Kitchen Plants Are Fun For Kids

January is often a hard month for kids: the excitement of Christmas is over and the short, cold days limit the amount of time that can be spent outdoors. January is a good month to involve you and your children in turning food from the kitchen into green food for the eyes. With minimal effort you can turn carrot, beet and pineapple tops into foliage; potatoes into vines; and avocado and citrus seeds into houseplants. All you need are a few jars, some pie tins, tooth picks, pebbles, a flower pot or two and some potting soil.

 

You’ll also need to incorporate some of the fruits and vegetables listed above into your menus for a week or two. Picking out the produce you ultimately plant to turn into plants is part of the fun. Involving your children in choosing the produce, preparing it for eating, and turning the waste into plants is fun as well as educational. It’s especially rewarding if your pineapple eventually blooms or your lemon tree sets fruit.

 

Carrots and beets will grow glossy, dark green leaves with prominent red veins. One way to get good results is to cut a 1-3 inch section off the top of the large, fresh carrot or beet and plant it in moist sand with only the upper part exposed. Or you can place a 2-3 inch piece of vegetable top in a pie pan with pebbles and water. If you keep it well watered and in the sun, leaves will soon appear. This method also works with parsnips and turnips.

 

Sweet potatoes will produce vine-like stems with leaves similar to those of philodendrons. Just place the narrow end of the potato in a pot of sand or a glass jar of water. If the mouth of the jar is too wide, simply support the potato with a few toothpicks. Put it in a warm, light spot and in 10 days or so the first roots should appear. The shoots will soon follow. If you want long, viney top growth, cut off all but a few of the shoots. If you want a more permanent plant, you can carefully pot up your new plant. Later you can take cuttings form the plant and root them.

 

To grow a pineapple, simply leave an inch of fruit attached to the leaves when you cut it up to eat. Trim away the salad part of the fruit taking care not to damage the core. Remove a couple rows of the lower leaves so the core can be seen. Allow this to air dry for a couple days so it doesn’t rot. Then either suspend the pineapple over water like the sweet potato, or plant it directly. If you choose to plant it, dust the cut surface with a rooting hormone after drying.

 

If you decide to plant your pineapple, use a sterile medium like builder’s sand, vermiculite or perlite. Plant it so the rooting medium comes right up to the base of the leaves. Support it with toothpicks if necessary. Your rooting medium needs to be kept moist, and at all times the cups at the bottom of the pineapple leaves should be wet. The easiest thing to do is cover the pot with a plastic bag to maintain high humidity and place it in a sunny, warm location.

 

In 2-6 weeks roots should appear. If the top seems slow to root, spray it once a week with houseplant fertilizer diluted to one-quarter the recommended strength.

 

After roots develop, you can transplant the pineapple to a well-drained potting soil. Your pineapple will thrive in a hot, sunny, humid location. The cups at the base of the leaves must always contain water. Pineapple are slow to mature, but if you’re lucky, after 2 years or so you may see a flower stalk form with numerous blue-violet blooms.

 

Avocados sometimes are slow to start (it takes 3-8 weeks for the pit to split and roots and shoots to emerge), but once they do, they grow quite rapidly. After removing the avocado pit from the fruit, wash it off and allow it to dry for a couple of days. Peel away as much of the skin as you can. Then suspend it over a jar of water (broad end down) supported by toothpicks.

 

After several strong roots have developed, plant the pit in a well-drained potting mix. Be very careful of the roots and leave just a little of the pit sticking above soil level. Grow your avocado in a sunny window and provide as much humidity as you can. To keep your plant from getting leggy, pinch out the growing point. This will give you a shrubby, bushier plant.

 

The orange, grapefruit and lemon seeds that you throw out with the garbage can be turned into houseplants, too. The trick with these is to plant them before the seeds dry out. If the fruit has been stored in the refrigerator, soak the seeds in warm water for 24 hours first. Plant the seeds one-half inch deep with the pointed end up. To keep the plant’s height within reason, keep pinching back the growing points.

 

Most of these kitchen plants grow rapidly so your problem may be keeping them within bounds. It’s one of the reasons they’re ideal for children who love to see the fruits of their labors. With a little judicious planning and pruning, you can have great-looking, inexpensive plants that will cheer up a dreary winter day.

 

Call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Education Center 's Info-Line toll-free at 1-877-3984769 for "Practical Solutions to Everyday Questions." Trained volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday from 9 am to 2 pm .