Comment by swapsmagic | Hacker News Reader

Comment by swapsmagic | Hacker News Reader

When we bought home, we got it with bunch of fruit tress (cherry, peach, orange, strawberry guava, lemons). And our previous owner grow 3 tomato plants for us before they left. It was a big yard with lot of fruit trees and plenty of empty space. In few years, we started growing some vegetables starting tomoato, okra, egg plant. And now in few more years we stop buying tomatos from grocery. we build bunch of raised beds and started growing more and more food and got bunch of okra and bottle guard. This year we build more raised bed by replacing/transplanting existing flowering plants and put raised bed there. And almost all the work done by us. You never believed but when you cook food from home grown vegetables, it tastes a whole different than the bought one. Give it a try and you can feel the difference. As long as you enjoy doing it, you won't feel all the pain that it comes with (i.e. hard work). Start small and as you go ahead, you will add more and more as you find it more manageable. But worth trying as long as you have space in your home (you will find time)

"You never believed but when you cook food from home grown vegetables, it tastes a whole different than the bought one"

I was always aware that store bought tomatoes had no flavor, but never had any interest in gardening. One time I took one of those store bought tomatoes and planted the seeds and what do you know, it actually sprouted and grew some more tomatoes? I don't think it's supposed to work that way, but it did. The thing I remember that always grew without any effort was rhubarb.

I think it's definitely supposed to work that way. My first year in my house, I tore out the previous owner's rose garden and planted tomatoes. Had so many that quite a few of them ended up falling off the plants and rotting into the soil. The next year, I scaled my intentional planting back but ended up with even more tomato plants because of the seeds from the previous year's decayed tomatoes. I'm not even going to plant this year, just water and hope that the same thing happens again.

I think they were surprised that store-bought tomatoes had viable seeds. I would have been kind of surprised by this too, but a quick google suggests that while some commercial fruit and veg is deliberately made sterile, it's probably much less common than I thought.

Right, folklore was that they aren't viable, and it was before Google.

The seeds might not be sterile, but you will probably not get the same breed of plant. A lot of mass-produced veg is grown as an F1 hybrid, and the next generation (ie, from the seeds) will not have the same desirable characteristics.

Pretty much every vegetable seeds bought from store are viable, it just for some vegetables (i.e. bottle guard, okra), store bought vegetables aren't ripe enough and so those seeds won't able to germinate. To germinte the seeds of any vegetables, the fruits has to be matures (some times on the plant, sometimes on the shelf) before seeds become viable to germinate. I don't know a single vegetable that will be sterlite. I know some Mangoes (coming outside of US) do get sterlite and so their seeds won't produce plant even if the seeds are mature.

that's how exactly it works. We got one Italian Tomato (heirloom, indeterminate) from a neighbor and grew it. It grew 10-12 ft tall and bushy. My wife loved it so much, she saved seeds from couple of tomatoes and next year, we grew only that Tomatoes along with other vegetables. And we grew enough to store for the entire year. We are still eating those tomatoes (Frozen) and hope it will last till our this season tomatoes will start coming.

Cool. Fruit cocktail trees are also awesome because they have multiple fruit varieties on a single tree via grafting. If you know how to do grafting, you can add additional fruits without planting more trees.

Now, if only I can figure out how to start an avocado pit or a pineapple top because several experiments have failed.

I don't know what you've tried but I've started several avocadoes by using toothpicks to suspend the pit halfway into a glass of water.

I've done that 3 or so times now and each time it just sits there and does nothing. Would be super cool though.

I raid the neighbors citrus trees (with permission) and also prickly pear cactus fruit to make fancier lemonade.

I've done this, although in my cold climate it took months to throw out a root. Give it time.

While I applaud your enthusiasm, this is a long term project as avocado trees take 10-15 years to mature and bear fruit.

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