Infinite scallion

[scaravich]

Has anyone ever heard of this? I recently saw it online somewhere and tried it out.

Essentially, you can have infinite scallions/green onions quite easily.

Just buy a bunch, take the whole thing, and put it in a cup or jar of water (root end in the water of course). Put it in a very sunny place. Windowsill works, just make sure it gets plenty of sun!!

They will grow a LOT every day. Like sometimes inches!! Then you can just trim them with a scissors whenever you want to use them in cooking or for herb. Make sure you change out the water every couple days.

I mean, of course it makes sense... but normally you just go buy new green onions every time you need them... and let them either be eaten all up, or die in the fridge or something. You never think of doing something so simple. At least, I didn't. Since they're inside, they can last through winter since they won't get exposed to frost (considering your house doesn't get frost on the inside...)

But they will just grow forever. So you just have to buy them once and never again. Plus it's so much more fun to clip off what you need from your never-ending supply.

My love and I have been doing this for a few weeks now... very fun. He says perhaps they will start to lose their taste after a while because they might not get all the nutrients they need from just a jar of water. So we might move them to a jar or tin can of soil and change out the soil sometimes. But we'll just let them stay like this for a while longer. The roots start to grow a lot, too. So I feel like they're wanting to expand. I don't know how scallions reproduce, but it might be interesting to try planting them outside and see if I can grow more. But since it's going to be getting cold soon, I don't think now would be a good time.

We're noob gardeners so this was pretty surprising how easy it was. I mean, we've both grown vegetables and herbs before but this was literally take something from the grocery and put it in a cup.

I guess if you use soil you can do celery and leek and other things this way, too.

[Lillady]

Yes I have seen and done this its a glorious thing and it works!

Green onions grow fast, and all they need is a little water and a lot of light. With very little effort, you can have a steady supply of green onions, grown right in your kitchen! They add an extra kick to almost any dish, so they’re great to have on hand (especially when they’re free!)

The next time you pick up a bunch or two of green onions at the grocery store, don’t discard the white ends after you’ve used up all the greens. Instead, stick the white root end into a glass with an inch or two of water then place it in a sunny window. Make sure to trim most of the green end off before you place it in the water, or they’ll just get droopy!

Within a day or two, you’ll notice the green shoots starting to regrow, and the roots in the water getting longer. In less than a week, they’ll be back to their original size, and you can just trim off as much as you need, whenever you need it. Not only is this a useful little “kitchen garden,” it also makes a pretty little plant to sit on your windowsill. The best part, though, is knowing you’ll never have to buy green onions again!

[Xiao Rong]

Hehe, "Infinite Scallion" sounds like a great band title ; )

Anyways, yeah, I do this all the time. Although I generally can't get them to last longer than a month and a half - the roots start getting smelly and each time they grow back, they're smaller and less flavorful ... I do recoup a lot of the cost of the scallions but after the shoots are so droopy and sad-looking that I toss them out ... Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

My mom tells me when she was growing up in China (where they use scallions all the time, of course), they kept a bunch of them in a planter with soil, and each night they'd snip off the parts they wanted.

[Firebird]

Scaravich! ...my scallions look like >BLEEP!< What am I doing wrong?
I'm going to by another bundle and try again. The outside leaves (shoots?) were getting all brown, and I cleaned em up so many times there was practically nothing left Maybe that's just the natural course of the thing?
FF