Seeds from this years supermarket fruit

[pickledtink]

I often grow from seeds found this way just for the fun of it.
Most fun so far was a Date palm. I managed to germinate about 4 out of 12 from one of those oblong boxes you get. Two survived and grew quite well but one sadly didn't last the winter inside. I don't think it liked the central heating. The other is back outside but not doing that great. I really must check what conditions it needs. This has reminded me.*guilt* Neverthless it's clearly a Palm and about 2 foot high.
Due to my wonky composting skills I often get squash, melons etc coming up all over the place where least expected. Even a couple of spindly Lemon or Orange seedlings last year but they didn't survive

[Slug]

I've had butternut squash seeds germinating inside the squash from the supermarket before! I really should have planted them out as they'd obviously got off to a good start in the plant! I've had that happen on a couple of occassions now.

[mattw]

Tomatoes are easy to grow from supermarket seed and generally stay true to type. Chillies however are very promiscuous and whilst you will get plants, what fruit you get will be to a certain extent a bit of a lottery. Still very useable but not necesarilly true to type

I can second that one Willie. A few years ago I successfully grew a couple of chili plants from 'fresh' seed. They were covered in fruits but they just tasted bitter with no heat whatsoever .

I do believe that it was a lack of correct feed that did it though.

Matt.

[blackkitty]

I've started to pick plum tomatoes from one of the plants grow from a supermarket tomato and they've been very good. The peppers have set more fruit that the ones I grew from 'proper' seed but they're still too small to eat so I'll have to wait and see. I've often got butternuts growing from bought ones but found that they never got going fast enough for the fruit to ripen properly. This year I've got two plants going from the organic catalogue and I've already got a large butternut on one, so I think I'll stick to bought seeds for them in future.

[Jaxom]

Good results from Chilli, Bell Peppers and Garlic this year. All were sown from Supermarket seed.
A lot of my tomatoes this year are also from tasty ones I enjoyed eating, so saved some seeds.

[valmarg]

You may get mixed results from seed saved from F! varieties, but in general tomato seed is indestructible. You could grow seed taken from a tin of tomatoes. Your local sewerage farm is likely to have the best crop of tomatoes, having passed through the human digestive system, the seeds are still viable.

This is the reason I will never put any tomatoes in our compost bin. From past experience, we have had them coming up all over the garden in amongst the ornamentals.

With regard to chilli peppers, I have grown scotch bonnets from saved seed, before the seed companies listed them.

There is also the 'fun' element of germinating an avocado stone, or any of the citrus fruits, etc, etc.

The fun/challenge is getting them to grow. The next step is knowing what the hell to do with them once you've grown them!!

valmarg

[Slug]

Will an avocado do anything in this country? I've had 3 avocado's germinate in my compost bin. Would love to have tried growing them, but I thought you needed a male and female plant (and I'd have no idea how to tell which is which), and I didn't know if the weather here suited them?

[pigletwillie]

I have saved some "temptation" tomato and un-named pointy red "tesco finest" peppers and will see what works, the tomatoes should but the peppers will be a suck it and see test.

[Sunbeam]

I always buy a bag of chilli's and freze them so I can use them when I need them - would their seeds germinate??

[nick the grief]

Try some Sunbeam. My nephews daughter (about 6 ish I think) has sown peppers before that have come out of the freezer & they worked !!!

[taylorlej]

hi
can you buy potatoes from the supermarket and sprout them and use them?

[andrewo]

You can but you are not guaranteed a good crop, also there is a question of providence, are they organic? are they disease free? You can take the risk but you could end up introducing bacteria into your soil that will just destroy any further potato crops.

[nick the grief]

Hi Taylorej,

Andrews Right, I never use them in the ground but will use them in tubs especially for xmas as I only need half a dozen or so & they cost a fortune so I save some from a bag from the supermarket & the n the compost get tipped on my garden at home as I only Grow Chrysanths here or as a mulch for the shrubs - All the veg are up the lottie.

[Earthbabe]

That's a great idea nick. I've held off trying xmas tatties because I only want a few. Will now give it a try. I hope it's not too late.

[taylorlej]

hi
thanks for the tip - is there any way of checking for disease/bacteria when you buy or sterilising them somehow?
Thanks