15+ Foods You Can Regrow From Kitchen Scraps (Ranked)

If you’ve been balancing a carrot top over a glass of water and waiting for a second carrot, you’ve been promised the wrong prize.

Carrot tops regrow leaves, not roots.

That distinction is the difference between a real kitchen-scrap win and a cute windowsill science project.

The ranking below sorts the scraps by what you actually get back. Some pay off in days. Some take months and still deliver. A few are best treated as houseplants with a good story.

1. Green Onions

Keep 2 to 3 inches of the white base with the roots attached, put them in about an inch of water, and set the glass somewhere sunny. Change the water every 2 to 3 days.

New shoots can show up in 3 to 7 days. You can keep trimming and regrowing for several cycles before the base runs out of steam. For a nearly instant payoff, this is the one to try first.

2. Herbs

Start with a 4-inch stem cutting of basil or mint. Strip the lower leaves, keep the top growth above the water, and give the cutting bright indirect light.

Basil and mint tend to root faster than woody herbs such as rosemary and thyme, which can take substantially longer. Wait for roots rather than counting on a shared deadline. Once the roots take hold, move the cutting to soil and let it turn into a plant instead of a one-time garnish.

3. Potatoes

Cut a piece with at least two eyes, let it dry for 1 to 2 days, then plant it in soil. Gardenary goes as far as calling potatoes the best vegetable to regrow.

The payoff is real: a few months later, one eye-piece can produce 5 to 8 more potatoes. That is not a fun experiment. That is groceries.

4. Sweet Potatoes

Suspend a whole or halved sweet potato over water with toothpicks and wait for slips. When the sprouts reach around 4 inches, twist them off, root them in about an inch of water, then move them to soil.

One plant can yield 4 to 10 pounds. The greens are also edible, which makes sweet potato one of the few scraps that pays you twice.

5. Ginger

Plant a piece of rhizome with visible buds facing up in moist potting soil. Ginger likes warmth, so treat it like a tropical houseplant.

Shoots appear in 2 to 3 weeks. Harvestable pieces take a few months, and the plant keeps producing if you leave some in the soil. It is slower than a green onion, but it is hard to beat the return on one grocery-store knob.

6. Garlic

Plant one clove root-down and pointed end up, then settle in for the long game. A full bulb takes 6 to 9 months, or 8 or more months depending on the source and season.

For a faster harvest, grow garlic greens in water. You give up the full bulb, but you get something useful much sooner.

7. Lemongrass

This is the sleeper pick. Plant the base and it regenerates reliably, which is more than you can say for most of the viral tricks online.

It is also one of the easier plants to keep going once it takes. If you cook with lemongrass often enough to buy it, this one earns counter space.

8. Bulbing Onions

A 1-inch root end can regrow roots in shallow water. Keep the cut surface above the waterline so it does not rot.

Here is the catch: to get a full bulb again, you have to transplant it into soil. It works, but it asks for more patience than a scallion while producing a similar-looking result.

9. Peppers

Seeds from a mature pepper are viable. The catch is time: peppers can take 60 to 150 days to mature depending on the variety.

This is seed-growing, not the water-glass scrap trick. It still belongs here because the payoff is a real harvest, not just leaves.

10. Tomatoes

Lay thin tomato slices on soil and cover them lightly. They can sprout several dozen seedlings within a week or two.

You are not regrowing the exact tomato. You are rescuing the seeds inside it. Thin the seedlings early or you will end up with a crowded tray and no winners.

11. Pumpkins

Clean and dry the seeds, then plant them after local frost danger has passed and the soil is warm. Like the other seed projects, this is real gardening rather than scrap regrowing.

The reward can be substantial if you have the space. If your entire garden is a windowsill, this is probably not your year.

12. Celery

Set a 2-inch base in shallow water, not fully submerged, and change the water daily. Roots can form in about a week before you move the plant to soil.

The flavor and crunch are the problem. Gardenary says the regrown stalks come back thinner and never as crisp or tasty as store-bought. Celery earns a place on the list, but it does not earn a trophy.

13. Romaine, Bok Choy, and Napa Cabbage Bases

A 2-inch base in about ½ inch of water can push out new leaves in 3 to 4 days, though some sources put the timeline closer to 14 days. Change the water daily.

You may get 2 to 3 harvests from one heart. The tradeoff is that the leaves can turn bitter, the plant never re-forms a full head, and it bolts quickly. This is a useful trick, not a salad farm.

14. Carrot, Beet, Turnip, and Radish Tops

Place a 1-inch crown in shallow water and change the water daily. Bushy greens can appear in about four weeks.

What you will never get is a new carrot, beet, turnip, or radish. These scraps regrow only leafy tops. Use them as garnish or microgreens and skip the fantasy root.

15. Pineapple Crowns

Cut ½ inch below the leaves, strip the lower leaves, let the crown dry for several days, then plant it about 1 inch deep.

Imperfect Foods says a fresh pineapple crown can root and regrow. Farmers’ Almanac cautions that pineapple crowns rarely fruit indoors in a meaningful window and that fruit can take years. That makes it a long-term houseplant, not a quick grocery hack.

16. Avocado Pits

Suspend the pit with three toothpicks, change the water every 2 to 3 days, and wait. It can take up to a month just to sprout.

Even then, the tree may not match the avocado you ate, and it may never fruit. If it does, the wait is measured in years. Grow it because you like the plant, not because you expect guacamole.

17. Mushroom Stems

This is the most mythologized item on the list. Imperfect Foods calls it fiction, while Family Handyman lists mushrooms fruiting in 2 to 4 weeks.

A random grocery-store stem is not a sure thing, so treat this as a specialty experiment.

The Bottom Line

Round cabbage bases often rot before they root, and Brussels sprouts grow on a stalk rather than from a scrap end. Skip both.

Otherwise, the rule is simple. Green onions, herbs, potatoes, sweet potatoes, ginger, garlic, and lemongrass actually feed you. Carrot tops feed your sense of accomplishment. That is a fine hobby, but it is not dinner.