Cut and come Again Vegetables

Teach your child the joy of gardening with these fun projects using cut and come again vegetables. This vegetable garden hack is  easy to do and makes use of vegetable parts and pieces that would normally end up in the trash.

Vegetable gardening is so rewarding.  But not everyone has the space for it.  There are lots of vegetables that you can grow indoors from kitchen scraps.

Nature has a way of making sure that the plants keep on growing. These cut and come again vegetables are so much fun to experiment with 

How to Use Cut and Come Again Vegetables

There is nothing quite like the taste of vegetables that you grow yourself.  They can be roasted, stir fried, or steamed on the stove top and taste so much better than those bought in the store.

Are you looking for something to do during the winter months when it is too cold to grow things outside?  Try some of these vegetables that will re-sprout from left over parts.   They need very little space and will keep regenerating themselves.

The beauty of these cut and come again vegetables is that they can be used during the winter months, and your kids will love to see vegetables grown from pieces of the original.  

Some of these will grow on sponges, some in water, and others need soil.  All will regenerate quickly and give you new vegetables to eat in just a few weeks.

One of my favorite cut and come again vegetable is the spring onion. I’ve had a patch in my garden for three years now and it’s still growing strong even after flowering!

Basically, cut and come again crops are those that you plant once and then harvest just part of the plant, which allows the roots of the plant to regrow. 

Which Vegetables Will Re-Grow From Scraps?

Most greens are cut and come again crops, but there are many others tnat will also re-grow.  Here is a list of some that I have discovered.

Lettuce

Most types of lettuce are cut and come again crops.  Indoors, you can plant a large tray of lettuce, then just use scissors to cut off the top leaves and leave the roots growing. You will have more lettuce growing in no time at all. 

Outside, just cut of the top and use the lettuce leaves.  Soon, the new growth will start.  No need for succession planting if you cut and come again with lettuce.

Swiss Chard

This cool weather crop is one of my favorite cut and come again veggies.

Swiss chard is a green that I started doing this with this season.  Originally I was pulling up whole plants and then just started cutting the leaves off about 2 inches from the base.  I now have a the original plants regrowing about 2 weeks later.

Regrow Spring Onions

With this trick, you will never have to buy spring onions again. This mild onion is a great crop to use this technique.  Cut the green tops to use in recipes but leave the small bulb in a jar of water.  

Before you know it, you will have new growth sprouting from the cut edge.

Growing Carrot Greens

Carrot greens will grow from the bottom end when planted in soil.  They won’t form a new carrot, since they are a tap root, but they will grow beautiful greens that can be used in salads and as garnishes.  

See my article on re-growing carrot greens here.

Watch Celery Sprout From the Base

Celery is a great cut and come again vegetable.  Just cut the bottom off of a stalk of celery and place the end in a glass of water. New growth will appear in just days.

When roots form, you can then plant the end in a pot of soil.  New celery will grow from the cut end and give you another crop.

Re-Growing Leeks

Leeks behave just like spring onions. They are a part of the onion family and normally have a few roots at the bottom just like a spring onion does. 

For outdoor plants, when you harvest the leeks, cut the plant just above the root end. New growth will appear on the top.

You can also save the ends of leek plants from the store and plant them in soil. Soon the roots will take hold and you’ll have new growth at the top.  You can double your harvest of leeks doing this!

Re-Growing Onion Bottoms

Cut off the top part of a regular onion but and don’t discard the the bottom.  Plant this in water or soil. 

New shoots will grow from the cut part. I recently did a project for regrowing onions from bottoms to show how this is done.

Cut and Come Again Vegetables in the Garden

This type of vegetable project is not just a garden hack to do indoors. The same principle is used for outdoor vegetables when you decide to harvest them.

Now that you have the idea of how this works, try re-growing some other vegetables outdoors after harvesting.  These will also work:

• Broccoli (works after harvesting the heads.  New shoots will grow but the heads will be much smaller that the original.)
• Kale – grows easily from the cut tops, just like lettuce greens do.
• Spinach – another leafy green that re-grows quickly.
• Chicory – cut a few leaves for your salad and the plant will continue growing.
• Romaine Lettuce – Will grow back after the whole top has been harvested!
• Beet Greens – Don’t remove all the leaves if you want the roots to grow, but if you want the greens, you can harvest away and they will re-grow all season.
• Most herbs will come back even after cutting right back to the crown.
• Fiddle heads (only take about 1/3 of the shoots or you may kill the plant)
• Parsley is a great herb to cut and come again.  My plant grows so much better from the crown with frequent cutting from it.

Many of these vegetables can be re-grown indoors.  Just cut the tops of and you will have a harvest of the same crop over and over throughout the summer season.

Outdoors, one big advantage of cut and come again crops is that you can plant them closer together than you would if you were going to harvest the whole plant, since they do not will not be growing to full size. 

Indoors, they are a wonderful parent child project to get a child interested in the miracle of gardening.

Can you think of other cut and come again vegetables that would fall into this category?  Please leave your comments below.

Pin These Cut and Come Again Vegetables for Later

Would you like a reminder of these vegetables that will re-grow from scraps? Just pin this image to one of your gardening boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.

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