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I love being scrappy! Did you know that it is so easy to use kitchen scraps, such as the leftover white bulbs of your green onions, to grow more food right in your very own kitchen? Below you will find instructions on how to grow green onions indoors!
I’m quite obsessed with having plant things all over the house. I love everything about plants: their aesthetic, unique looks, colors and shades, and their health benefits, just to name a few! Though I used to have a hardcore black thumb, seriously I killed every plant I owned, I find that I am getting better and better at keeping my plant babies alive. Lord knows how I’ve been able to keep my actual human kids alive and healthy. Ha ha! All kidding aside, plants make me feel like my home has life to it. I guess if you think about it, it quite literally does. So, where do green onions come into play here?
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One of our daughters got us the cutest plant propagation kit from Amazon as a Christmas present last year. I read somewhere a while ago that you can easily grow green onions in water, so I thought, why not give it a try using these cute glass jars? I love using plants as décor accents in our home, and green onion plants are a decor accent in and of themselves! So heck, that is just another excuse to add more green to my home!
And look at these babies grow!
Here is how growing green onions indoors works.
It is actually quite easy! I bought a handful of organic green onions from the grocery store, cut off the green, and chopped them up to use in a few recipes (of course, if you already have your own green onions, no need to run to the store!). What remained was the white part that I carefully placed roots facing down into each glass jar. I added a touch of fresh water in each jar, just enough to cover the roots, no need to overfill. Green onions (spring onions also work for this) have shallow root systems making them easy to grow, yet require moisture. I placed the propagation system by a sunny window that gets hours of sunlight. Green onions do their best in full sun, so I made sure they were in a light and bright sunny spot! Green onions also require good drainage, so I kept the water refreshed by changing the jar of water every other day. Within a couple of days, new green onions started shooting up! They grow so fast! You may be thinking, come on… does it actually work? You betcha it does! Our house now always has fresh green onions. One thing to note, water doesn’t provide enough nutrients that they need to have continuous harvests, and I think this is reflected in their flavor. My green onions that grow in water tend to have a more subtle, mild flavor, but still absolutely delicious! The jars look so cute sitting in the sunshine on the counter too. Décor and food? Sounds like a match made in heaven to me!
A great thing about easily growing green onions in my home is that it is fascinating for children! Just think of how educational and fun this project will be for your kids to take on! They can do the water replacement every other day, and they will be amazed at seeing the green tops coming up and growing each day without having to wait a long time!
Do you need a propagation system to grow green onions indoors?
If you don’t have a propagation system like the ones I linked above or below, no worries! The good news is that you can literally grow green onions in just a glass of water. Just place the white bulb of the onion root end down into the cup of water, it doesn’t take much for the roots to get enough water, a little bit goes a long way, so don’t overfill. You want them to stand on their own. Refresh the water every other day for the best results and watch them grow! What I love about growing green onions indoors is there really is no best time to grow them, at least in my home! I don’t have to wait until early spring, they grow as long as I refresh the water and place them by a bright window. If you find that you don’t have a good window with plenty of sun, you can even opt for a fluorescent plant light. Once the green part gets to a certain point, I cut the green off and chop it up to use in a delicious recipe!
Each white bud can grow up to 5 crops, after cutting off the green. So keep refreshing the water every other day with the same white bulb and you’ll see new growth. I haven’t personally gotten 5 crops on average, but it is possible! You’ll eventually have to buy more from the grocery store to get a fresh root system going again. But if you want a steady supply of green onions, which if you’re anything like me, you use them a lot in your recipes, you can pretty easily plant the root cuttings into a garden bed with soil to grow endlessly.
Check out this post for details on the best method of doing so and the perfect growing season.
Shop my favorite propagation systems!
Conclusion
So, now that you know how simple it is? Are you going to try green onion propagating?
Just think of the endless possibilities of plant, herb, and food propagation!
