I saw an Instagram reel where the guy said he was able to regrow lettuce from the cut base of a previous head of lettuce. New lettuce from kitchen scraps? Is it really possible? His reel showed how to cut the base and put it in water, and he made the claim that it would start growing within 24 hours – and the accompanying visual when he said this showed new lettuce growth about 4 inches tall. I was astounded … is this really possible?
So I decided to do my own experiment. I cut the base off of some existing lettuce that I had in my fridge, poked some toothpicks into it as you can see above, so that it could sit at the top of the glass and just have the bottom touch the water – exactly as the Instagram guy said to do. 24 hours later, I did see some dark green color in the very center of the cut piece, but no growth. A few more days? More dark green, but no growth. His 4 inches of lettuce in 24 hours was b.s., I’m sure he just showed something dramatic (and from much later in the process) just to grab some eyeballs.
But – as you can see above, I am now finally getting some growth. The image at left – my first day – was May 15th, and the 2nd image at right is today – May 24th. So I’ve got just a shade under an inch of growth in 9 days.
At this rate, it might take 6 weeks to get enough new lettuce to make even one serving of salad! One key to growth that the original IG guy didn’t explain is to change or refresh the water every day and make sure it’s getting direct sun. Once I started doing those 2 things, the regrowth went a little faster.
Am I going to start growing vegetables from kitchen scraps on a regular basis? Maybe not, but it has been a fun experiment in a mad scientist sort of way.