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Grow plants from the fruit you eat!

Did you know that you can grown plants from the fruit you eat? Neat! It’s an absolutely useless hobby, because many of the plants won’t bear fruit like that, but oh boy is it fun! (That wasn’t a question. It IS fun!) Here’s a comic that shows you how to start germinating fruit seeds!

H-P is eating a kiwi fruit. He thinks: My life is sad and empty. I wish I had more plants to fill it with.
H-P looks excitedly at the fruit and yells: A KIWI!
H-P is poking the kiwi with a toothpick and thinks: Dig out a handfull of seeds from the kiwi with a toothpick. You can still eat the rest of the kiwi. Don't waste food!
Text: Now give the seeds a quick wash! When they're in the bucket of water, check which seeds sink to the bottom and which float. The seeds that sink are the seeds that are good to go. throw out the floating seeds, they won't work. 
Illustration has a bowl of water with some seds floating and some on the bottom.
Text: Now put several of the seeds into some soil. Plant them about 1-2cm apart. Don't worry about putting too many in at this point. They might not all germinate.
Illustration of a seed being thrown into a pot with soil.
Text: Now put a plastic wrap on top of it and poke some holes on it for ventilation. Keep the pot in a warm place and keep the soil moist. Not soaking wet! Just moist. Secret tip: If you don't have plastic wrap, don't go buy new plastic! Any clear plastic will do fine. Your own trash might have some.
Illustration of a pot with plastic on it.
Text: When the seeds germinate, pretend it's hunger games and weed out the weak ones. If you leave them in, they'll suffocate the strong  ones too. Leave about 3 of the biggest ones! They are the winners!
Illustration of a hand coming to pick out the smallest plant that yells "Nooooo!"
Illustration of an old H-P in hotpants and a very long beard. He is still very cool and sexy, despite his old age. He is holding a pot with a plant. He thinks: And now water it regularly, keep it in a sunny place and wait for the next 100 years... it's bigger than before.

This same trick works for a lot of plants! We have grown some citrus plants and an avocado too! Avocado seed is way bigger, so search for some tips that are especially for avocados. This kiwi tip isn’t as good for them, so to start germinating fruit seeds from all kinds of fruits, you might need some extra information.

Best fruit to grow!

Like said, most of the plants just won’t bear fruit, but there are some that will! My favorite one being tomato! Some tomato plants are genetically altered in a way, that their seeds are dead, but some aren’t. If you want to have a higher chance of actually getting your tomato seeds to germinate, buy an organic tomato instead of a regular one. It also helps if you buy tomatoes that are grown locally. That way you know the same breed of tomatoes has been able to survive in your area before too!

Here’s also a special tip for tomatoes. Tomato seeds have this… film, a weird slimy surface that can actually prevent them from germinating! But there’s a simple way to get it off. Suck the seed. Just put the seed in your mouth and suck it for a while! Your saliva will melt the film! Besides, the film just tastes like tomato, so this isn’t disgusting to do (except if you think tomatoes are disgusting… but why are you trying to grow tomatoes if you think so?).

Try it out!

Best part about growing plants from the seed is that you can try out basically anything. Worst outcome is that nothing happens. Best outcome is a beautiful plant! Okay… even worse outcome would be to spend a ton of money and THEN nothing happens. I’d hate that. So that’s why getting seeds from the fruit you eat is amazing!


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