How To Grow Root Vegetables From Scraps | Real Homes - video Dailymotion

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Rather than throwing your scraps in the bin or the compost, why not grow new vegetables?! Here's your quick guide to growing root veg from scraps!

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00:00 [Music]

00:07 Reducing food waste has never been more important, but did you know you could be using your veg

00:11 scraps to grow your own?

00:13 Here's my quick and easy guide to growing your own root veg basics using nothing but

00:17 leftovers.

00:18 So first of all, the humble potato.

00:21 It's a staple of most UK dishes and it's really simple to grow your own.

00:25 All you need to do is get some peelings.

00:27 They need to be about two inches across and crucially they need to have eyes on them.

00:32 All you need to do, let the peeling grow out and then plant it.

00:35 So it needs about four inches of deep, rich soil.

00:39 And you need to pop them in a sunny spot.

00:41 So you pop them in with the eyes facing upwards.

00:45 Make sure you've got the four inch depth, otherwise they won't grow properly.

00:48 And then about 10 weeks after planting, you'll notice potato plants growing and that's when

00:52 your potatoes are ready to harvest.

00:55 Now sweet potatoes are a little bit more tricky to grow, but it is possible.

00:59 So it's worth having a go.

01:01 Basically you need to cut a sweet potato in half and it needs to be suspended in water

01:06 like this to allow shoots to grow.

01:08 Now my potato fits perfectly in this glass jar, but say you had a wider container.

01:14 If you insert toothpicks around the side, it will suspend the potato in the water and

01:18 allow those shoots to grow.

01:20 So once they start sprouting out the top, all you do is twist the leaves off.

01:24 And it's very similar to lettuce, which we talked about growing last time.

01:28 So you pop the leaves into some water and they will begin to sprout and grow roots.

01:33 Once those roots start to grow, they're ready to pop outside in soil.

01:37 Now sweet potatoes love sandy soil.

01:39 They love really sunny conditions and they're not very social, a bit like us at the moment.

01:42 So make sure you space them out well.

01:45 Finally onions.

01:46 Literally you cannot go wrong growing these.

01:48 They're really easy to grow inside or outside.

01:51 All you need to do is cut off the root.

01:52 That's the bottom bit in case you were wondering, leaving about half an inch of onion with it.

01:57 Then you simply place it in some soil this way down, so root down into the soil and it

02:03 will start to grow new roots.

02:05 Once that happens, this bit will actually die off.

02:07 So you can remove the onion, leave those roots and then it will take a couple of months and

02:12 your onions will be underground ready to harvest.

02:16 So if you manage to grow your veg from scratch with scraps, then share your pictures with

02:20 us on Instagram using the hashtag #SowRealHomes.

02:23 [Music]

02:30 (upbeat music)

How To Grow Root Vegetables From Scraps | Real Homes

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