QUESTION: Can carrots be regrown from tops? Can I save my kitchen scraps to grow more carrots? -Tammy D.
ANSWER: Carrots, the root plant and orange vegetable, cannot be grown from planting just the top of the vegetable. But the carrot plant, or what is known as the carrot top, can be regrown from harvested carrot tops. Growing carrot tops from carrot tops is a common practice in children’s gardens, because it is incredibly easy to do and produces visible results in just a few short days.
Carrot tops make for attractive low-maintenance houseplants. Their fern-like foliage makes them an ornamental little plant in a flower garden and the carrot tops will eventually bloom, producing lacy white flowers. Your carrot top plant will not produce another carrot, but it will produce a pretty house plant that’s perfect for windowsills and indoor or outdoor container gardens.There are three methods for growing carrots, all of which are easy and have a high success rate. One method is growing carrot tops in a small dish of water. Cut the carrot about one inch of the root top. Stick four toothpicks in each side of a carrot stump and use the toothpicks to balance the carrot stump at the top of a small glass.
Fill the glass up with water until the water is touching the bottom of the stump. Set the glass in a window that gets plenty of light, but not direct sunlight and keep the water level high so that the water stays filled up to the bottom of the stump. The roots will start sprouting out of the bottom of the carrot stump. At this point, the carrot stump can be moved into a container with soil to continue growing healthily.
Another easy method for growing carrot tops is to use marbles, water and a glass or ceramic pie plate. Fill the pie plate with a single layer of marbles. Place six or seven stumps on top of the marbles. Pour in water until it reaches the tops of the marbles and the bottoms of the carrot stumps. When they all begin to sprout up together in a single spot, they will make for an impressive sight.
You can also sprout carrot tops from using several layers of wet newspaper. Just lay the newspaper on the bottom of the plate after soaking it well and leave no standing water. Place the carrot tops on the top of the papers. In a few weeks, you will start to see the roots spreading and the tops start to sprout upwards. Keep the paper wet and once the plants develop roots, you can then move them into soil where they will continue to grow into small ornate plants.
