Why Buy If You Can Grow Spring Onions at Home

I love to use chopped spring onions (also known as "green onions") as topping for a lot of my home-cooked meals. Not only do they perk up the flavor of ordinary dishes, they also are a perfect garnish for chicken soup, pork stews, noodles, omelets and fried rice. Whenever you buy a whole bunch at the grocery, you typically use only half of it, while the rest would end up wilted and forgotten in the refrigerator.  So why not grow your own endless supply of spring onions so you could harvest them only as needed?

How to Propagate

There are two ways to propagate spring onions. One is through seeds.  The tiny black seeds can be sown directly into the potting mix and they will germinate in about 7-10 days. Another way is through the stalks. When buying from the market store, choose a healthy bundle with some of the roots still intact. Cut and use the upper green part for cooking, leaving about an inch and a half  of root portion. Plant this by burying about an inch of the roots into a well draining soil or potting mix.

Plant Care

Green onions are fairly easy to maintain. They grow well indoors or outdoors in full or partial sun. Make sure they get at least 4 hours of sunlight daily. When growing in containers, use a well draining soil or potting mix.

Watering is needed only to keep the soil moist, but not soggy. During summer, daily watering is needed. Replenish soil nutrients with compost or organic matter at least once a month. Use a nitrogen-rich fertilizer or any organic plant nutrients, like compost, vermicast or processed manure. Coffee grounds also work well because it acts like a slow release fertilizer when buried or mixed with the soil. 

When harvesting, cut the upper green part leaving only about an inch of  the portion close to the roots. They will continue to grow new stalks for future harvests.

Green onions are a good companion plant to most herbs and vegetables since they can repel most pests and are not invasive to other plants. As a companion plant, they are also known to enhance the flavor of their companion plants, like tomatoes and pepper.