One East Coast gardener got an incredible return on a plant they said they bought for less than $1.
Gardening has always been a budget-friendly way to enjoy ripe, delicious produce while getting lots of fresh air and sunlight. But perhaps the most cost-effective option is to search for discounted plants to minimize the cost of setting up a garden.
That's what this Redditor said they did when they found a damaged Concord grape plant at Lowe's. "Discounted section," they explained in a comment in the r/gardening subreddit. "It looked like it was crushed by something, barely hanging in there."
So the original poster decided to try to rehabilitate the plant. "Just thought it would be fun to try it out," they explained. After all, if the plant had died, they would have lost very little. "It was a dollar," they explained with a shrugging emoji.
The plant didn't take much work either, according to them. "This guy has been thriving on neglect," they said in another comment. "He only gets water when it rains. Compost mixed into the clay, no fertilizers." They also claimed never to use any chemicals on the plant out of worry that it might harm their dogs.
Nevertheless, the grapevine blossomed. After just six years, the Redditor said they harvested an entire tub of grapes in a season. "My 99-cent grapevine from Lowe's just gave us 55 pounds of grapes," they bragged.
The photo they attached showed a huge, blue plastic bucket filled to the brim with healthy, dark purple grapes. "You can tell when they're ripe if they are dark purple, almost black," they said. "Some can be reddish, which is fine, but pink and green are no-go's."
As for what they were going to do with 55 pounds of grapes, they said: "Anyone and everyone I know is getting grape jam for the holidays. … Food mill to remove seeds, de-skin by hand (pops right off)."
Other Redditors were jealous of the original poster's generous harvest. "Squirrels always get my fruit!" complained one user. "This gives me hope though!"
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