Grow celery hearts on your windowsill this winter. It's easy and they're pretty and delicious.
Next time you buy a stalk of celery, cut the heel off about an inch from the bottom. That is, cut across the stalk so you have a crosswise slice off the end. Then do what we used to do with avocado pits - stick a few toothpicks in the side, fill a glass almost to the top with water, and rest the celery heel with toothpicks on the rim of the glass so that the bottom of the heel is just touching the water.
Keep the water at that level, and after a week or so, you'll have little celery hearts sprouting from the middle of the heel. They keep sprouting for weeks.
By Jantoo from Kenosha Co, WI
Editor's Note: This was a new one for me and I tried it. The picture is my celery heart plant. I bought some candle holders from Big Lots that work very well as a little vase for rooting. It was lovely and lasted for a long time. I'm going to start a new one and try planting it in the garden.
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What a neat idea! This will extend the life of my celery even further. I already keep it wrapped in aluminum foil and that keeps it crisp and good for up to 6 weeks. Now I can use it from the windowsill, too. Thanks so much for this tip
Good idea to use a glass. I used an old pie pan and quickly got a few rotted roots last summer! The greens are tasty and light normally. My house bunny LOVES celery, so this is something I'll try for the winter time. God bless you. : )
O thanks! I plan on doing this tomorrow. Also, this is the time of year when I start a sweet potato in the window the same way. I've never tried eating anything from the yam but they vine well and create green all around my window. In the spring, if you live where you can grow yams, you take and cut between the leaves, you have starts for planting to create yams for your garden.
O and did you know you can cut the bottom of a pineapple and do the same, you'll get mini pineapples ymmm
cool idea! I've heard about growing carrot greens but never celery. I'll have to try this!
From another Wisconsinite in Watertown.
Thanks! I love celery~~~can't wait to try this.
Great idea! What do you do with the sprouts, so that they will turn into celery stalks? I am not much of a gardener, so my knowledge is limited to this concept. Thanks if you can answer. :)
Dear Editor,
Nice plant. Great photo - I like the candle holder. Celery is $1.29 a stalk this week at Aldi's.
The heart is where all the new leaves grow out so it is the center of the celery bunch.
okay...i have to try this tomorrow. I once heard about cutting the top off a fresh pinapple and planting indoors, that a new pineapple would generate somehow...anyone have any details on that?
I feel really dumb asking this but here goes... Are carrot greens edible? I love carrots but have never eaten the greens. What about the leaves that sprout from sweet potatoes?
The photo is pretty. I like this idea. I used the toothpicks for an avocado seed long ago and it worked. I've used mason jars, but the glass candle holder is prettier.
Cool ! Also a new one on me! Jlove how fresh celery smells! Gonna try it !
I have one growing right now on the sill. A little bit of spring with 5 feet of snow out the window! I think I'll try a transplant in the spring also.
This is wonderful! Sometimes, I just don't use all my celery in time and feel so wasteful. This will keep a purchase lasting longer, and is wondrous to watch in the winter. I put green onion bottoms in water also, and they resprout. I, too, live in Wisconsin, and this is really a very happy mid-winter idea. Thanks so much!
Phyllis
This is the coolest idea! I am going to get my celery bush started today. Thank you for the idea, nice way to brighten up my winter windows.
Oh, oh, oh!! Thank you for this wonderful tip! How could I have been so blind until now! You have opened my eyes. Something about those celery stumps has always bothered me, until now. No more to the compost! Bless you.
Great! I can't wait to try this! How many celery bottoms have I tossed? I feel rotten about it.
I love love love this idea along with the sweet potatoes and pineapple! Can't wait to get started on this. :) Yay! Thank you so much. '')
Thank you so much for this! I sent it on to FaceBook. Thanks also to all of you for the other fruit & veg'y starting tips.
Hello;
Can someone clarify, is it the top or the bottom of the pineapple and do we plant it or put it in water and do we set it in a pan or use toothpicks to hold it up?
Thank you.
BTW - did you know you can eat the leaves of sweet potatoes? I know several people from West Africa and this is a common food for them. The local Asian market even sells sweet potato leaves in bunches. But DO NOT confuse them with or eat regular potato (or tomato) leaves - they are highly poisonous.
You twist off the green top of a pineapple, dip it in rooting hormone, and pot it up in some good soil. Keep soil moist but not wet. You can also mist the green top every few days. To get the best growth, it needs full sun. They grow LOTS of pineapples in Hawaii, so think warm temps and sunshine. It might take 18 to 24 months or longer, to actually get a pineapple plant to flower and produce a new pineapple. Also, they are generally a little smaller being pot-grown as opposed to grown in good soil in the ground. My sister in Florida has great luck growing pineapples in BIG pots on her screened lanai.
I'm going to have to try this. Someone asked about pineapple tops. Last year, I cut the top off three pineapples, about a half-inch below the green top, set them in dirt outside, and I had huge leafy plants until the cold got them. Also, I plant avocado seeds all the time. I don't try to root them first, I just stick them in the ground. They'll get quite tall, though they don't survive our winters.
I regrow the celery on the windowsill, also tried planting it out afterwards to get a third use. It grew some sticks but they were thin and rather feeble. I guess you can ask too much of a plant!
With potato peels, yes it works - and as gardeners know ,you only have to miss one tiny one in the soil and it grows.
Must try the spring onions.
Marg from England.
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