How To Grow Green Onions

To really kick your salads and garnishes up a notch, learn how to grow green onions. It’s really easy, and the results are delicious!

Also, check out How To Grow Garlic and Easy Fruits And Vegetables To Grow.

Onions; O’ my lovely green onions.

Soak the full sun; O’ my lovely green onions.

You’re close to my heart and soul. O’ my lovely green onions.

I have time and again heard these heart-touching lines from my mother whenever she went outside to water the fields.

Green onions, aka scallions, green-bunch onions, or spring onions, bring the taste of onions without too much wait in the backyard or unpeeling in the kitchen.

So, whether you’ve got a spacious outdoor garden, indoor space, or a sunny window, they are easy to grow, versatile, and well-suited to nurture in any location.

You can kick-start growing your onions today and enjoy an everlasting bliss of truly fresh and overwhelming flavor of onions in recipes, salads, and soups.

What are green onions?

Green onions (Allium cepa) are regular onions.

They are perennial; featuring dark green, long, and tubular leaves.

They contain small fleshy bulbs; lustrous leaves are best for eating fresh, preparing salads, and making garnishes.

Green onions are known for their fast growth feature and are ready to reap the leaves within 60 to 80 days.

Although they can reach up to the height of three feet, they are usually harvested once they reach one foot.

Best planted in spring, green onions are adapted to a variety of soils and locations.

How to grow green onions?

Growing green onions in your backyard or indoor compartments isn’t that hard.

You can grow them outdoors and indoors year-round, except in winters.

They are well-suited to grow in any location if you provide them with all the essentials needed for their growth and development.

What essentials are we talking about?

Here we’re talking about the following points:

Make sure the indoor and outdoor temperatures fall between 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
Although they are adapted to a variety of soil types, green onions grow fantastically in well-drained soils such as sandy loam, loam, and clay loam. Loam soils are best known for their moisture-retaining nature.
Nevertheless, green onions possess the potential to grow and thrive in sandy soils but you’ve to water the pots and gardens regularly.
They are perennial hardy to USDA zones 6 to 9.
Always expose them to full sun and ensure the soil acidity lies within 6.0 to 7.0.

Isn’t this information enough to successfully grow green onions in your pots and backyards?

If your answer is a straight “No”, join me on the ride. I’ll enrich you with the right and accurate information to grow scallions, green onions, or spring onions in any location.

Are you ready?

Let’s go!

So, how do you grow green onions?

Do you know, scallions, spring onions, and onions belong to the same family?

You can plant them in spring for summer harvest; in summer for autumn harvest.

Here’s the good news, if you are living in USDA hardiness zones 6 to 9, you can grow green onions or scallions as perennials. With this benefit in hand, you can reap the harvest year-round without replanting.

What’s the best time to plant your green onions?

The optimal time for planting green onions is spring. Start sowing seeds or its root section when the danger of frost has passed.

Next, it’s crucial to select a spot in your garden that receives full sun year-round. Green onions or scallions are sun-loving species. They need at least 05 hours of sunlight supply for optimal growth and development.

Keep your eyes open for any unwanted plants growing near your green onions or scallions. Weeds compete with onions for nutrients, sunlight, space, and water. Once the weeds start to pop up, remove them immediately!

About weeds, add a layer of mulch during spring to stop the growth of weeds.

Mulching works like wonders.

During spring they don’t allow weeds to grow and during summer this practice protects your green onions from drying out. Mulching is best when it comes to protecting plants from extreme weather conditions.

“Plant seeds about 1/4 inch deep, and plant seedlings at the same depth they were growing in their previous environment. Space plants roughly 2 to 3 feet apart in rows that are 1 to 2 feet apart. A support structure typically isn’t necessary.”

How to care for green onions?

As of now, you’ve equipped yourself with the right information to grow green onions in your garden, but it’s also important to know how to care for them.

In this section, we’ll learn about sunlight conditions, soil requirements, water application, adding fertilizers to boost scallions or onions growth and development.

Brace yourself!

Sunlight:

Sunlight is a primary source of energy for plants.

