I Grew Tomato Slices From McDonald’s

[00:00:00]What if instead of buying tomato plants, I get a burger and order extra free tomatoes on it? And then I take those seeds and grow them into my very own tomato plants. Would they grow? [music] I didn't know if it would actually work because the tomatoes from McDonald's always look a little too perfect.

[00:00:18][music] But I was excited to find out. So I made my way over to McDonald's to [music] see if I could get some free extra tomatoes on my burger. Would I be able to get some extra tomatoes on the side? If I couldn't get the extra tomatoes, my experiment [music] would be over before I ever even got the chance to start it. But finally I got the goods.

[00:00:39]>> Thank you so much.

[00:00:40]>> Paid $0 for the tomatoes, and after I finished my burger is basically [music] when the experiment officially began. It was time to plant the tomatoes. So I got straight to work. I got three pots and placed the tomatoes directly on top of some soil. [music] The good thing about tomatoes is that they are very agile plants. I almost never buy tomato seeds from the package because cutting a tomato and just tossing it straight in soil has always worked well for me. As long as the seeds are visible on both sides of the tomato piece, they pretty much always successfully sprout. And [music] the tomatoes grow within 3 months. So once my tomatoes were in all of the pots, I covered each one with a nice layer of soil. And to give them a better shot at growing, I even placed a mini greenhouse around them with an old water bottle I cut. Now they had the perfect environment to grow. And it was in that moment where the growth journey finally began. Waiting for the time to pass was hard, and I soon found myself battling raccoons who were trying to infiltrate the dealer and find the supplier in my garden. But it's a good thing we had those mini greenhouses on top because it seemed like they couldn't get to them anyway. [music] I do got to admit though, they were kind of cute. A few days of waiting eventually led me to day seven. I went to do my daily check and saw this. Little sprouts were popping out of the soil. I don't know why I was so surprised they actually sprouted because tomatoes literally always sprout quickly for me, but since they were from McDonald's, I really [music] wasn't sure what was going to happen. Honestly, I soon started to wonder why I didn't also plant the buns with the sesame seeds on top. But that little spurt of growth made me really excited because our experiment was actually starting to work. I finally felt like this adventure was probably going to be worth it. Well, time finally [music] started to pass me by more quickly and soon day seven turned into day 14 and then day 21 and I was pretty shocked [music] to see that everything was going according to plan and my tomato plants were getting bigger by the day. But I also noticed that these sprouts looked a bit different than your average tomato sprout because they were purple. That I have never seen before and I immediately began to wonder why they were that color. [music] At this point, I was wondering if the plants would also start to grow arms and legs.

[00:02:58]I was even tracking the entire experiment [music] in my app. When I got the burger with the tomatoes, I just scanned a photo of it, got my ID, some cool facts, and then I found my related experiment based on my scan's result and I started tracking [music] the project in the progress tracker. That really helped me to stay on track and log weekly [music] check-ins to make sure I was doing everything according to plan.

[00:03:20]You can download it on the App Store and on Google Play. I've linked it in the description below. But the one problem I did face was that summer was pretty much over and since I'm in Canada, the winter means that the important plants need to be repotted and brought inside for about six to [music] eight months. So, before I even let them have a chance to die, I removed each plant from each of the three pots, washed off the roots with soapy water to remove any pests, and repotted them into two small pots where they lived in my grow box for those long [music] eight months. They did stay pretty small in the pot. One was not looking [music] too good, but I noticed the other one was looking pretty good.

[00:04:01]It was growing a bit more each week.

[00:04:03]It's a really weird experience bringing [music] plants inside for the winter. My app even told me that whether you grow a full tomato plant from a McDonald's burger is partly luck, [music] depending on how fresh and carefully handled they were. And then it's partly science, but if we were to successfully grow the tomato plant, it [music] would be a genuinely impressive result. I was just hoping everything [music] would continue going according to plan, and once the winter passed and the summer came back around, the plants looked like this.

[00:04:32]This one, the one that wasn't looking good, slowly came back around and was growing. And the one that was growing nicely was looking [music] great. They even started to grow little flowers, and that's where the tomatoes would eventually start growing [music] out of.

[00:04:46]So, finally, I repotted the two plants into one bigger pot and put them back outside for the summer. I was really nervous to see whether or not they would continue flourishing or not, [music] and honestly, putting them back outside in May may have been a pretty big mistake in this journey, because I ran into another problem that almost [music] ended the entire experiment completely.

[00:05:07]Just one week after putting it outside, it looked like the sprouts completely [music] disintegrated and disappeared.

[00:05:14]It looked like the plant died. I realized I may have shocked the plant by bringing them inside and then waiting many months to repot them and then bring them back outside. Oh, Canada. But I didn't give up hope. I just kept it in a sunny spot, watered it regularly, and continued logging weekly check-ins in the Grow It app to make sure the [music] entire process was being tracked and I could get valuable feedback as to what I should do in this situation here. One week later, this is what the plant looked like. This thing was really playing with me. But seeing the sprout looking alive and healthy and growing back brought all of and healthy and growing back brought all of my eagerness and excitement back to see how long it would really take the tomatoes to grow if at all. [music] And as the summer weeks began to pass me by, this is where I was yet again reminded of how important it is to be patient with plants because I soon started to see little yellow [music] flowers growing from the plant. Finally, exactly what I was hoping would happen. And at that point, I knew it was only a matter of time before the actual tomatoes would grow. And now, I was just waking up every day and sprinting outside to see if the tomatoes were born yet. And one day, [music] the day that I waited one year for, I ran outside to do my daily check and I saw three tiny tomatoes growing out of those yellow flowers. And me being excited was totally an understatement. Finally, we were seeing the fruits [music] of our labor. Each week passed and I monitored this little plant closely. I watched as the three tomatoes got bigger and bigger. I was wondering why there were only three of them and as time passed, I was getting a bit nervous that they weren't [music] turning red yet. It was taking quite a long time, a lot longer than it had ever [music] taken any of my other tomatoes I've planted in the past to actually get that red color. By this point, the entire summer basically passed me by and the winter was fast approaching again.

[00:07:32]So, if they didn't turn red soon, they probably wouldn't at all. Everyone, I have never prayed so much in my life for a tomato. But, >> [music] >> the plant gods must have heard my prayers because I soon walked outside to them for myself. [music] So, I harvested my tomato, pulling each one off the plant one by one, obviously admiring them for a bit, and then I went into the kitchen, took them into my hands, and thought to myself, "How do I want to eat these special three tomatoes?" Well, first of all, I cut the tomato in nice slices. They looked meaty, and honestly, I was very excited to taste them. I knew I'd have to save one to replant [music] to grow more, but then I plated them, put some salt and pepper on them, and I made some eggs and toast, and finally took the first bite. And in that moment, I had no idea why I had never grown tomatoes from McDonald's before because of these hit different. [music] And now, I'm just glad to know that the Mickey D's tomatoes are real, and the only thing that I'm basically wondering next to whether or not I'm going to wake up with an extra arm or a leg after eating these, is whether or not I can do the same thing with Wendy's or Burger King.