I always get a kick out of watching all sorts of plants germinate and start to grow in my various vermicomposting bins and beds. I always feel badly for the ones that pop up in my dark enclosed bins since they always look so spindly and pitiful. In my outdoor systems it can actually get a bit annoying plucking all the seedling tomatoes etc etc out – well, the ones I don’t allow to grow, that is (see “Compost Bin Tomatoes“).

Quite some time ago, I noticed some potatoes sprouting in one of the plastic garbage cans I keep down in my basement. Of course, I’m not just talking about any old garbage cans here – these are bins containing older worm compost/habitat material.

As per usual, I didn’t give it too much thought – assuming the spud sprouts would simply end up in the “spindly and pitiful” category mentioned above.
🙂

Well ok, they ARE pretty spindly, but as you can see they’ve continued to grow up towards the light (the cans have other bins etc sitting on top of them, so not all that much light shining in), and are now even sprouting some leaves! I’m not all that optimistic that I’ll end up with a potato crop or anything (haha), but it’s still pretty cool!

I’d be interested to hear from others re: the sorts of plants that have popped up in your composting/vermicomposting systems!