They use sunlight energy to prepare food through a process, in the presence of water and carbon dioxide, known as photosynthesis.

Green onions need full sunlight conditions to perform at their maximum potential. Therefore, it’s crucial to select a spot that receives maximum sunlight throughout the year.

Soil requirements:

As mentioned, green onions love and adore well-draining, sandy loamy, or loam soil with soil pH ranging from slightly acidic to neutral range.

To boost the performance of soil, when planting, add a layer of mulch 6 to 8 inches deep.

A layer of organic matter around the roots of green onions can boost their overall growth and health.

Watering the green onions or scallions:

Watering the green onions at the right time and in sufficient quantities is highly crucial.

Green onions don’t have a deep root system.

Thus, watering the soil frequently, to keep the soil moist always, is very important.

Don’t get carried away; watering too much can promote root rot and the development of other fungal and bacterial diseases.

“The soil should be consistently moist but not soggy.”

Fertilizers:

Fertilizers work like medicines.

If your scallions or green onions are showing any signs of diseases or ill-growth, add a layer of balanced fertilizers and follow the label instructions.

According to the veteran scallions or green onion growers, fertilizers that are high in nitrogen such as fish emulsion works like magic and help them grow green at a faster pace.

How to grow green onions indoors?

Featuring a shallow and small root system, green onions can be easily grown in pots or containers.

To grow scallions or green onions indoors in pots, ensure the pots have some drainage holes in the bottom.

You can go for any pot or container, but unglazed clay pots can work like magic. It allows excess water to flow out through the walls. Thus, minimizing the chances of root rot development.

Next, ensure to empty the pot saucer immediately if it fills with water.

And yes, one more thing, keep your pots near a sunny spot. You can place the pots on east or south-facing windows to catch the maximum sun rays.

How to harvest green onions?

Green onions or scallions are soft and mild when they are young.

They mature quickly.

You can begin harvesting scallions when they reach the height of 7 to 8 inches and are as thick as a pen.

Whenever you need green onion leaves, just visit your garden, and cut off the leaves you need for cooking or preparing salads.

You can cut back the leaves with garden scissors.

If you need the whole plant part for cooking, pull it off (the green onion can be easily pulled out with a slight force of your hands), wash them, and use them for cooking.

When harvested in bulk quantities, you can keep them fresh by putting them in the refrigerator for about a week.

How to grow green onions from cuttings?

What if you don’t have access to green onions seeds?

No problem!

Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

You can regrow green onions from cuttings.

Regrowing green onions through cuttings is easy and straightforward.

This practice usually takes less than one minute of preparation and about one week of growing time.

Let me present this method in just three simple sleek steps.

Grab a bunch of freshly harvested green onions from your garden.
Cut the green stems, just leaving one to two inches of root side.
Place the root-side down in your glass of water, about halfway submerged.

Is that all?

Yes, that’s all.

Within a day, you can see green shoots start growing.

After ten to fourteen days, massive rapid root growth will occur.

Now, it’s time to prepare your pot, container, raised bed, or garden by making one-inch wide and two inches deep holes.

Next, dip the regrown green onions in holes and cover them with the soil.

What is the best way to grow green onions?

One of the best ways to grow green onions is growing them in pots containers.

It’s because you can visit them frequently and look out for any mishaps, diseases, and ill-growth.

I genuinely recommend growing green onions in pots or containers.

Do green onions grow better in water or soil?

Soil.

Green onions grow best in soil.

It’s because the soil is the best traditional medium to grow green onions.

On the other hand, growing green onions in water aren’t easy.

You must know how to add nutrients to water green onions’ growth and development. If you’re a hydroponics expert, I would recommend growing green onions in water. Otherwise, the soil is better.

How many times can you regrow green onions?

Some onions are perennial. That means you can grow them over and over again. If you’re living in USDA hardiness zones 6 to 9, you can regrow green onions again and again.

How long does it take to grow green onions?

Green onions grown through seeds would take approximately four to five months. However, green onions grown through cuttings would take four to five weeks to reach the maturity stage.