A super simple How-To for growing spring onions at home from food scraps, to re-use numerous times! Two methods that can both be done indoors, with little space and mess and no onion seeds necessary!
Clean Scissors - to harvest the onions, when ready
Ingredients
a few spring onion bulbs/heads
water
Tray/ Potbetter with draining holes, but not necessary
Potting Soil
Instructions
To re-grow spring onions, first, you'll need some existing ones that you've bought. If you're wondering how to cut spring onions, then I like to go with the 1-inch rule. Simply cut above the white area of the onion, which is around 1 inch from the bulb/roots.
How to Grow Spring Onions with Soil:
Fill your container of choice with potting soil. Ideally, you'd want a container with holes so that that excess water can escape. However, if you're using any other type of container, then make sure now to overwater them ( a sprits bottle could be good!) or get rid of the excess water by draining it, if necessary. The soil needs to be about an inch deep in your container.
Plant the white bulbs halfway in the soil and evenly spaced in your container.
Water regularly but make sure not to overwater as this can ruin the growth and cause mould issues. The onions will start growing within a few days.
Enjoy fresh onions as soon as they've grown a few inches tall - cut above the white part.*
If using the entire harvest of leaves, then keep watering and wait for a second harvest.
Harvest 2-3 times. Then you can use the bulbs as well, discard the roots and start again with new ready-grown spring onions. **
Method 2: How to Regrow Spring Onions with Just Water:
This is a method that can get spring onion regrowth quickly. The water will help the roots grow fast, because of all the moisture. However, the onion won't be getting any new nutrients like soil planted version would and so will thin out quicker and won't last as long, overall.
Cut the onions 1 inch above the root and place in a tall glass with a few inches of water. Change the water daily and keep the glass in a well-lit area. As I said above, the leaves will grow quickly and can be snipped off as needed.
Just like with the soil-grown onions, cutting individual outer leaves near to where it meets the bulb is better for the plant that snipping right from the top. This way new leaves will grow in the centre and It's also better for reducing germs/pests etc. from entering the plant.
And it really is as simple as that. Depending on how long you're wanting to keep the plant going then you can decide which method you prefer.
Video
Notes
* I read a somewhere about picking the outer leaves of the spring onion only and that way new ones will continue to grow in the centre, thickening up the base, and your plant will last even longer.
Spring onions will also grow edible flowers. However, I've never left mine long enough to find out if this is the case with onion regrowth. If I try it anytime soon, I'll update my blog post ( let me know in the comments if you have n answer).
** Alternatively, if you snip small sections of the plant off ( and never more than half), then the onion should have enough plant left to regrow repeatedly and will last a lot longer.
You can grow different types of onions (not just spring ones), but they grow at varying speeds. Just plant the onion bulbs halfway in the soil as you did with the spring onions and water often.