What can you re-grow from cuttings? — Backyard Aquaponics in Melbourne
Tags: Aquaponics, Spring, Melbourne, Grow From Cuttings

Spinach re-growing from cuttings

Harvesting and planting

Thanks to the revised greenhouse settings (you can read the 2nd winter aquaponics here), we’ve harvested broccoli, kale, lettuce, pacerly, mint and mizuna throughout the winter and early spring. One of the surprise is the broccoli leaves are so yummy and you can simply stir fry them just like Chinese broccoli.

Ths spring this year in Melbourne has been nice and warm and rained well. The flowers and new green leaves are everywhere and so my backyard aquaponics.

It’s time to plant more veggies

Melbourne had been in a hard stage 4 lockdown just until last week and we couldn’t easily get seeds and seedlings this year. Our local nursery was closed and could only buy using ‘click and collect’.

So I started planting some cuttings from veggies we consumed daily, which many people seem to re-grow in a cup of water or using a kitchen sponge. (I use a kitchen sponge when I grow seedlings from seeds).

For Aquaponics, you can simply plant the cuttings straight into the grow bed. The following are the types of veggies I tried:

Spring onions and Leek

Celery

Spinach and coriander

Garlic

Basil

What cuttings go well?

The cuttings of Spring onions planted

Spring onions from cuttings after 2 weeks

Spring onions

Spring onions are the best veggies out of all cuttings. They grow so fast that it takes about 2 ~ 3 weeks to get nice fresh spring onions back you can start using for garnish or salad.

You cut the root-end of spring onions, leaving about 1.5 cm ~ 2 cm and the rest can be consumed.

You can then plant them as a bunch, straight to a growing bed. That’s it!

When they grow in a good size, you can dig a little and cut them with a sharp knife so you can repeat growing many times.

Leeks work pretty much the same way as spring onions but it takes longer and they don’t grow as thick as the original size.

Spinach cuttings after 2 weeks (front) and after 5 days (back)

Spinach

Spinach is a little surprise for me but they also grow fast and we like them a lot.

You can cut the root-end and leave 3 ~ 4 cm of stalks and then plant them in a bunch.

Celery after 2 weeks

Celery

Celery grows well from cuttings and they look beautiful how the small leaves come out from the stalk.

They take much longer than the leafy veggies and occupy a fair bit of space once they become mature.

Basil

We love eating basil and are happy they grow like a weed!

You can buy basil in a grocery, either in a plastic planting box or in a bunch.

If you get a planting box, then you can cut the top leaves for eating and plant them the rest into the grow bed. (see the photo)

If you get them in a bunch you then need to grow the root from cuttings first.

You firstly cut the top part, leaving a 3 ~ 4 cm stalk and remove all leaves except for 2 top leaves. You put them in a plastic cup and add just enough water to cover 5 mm. Leave them a couple of days and you will see the root start growing.

Once you get the root, then you can plant them in the grow bed.

Overall it’s very easy to grow veggies from cuttings in an aquaponic system and many leafy veggies can re-grow over and over. My children love especially love looking at the growth from cuttings as you can see the strength of these veggies and new leaves are just great to observe.

Thanks for reading!