ginger

Growing ginger is easy but it does need the proper circumstances. Search your ginger for parts where tiny things are already growing out of, cut off the parts which look like they are about to start what’s called a “rhizome” since these parts are essential to growing ginger.

Plant the ginger three to five inches into the soil with its rhizome pointing up and water it frequently. It may last as much as 10 months before it yields result but it’s worth the wait.

Pineapple

While growing pineapples might take as much as a few years, and it needs the right conditions and climate, it’s definitely worth it. Cut off a pineapple’s top off an inch below the leaves and look for small brown bumps which are actually the root buds.

Dehydrate the plant’s “crown” so it wouldn’t rot and place the cutting in a container with a little warm water. Once the cutting starts to root you can think about replanting it in soil, preferably somewhere where it’s slightly warm and sunny.

Rosemary

Like other herbs, you can regrow rosemary from 5-6 inch cuttings. Place them in water and within a few weeks, there should be enough that have rooted and not rotted.

In a 4″ pot filled with damp potting soil, make a 3″ hole with a pen or pencil and place the rosemary cutting gently into it. Because this herb is so delicate, only water it when the soil starts feeling dry. Keep it direct sunlight for 6-8 hours per day because it needs light to flourish. If the soil isn’t dry yet, giving them a quick mist is also okay.

Potatoes

Use potatoes with many ‘eyes’ or slips growing on them. Cut a potato with a lot of slips on it into 2 inch squares with each square having at least two slips, and leave them in a room temperature for a few days to dry them up to avoid rotting.

Put the potato squares 8’’ into soil with their slips pointed upwards and cover them with 4’’ of soil. Water it regularly and in about two and a half months you should’ve grown some potatoes.

Tomatoes

We’ve written on how to grow this wonderful food before! So, if you want to learn how to grow a tomato plant that reaches up to eight feet, head over here.

Celery

Cut off the base of this beneficial vegetable and put it in a bowl with a little warm water in it. Place the bowl where there’s sunlight and in about a week the celery base should start producing leaves. After it does, plant it in soil and let it grow.  

Cabbage

You might want to reconsider throwing the bottom of your cabbage next time as similar to celery, you can put it in a container with a little water in it under sunlight and it should eventually start to grow. No planting necessary.

Avocado

If you have experience or simply love growing pineapples, then you’ll certainly enjoy doing this. Click here learn how to grow avocados at home in eight easy steps.

Mint

Put your mint 3’’ deep in a 5-8’’ pot with moist soil and be sure it is placed in a moderately humid room with a lot of sunlight. Rotate the pot every other day to help the plant grow better, and in a few weeks it should be quite ripe and ready to use.

Lemon

In order to successfully grow a lemon tree in home conditions you’ll need a lemon with non-germinating seeds, a pot about 6’’ wide and as deep, a seedling pot around 24’’ wide and 12’’ deep, and a location with plenty of sunlight.

Mushrooms

Growing mushrooms is all about spores, there are no seeds. To see what you have to do to grow mushrooms in a home environment, here’s what you need  to do.

Peppers

Growing peppers in home conditions is not that difficult. Plant pepper seeds in a mix of peat moss, vermiculite and sand. Plant two seeds in every pot just below the surface. The soil should be damp but not soaked and the pots ought to be placed, you guessed it, in a location under a lot of sunlight.

Scallion

Scallion, or green onions, can be grown in less than a week. Just leave about an inch attached to the roots of leftover scallion and place them in a small glass container with water. Add extra water if it evaporates and your scallion shoot up.

Basil

If you have some basil clippings that are at least four inches long you can put them in a glass of water and expose them to sunlight. Once the stems reach about two inches, plant them in soil and they will easily grow.

Onions

For onions to grow, you’ll need to plant them directly in soil. Plant the bottom end of an onion in a pot or in your garden. Water it when needed and in about three weeks it should develop roots, and by the fourth week it should grow leaves.

As you can see, most of the procedures follow similar methods: a container of water and direct sunlight. Each process is fairly easy, saves you a lot of money and ensures that you are putting fresh, organic food in your body.

You can notice that most plants require several things to grow: sunlight, a container with soil or, even better, a garden, and watering.

Source: www.diyncrafts.com