Growing popcorn, beans, etc. from the store?

Has anyone ever sown popcorn kernel from the grocery store shelf and had any success? I have a lot of popcorn and a lot of bare ground that could use some love. Any chance of it actually producing a usable popcorn harvest?

What about dry beans?

I think this would be a cheap way to get a lot of space planted considering I have a lot of store bought "seeds" that are just sitting around right now.

Craig Dobbelyu wrote:Has anyone ever sown popcorn kernel from the grocery store shelf and had any success? I have a lot of popcorn and a lot of bare ground that could use some love. Any chance of it actually producing a usable popcorn harvest?

What about dry beans?

I think this would be a cheap way to get a lot of space planted considering I have a lot of store bought "seeds" that are just sitting around right now.

It works, but don't expect high germination rates. I don't know if store bought popcorn is hybrid or not.

For a cover crop, it works and has no weed seeds like bags of cover crop seeds.

I bought 50 lbs of Anasazi beans for eating and decided to plant some to see how they would do. Got abut 98% germination rate. When I grow red beans, black beans, black eyed peas and pinto's, I always just buy the dried beans at the grocery store and plant them. Now I'm going to save seed and see if I can acclimate them to my property.

I've thrown beans in the ground, they show up just fine. The germination rate may not be the 80% required by most state laws for seed sales, but they are as cheap as...beans. There is a high probability the beans have been treated, sprayed, fumigated, or otherwise chemically serviced. Using the storebought beans as your initial seed stock to develop more seeds can alleviate these worries. Beans start to drop their pollen before the flowers open-I've found the resulting crop to be true, with no hybrid issues. I've done this with black beans (they turned out to be wax beans), pinto, lima, cowpeas, kidney, and great northern beans. I've also tried seeds from other grocery items-celery seed, fennel seed, chamomile, coriander (cilantro), quinoa, fenugreek, barley, red wheat, flax, and from scratch grains: wheat, soy beans, and sorghum. Then there is the seed and planting stock from the fresh produce: garlic, potato, sweet potato, horseradish, ginger, peppers, tomato, winter squashes, and melons. Some will show up, some won't. You can get the crops, but the name of the cultivar will be elusive. Bear in mind that plants produced from grocery store sources were produced favoring the traits of transportability and shelf appearance.

Garlic
this works just fine

Onion
when making dinner, slice off the root section, place in a dish of water. It will send out roots in a few days. Keep it moist, it will send up a leaf. transplant to the garden.

Carrot
Cut off the big end where the leaves come out, place in a dish of water. When leaves reach an inch or more, transplant to garden.
I hear of this lady in Cleveland that has eaten the same carrots 5 times.

Potato
These are usually treated with sprout inhibitors. If so, growth will be slow, with dismal results. Organic potatoes do well.

Sweet Potato
Elise is the expert. Sweet Potato Experiment.

Herbs
Lots of varieties will grow from cuttings. Several herbs are sold as cuttings rather than just leaves. Mint, thyme, rosemary, oregano, among others.

All great advice!!! thanks folks. I'm going to give it a shot and see what come up. My annual garden is already up and running so I'm really just doing my best to claim as much territory from the grasses as I can before I run out of planting time. Thanks again. I'll try to update with results when I can.

Peavey's point about propagating cutting could make a small indoor aquaponics setup really handy -- just enough for some herbs and to propagate the kitchen scraps to put back in the garden!

Poppy seeds from the supermarket make a nice violet flower. And they make poppy seeds.

I throw them in with a salad seed mix. Very good for salad borders.

Beans are probably the best thing for your money. Cheap and good results.
Beans/Chickpeas work from the supermarket. Had good results from those.
Fava beans are good, they come up great. Mung beans are good for n-fixing, not so great for eating, as they probably take too much time to harvest.

I found fennel seeds didn't work so well. They didn't come up at all.
Flax works, grew it and it made seed, but the price of the seeds might outweigh whatever "crop" that may come from it.

Organic potatoes work great.

Buckwheat had the germ removed, so I didn't buy it.

It takes some experimenting, but you can get things to grow.
W