Tips for Growing Green Onions
Growing Green Onions is easy and fun; and this is a great way to keep stocked up on green onions when you don’t want to go to the store! And even if you don’t have a green thumb and haven’t ever tried growing green onions, I promise these tips can help you do it!
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If you’re following me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you could have seen this experiment with Growing Green Onions, which was fun but also surprisingly quick and productive! I shared it in a category called Things I’m Thinking About where I used to share random tips, travel photos, and sometimes just things I found on the web that I thought readers might find interesting.
And recently when I came across this post with tips for growing green onions I realized how many people probably haven’t seen it, and I decided it would be worth sharing again! Keep reading for more details about how we grew the green onions you see in the photos; I was actually quite surprised at how quickly they grew! And there are a few green onion tips in the comments too.
How to Grow Green Onions on the Countertop:
- The first step in growing green onions is finding a short squatty jar where you can pack in quite a few green onions and get them to not be buried too low in the jar. I used a jar from Better than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base (affiliate link), I’m always pretty vigilant about re-using those jars.
- I wanted to use some of the green onion before I tried re-growing them, so I cut off the root end so it was about 3-4 inches long.
- Then just put green onions in the jar, fill the jar with water and let them grow!
- I don’t know if it was completely necessary, but I replaced the water every 2-3 days.
- Here’s how the green onions looked on day three; are you surprised by how much they had grown?
- Of course you can start snipping off the tops any time you’d like, but I was documenting the total growth so I didn’t do that.
- I guess I got distracted and didn’t take a photo on day six, but by day nine the growth was pretty impressive.
- Most people would probably start using the green onions by this time. You can take a few out, snip off some of the ends with Kitchen Shears (affiliate link), and put the root back into the jar to grow again.
- And look at the amazing crop of green onions I had after twelve days!
- You can trim off most of the long green top, put green onions back into fresh water, and completely grow them again a second time.
- I found that the green onions didn’t produce much the third time, so after two growths I’d you start a new batch!
- And if you do this regularly, you’ll never run out of green onions again!
10 recipes where I’d never skip the green onions:
- Roasted Cauliflower Rice Medley with Pine Nuts
- Heart of Palm and Avocado Salad
- Easy Cauliflower Rice Recipe (perfect side dish!)
- Chicken Salad with Green Olives
- Ground Turkey Casserole with Cauliflower Rice
- Sesame Noodles with Chicken
- Tuna Macaroni Salad with Green Olives
- Red Cabbage Salad with Bacon and Goat Cheese
- Fish Taco Cabbage Bowls
- Family Favorite Shrimp and Macaroni Salad
More Reasons to Grow some Green Onions:
I’m a huge fan of green onions and use them often. Just enter “green onions” to see all the recipes on Kalyn’s Kitchen where I’ve used them!
31 Comments on “Tips for Growing Green Onions”
Why do you never eat the onion part? You put all that work into growing the onion and don’t eat the onion part. I’m confused.
I do eat the white part that gets cut off initially. And then get lots more green parts that grow. But if the idea doesn’t appeal to you you don’t need to do it!
I love having onions/scallions growing in my kitchen, especially during the winter. My question is, that the water gets thick and smelly. I guess I have to change the water, but how often should I change the water?
I’d say you need to change it every 3 days or so.
So glad you are enjoying them!
I really love your ideas and posts, thank you for your kindness and share with all of us.
I have enjoyed having fresh green onions available! I am trying the same with romaine but have not had as much success. Thanks for the ideas!
I’m growing Romaine and it’s working for me. Will share it in another week or so, right now after a week I have enough for one small salad from two heads of romaine.
Yes, Kaylin, I most definitely do remember your subject which I thorooughly enjoyed and I’m so very glad it is back, thank you
Thanks Margaret, happy to hear that!
Am I to understand that when you call for “green onions”, you only mean the green part of the scallions?
In the U.S. this type of onions are commonly called Green Onions. But yes, when you grow then in water like this it’s the green part that grows. I think you can plant the rooted ends in soil, but I’m not sure if that will make the white part grow again. I use the dark green ends a lot in cooking, so that’s why I’m such a fan of this tip.
I’m not sure if you pulled out one of those green stalks if there would be more white onion on the end, I haven’t ever tried that!
I realize this is an old post, and someone may have already pointed this out, but you can get better results by cutting all of the green part off, leaving just the bulb and the roots. That way you get to use all of the greens and they will regrow completely from the bulb, so you get double the amount.
Thanks Laura; I will definitely try that!
I didn't see anyone mention it so I will. You said in the article the second growing isn't as strong as the first. That is probably because the water has no nutrients for the onions. I use a small pot with 6 to 8 onions and homemade compost to regrow organically and a family of 4 doesn't run out. A larger pot could accomadate more onions but using soil is key.
Thanks! I didn't even think of that but will definitely try it!
super excited to try this out… thanks all for the tips.
Have fun!
Jeff, I had some kids staying at my house last weekend, and they loved it too!
We started doing this last summer.it works so well and the kids love seeing them grow so much. We were able to get two regrows power bunch before the quality began to suffer.
This really works.
I love it.
Katie, you could eat the onion part, but it's the green part that grows and that's the part of the scallions I use the most.
Janet, thanks for that tip!
Great links, Kalyn! I have grown green onions, too, and swapping the water is KEY.
I must be missing something here….. Are you just growing them for the tops? It looks like you are not eating the onion.
Lydia, it has been so fun watching them grow.
MeOfCourse, hope you will try it!
Thanks for the info on this. I will try it. I have green onions growing outside but I do need to try this. Thank you.
I've been growing green onions, too, as well as celery, on my windowsill. Isn't it fun?
I didn't cut off the roots, I just cut off the root ends (with the roots on them.) And yes, the roots definitely grew a lot more in the water as well!
It doesn't look like the roots are cut off the onions in the photo. Or did they already grow more roots out of the bulb?
I have a small NFT hydroponic garden in the basement, and use it to regrow green onions as well. I just drop a few of the cuttings in net pots, and they grow around 3/4″ per day!
Fun to know, I will have to try it that way!