First go at growing

[Robert2502]

I work near a supermarket and was talking to one of the staff today, he showed me 95 kg of potatoes in the bin because they had started sprouting, I've never grown any Veg before and have just started to rent a property with some land, my question is can I use past sell by date veg to grow on ?

I have never grown anything before.

By a coincidence there is a chicken farm near me , and a stables, both give away free manure.

I haven't got much time to garden so anything I do will have to be basic.

[Chrissyteacup]

Hi & welcome to the vine!
What a waste! Generally supermarket spuds aren’t recommended as there not guaranteed to be diesese free so you may end up introducing something. I’m not sure about other veggies but I’m sure somone wiser will be along. It was my first year last year and I loved it the first harvest is a feeling you can’t beat!!

[Teds Mum]

Yes you can use the supermarket potatoes, they will grow.
However, if you are concerned about possible disease issues you may prefer to buy seed potatoes, also the choice of varieties to grow will be greater.

[Snoop Puss]

Hello and welcome.

There aren't many things you can grow from veg past their best, but potatoes are one. But there are some caveats. Proper seed potatoes are certified potato disease free, supermarket spuds are not. So, as Chrissy and Teds Mum say, potentially you can introduce problems by growing from shop potatoes. But lots of people do use shop potatoes as seed potatoes.

There are other issues to bear in mind. Do you know what variety they are? This will give you a clue as to how long you need to wait before you get a harvest. And how long are the chits (sprouts) at the moment? If they're quite long already (more than half an inch or so at this stage), by the time planting time comes they could be too long to be easy to plant without breaking the chits off.

As well as potatoes, some people grow on shop-bought garlic. Some growers have success with this but I never have. Not sure if that's because it's treated to stop it from sprouting in the shop or if it's because it's not suited to my local conditions. Either way, one year I bought in garlic heads specially for growing and then saved a few heads to regrow from the following year.

If you have some land and access to a supply of good manure, sounds like you could have a very successful fruit and veg patch in the future. There's nothing quite like home-grown!

Good luck.

[nickdub]

I've bought packs of spring onions which were going yellow and planted them to grow on OK - other possibilities include roots like ginger or sweet potato - and dried pulses like peas or beans

[bikermike]

my first crop on my allotment was a packet of supermarket potatoes that had started to sprout.

As others have said, there is no guarantee they will be disease-free, so don't fill your plot with them in case they are (grow at one side, ideally away from other people's cultivation), and give it a go.

You don't want to put them in just yet. Where are you? I'm just north of London and generally put them in middle/end of March.

They are a very low maintenance crop. Plant, wait, water in very dry weather and harvest when the plants have died back.


If you keep them somewhere sunny inside they should "chit" (sprout) nicely.

[Scarlet]

I haven't got much time to garden so anything I do will have to be basic.

Welcome to the vine Robert.
Gardening does take some time and effort to get results. How much time do you want to spend weekly on growing?

[nickdub]

BTW if you are looking for low maintenance things to grow which are edible, I'd suggest fruit - both soft and tree fruit can be managed with little work compared with vegetable growing provided you have the time to give them a good start before neglecting them :-)

[Derbydal]

hi Robert I noticed this year for the first time some supermarkets are selling bags of small potatoes with the name of the variety on the bags (it maybe because it was a bad season for growing spuds last year ) any way Iv'e bought 3 bags to try ! also you can buy herbs that are growing in pots that you grow on , where do you live I could do with some chicken muck lol. atb Dal.