Growing your own steady supply of green onions at home is fun, very simple, economical, and simply brilliant.
I love a cheery little greenhouse on my windowsill in the dead of winter. There’s nothing like something springing to life and growing right before my eyes to encouraged me when it’s a lot drab outside.
Green Onions On Your Windowsill
It seems every time I purchased a bunch of green onions I ended up throwing half of them into the compost as they went bad before I had a chance to use them all up.
The reality is, often I would use what I needed and forget about the rest. Now I can clip off the half cup or so that I need, and the rest just goes on happily growing.
Start With Green Onions From the Market
Next time you buy a bunch of green onions (aka scallions):
- Cut off the stalks 3-4″ from the roots.
- Place the white ends, roots down, into no more than an inch of cool water. Don’t overcrowd them.
- You will likely need to change the water every second or third day to keep the water level up and from getting a bit smelly. Just rinse off the roots well, and add fresh water.
- Once the shoots are placed in the sunshine, watch them sprout up and reach their full growing splendor in a week or so. I have been very pleased at how fresh and pretty they are in the windowsill, and because they are within sight, I’m not likely to forget to use them.
- This lush bunch is the result of a second cutting.
I can snip and use as much or as little as I please, and this is in the winter or summer months.
Note: I have read this can be done over and over for up to 5 cuttings during the winter months.
I have been snipping and regrowing for about 8 months now, but I found that after about 4 months the stalks seemed to regrow more thinly. There’s a need for natural minerals and bioactivity found in soil and not water alone.
If you fertilize the water, only use a fertilizer safe for food/produce. (This is a large supply but you can use this on your outdoor organic garden to give your produce an edge against pests and other disease that flourishes on weakened starts and plants. It is OMRI certified.)
You may want to planted them outside in your garden in the spring where they will flourish once more. Planted out in the garden in late March once the soil is workable.
I can recommend giving this idea a try, especially if you – like me – love to have something green growing in your window and only need green onions once in a while.
It is a perfect solution.
Re-Growing Celery From Cuttings
Related