A fruitful endeavor
Grow your own ginger, papaya and pineapple — from food scraps
PHILADELPHIA — Temple University horticulturist Benjamin Snyder is something of a Dr. Frankenstein. For years, the greenhouse manager of Temple’s Ambler campus has experimented with growing fruits and vegetables from food scraps. Imagine homegrown papaya, harvested from a pot in your south-facing window.
“You can experiment with so much right from what you buy at the store — potatoes, carrot tops, celery, really any produce item that has seeds and is labeled as certified USDA organic,” Snyder said.
He has attempted to cultivate everything from dragonfruit to Chinese water chestnuts, all from scraps. Not every experiment has been successful, but most have yielded an attractive houseplant at the very least.
“Even if you grow a papaya plant and it doesn’t produce fruit, you’ll still have something beautiful and unusual growing in your living room. And you got it basically for free,” Snyder said, balancing it with the fact that the process is slow-going. It can take more than two years for a pineapple plant to fruit.
Here’s how to grow three of the most approachable scrap-based plants, from easiest to most challenging.
Ginger
What to look for at the store: Choose a lightcolored ginger root, which indicates freshness. Darker ginger has been sitting in storage, which decreases its ability to sprout. Also look for roots with multiple “eye” buds.
Planting: Fill a 6-inchwide plastic pot (4-5 inches deep) with potting soil. Press the ginger root into the soil until it’s halfsubmerged. Water until you see seeping from the pot’s drainage holes. Place in an area that gets four to six hours of direct sun, ideally near an east-facing window. Ginger does best from 70 to 75 degrees, but it can weather lower temperatures (expect slower growth). Fertilize every other week, following package instructions.
Watering: Expect to water about twice per week. Sink your finger an inch into the soil; if it’s dry, it’s time to water. Use a watering can, not the sink; too much water can cause the root to rot. If the plant is too dry, the leaves will begin to curl.
Harvesting: The ginger root will sprout green stems from its eyes. Transfer to a larger container when it starts to split open its pot. After about six months, it will grow a new root, at which point you can harvest pieces from it, leaving any green stems intact. (Ginger leaves can be steeped to make tea.) When you break off a piece, a new root will grow in its place; regrowth can take up to six months.