Ideas: Growing Green Onions

What are green onions

The green onion (Allium fistulosum) is white, elongated, tube-like onion with long green leaves which have a mild onion flavor. Unlike a standard cooking onion both the long green stalk / leaves and the bulb can be eaten.

Sowing green onion seeds

Start your green onion seeds in a tray of shallow, peat free potting compost, preferably inside or in a green house. The seeds should be lightly covered with soil a fine layer of compost. Germination takes place in 10-14 days.

Transplanting green onion seedlings

After 4-6 weeks transplant the seedling onions into the raised bed, bale bed or garden patch. Seedlings should be planted 1 inch apart with about 10 - 12 inches between rows.

Tips

1. If you buy green onions at the supermarket,  save the white bottom portion, complete with stubby roots. You can plant these in your garden or raised bed and usually they will grow into full, new green onions!

2. If you buy too many green onions or you forget about them at the bottom of the fridge for a couple of weeks, don't thrown your Green Onions away! You can plant them in your raised bed or your garden and they will grow quite happily. This is handy for making excess Green Onions which you would usually throw out last longer; it will also let them grow larger and develop a fuller bulb and a stronger flavour. You can even plant out Green Onions that have begun to look rather sorry for themselves and turned slimy / inedible looking: As long as they haven't completely given up all life they will usually recover very well when planted out.

Recommended planting location

A location with full sun and nice quality, loose, well drained soil should be chosen for planting green onions.

How to care for green onions in the garden

Keep your green onions weed free and water them regularly. Green Onions will rarely have problems with pests or diseases although fungus can make the leaf tips look unsightly; this is cured by simply cutting off the tips before using.

How to harvest green onions

Pull the Green onions out by their tops when they are 6 to 8 inches tall. A good green onion takes about 100 to 120 days to reach a nice size that is good for eating. Harvested green onions can be stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to two weeks if you wish, but it's best to just leave them growing in the garden and harvest 'as needed'.

Saving green onion seeds

Green onions produce beautiful purple globe-like flowers, just like chives do. Seeds follow soon after the flower phase. Make sure that you harvest the seed heads before they "shatter" and dry them in a warm place until they become crunchy and brittle. To obtain the seeds, simply crush the heads in a paper or plastic bag and pick out the little black seeds.

Seeds should be stored in a cool, dry, dark place in a paper bag until ready to use.

Eating green onions

Green onions are delicious when eaten fresh from the ground, without cooking. They are perfect in a salad or with fish or scrambled eggs. They also go well in a cheese sandwich or chopped up finely and sprinkled on a jacket potato.

Green onions are good for you

Green onions are very high in dietary fiber, contain a high amount of vitamin A, and are very high in vitamin C. They aid the circulation, just like their cousin, Garlic and are renowned to be a good immune system booster, helping to stave off illness.

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