Regrow Your Green Onions

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Category: Grow Your Own

Created on Monday, 02 November 2020 17:12

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We only buy green onions when it’s time to replenish our potted onions, the ones we grew from the root cuttings of a previous bunch of onions.  This is one of the best garden tricks for its simplicity and it provides a never-ending supply of scallions.

Don’t get hung up on the name.  In my book green onions are spring onions are scallions… and they’re almost always sold with the roots attached.  You know, the root ends that you always trim off before using the white onion bulbs and the tasty green stalks in the kitchen.

It only takes a minute to convert those discarded root ends into new green onion cuttings for an endless supply of fresh green onions.

What You’ll Need 

• A starter bunch of green onions
• A small container
• Fresh water

It’s that easy… so here's how easy way to recycle your wasted roots into fresh food.

Instructions

• Slice off the ends of the bulbs, leaving roots attached, per photo above.
• Stand the bulbs root-end down in a small jar as shown. I have plastic shot glasses that work well for most of my herb cuttings, but they work great for green onion cuttings.  
• Add enough water to cover the roots yet leave the top edges above water.
• Set on a windowsill or somewhere that gets light and keep the roots moist. I normally don’t set them in direct sunlight. 
• After a few days, green shoots will sprout directly from the tops of your cuttings.  
• After that, they'll grow very quickly.
• Keep the roots submerged and change water after a week.
• When shoots are a few inches tall I plant the onions in pots and grow onions in soil.  I don’t recommend that you keep the root ends in the jar permanently because while they’ll produce some green shoots they’ll eventually weaken and stop growing.

• To harvest, just snip off what you need.  We normally use the green portion more than the white portion so as we cut the greens they continue to grow more.  However, cutting the stems close to the ground will give you the entire green onion to use in the kitchen while they continue to grow.

   Start this trick and you’ll have green onions ready to harvest in just a few weeks and you'll always have fresh green onions ready for use.

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