I did the same thing with Rosemary that was being used as a garnish on a breakfast buffet I was at.. (yes I can be pathetically cheap)

Hah, nothing wrong with that when you consider how long rosemary can take to start from seed!

I do this with Basil, tomato shoots, and others that I can find, now I will go out to my mint garden that is looking a little sad in out tropical heat and do what you did , I will keep my fingers crossed.

Yeah I have tried this out a few times, good for getting a quick start on some plants, not sure if i would say its "being cheap", usually costs more for fresh herbs at the store than seeds but definitely a time saver.

Have you tried saving seeds from store purchased fruits? that's always fun. Cherry tomatoes are always a good one :)

Of course mint would be the pathetically easy one to root. :)

Yea I agree for most herbs you could buy seeds cheaper than the fresh herbs at the store but for some its worth the time saved. For me it makes the most sense with mint, as it is easy to root, and not everyone has access to another mint plant to get cuttings (at least not in the winter for me).

I have tried saving seeds from fruits, and once started a strawberry plant from the seeds. I did get it to grow, but never got any fruit from it.

Interesting, I've never tried strawberries from seed, I transplant the runners from other plants, I will have to give the seeds a try. Is there anything special you need to do with the seeds? Like the cleaning process for tomatoes?

There is nothing too special you have to do for strawberries that I have seen, I just used a pair of tweezers and planted them in some rockwool. They took quite a while to germinate, about 15-16 days, but that may have been my fault. I have heard that a lot of strawberries are sterile, so maybe try some local organic ones for seeds.

Yeah I hear a lot of people talking about sterile seeds from store purchased fruit, but so far I have never had a problem, but in saying that, I have only ever tried organic so maybe there is something there.

Yea I've never tried it with regular store bought fruits or whatever, even the mint I used was organic. I never got fruit from my plant but I've heard that strawberries started from seed don't bear fruit the first year so that's likely the issue I had.

Edit: scratch that, I did get a squash plant from an ordinary store squash.