Did you know that if you cut the roots off of green onions and stick them in a jar the tops will re-grow? Head on over to Creative Family Moments for more details.
Supposedly, you can do this multiple times, saving you having to buy green onions for awhile! We don’t use green onions too often around here, but I’m tempted to buy some and find some uses for them just for the fun of trying out this experiment. 
Has anyone else done this before? I’d love to hear how it worked.
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{ 56 comments }
This is so interesting. I would have never thought to do this. I love green onions so next time I buy them I am going to try it. I bet the kiddos would have fun with this as well.
I love green onions and I’ve been meaning to try this out! I saw the idea on Pinterest
Neat! I planted the bottoms over the summer in soil outside, but this trick is new to me! Very cool!
Does planning the bottoms of green onions in soil work well and do they last without having to replant new?
Mine lasted all summer long! I’d just snip off what I needed and it would keep growing! Since it freezes where I live, we tossed all the plants after the last harvest and/or first freeze. I did read someone else’s comment that stated the onions will grow in cold weather, too, but will need to be covered. We get weeks of freezing temps, so I wouldn’t try it here, but if you’re in warmer climate, I’d give it a shot!
My Memaw leaves her onions in the ground for at lest a year. I don’t know if she covers them though.
I have tried this and it works! They grow QUICK! If you find you have too many and you are not using them, use a clean water bottle or soda bottle, funnel cut up pieces into the bottle and freeze them! Then you can pull them out when you need them
Okay, that is a totally clever idea! Thanks for the tip!
For some reason, this reminds me of the terrible food poisoning outbreak from sprouts in Europe recently. Make sure you wash the onions really well before using.
Water sitting at room temperature for long periods of time can grow more than just onions . . . .
When I do this I change the water frequently and haven’t had any illness problems, but do see that it could happen.
Those sprouts were completely wet to sprout, you aren’t going to have the same problem on your windowsill.
I have heard this works. I have also heard this technique works with pineapple only you use the top part.
I am curious if it works with leeks.
Yes, it works with pineapples but they won’t grow indoors or where it’s cold. We grew ours (south FL) in a planter with some soil after just cutting off the top of the pineapple. It took almost a year to get a small pineapple from the top of the pineapple we had planted so it’s slow going. Maybe if I lived in Hawaii it would work better!
We went to Hawaii on our honey moon a few months ago and were able to make it to the Dole Plantation. We found that even in Hawaii, it takes the plant 1 1/2 years to grow
It is slow going no matter where you live! lol
My mom does the pineapple thing. But it actually takes like 7 years for the plant to mature…or something. So it’s not an abundant harvest.
I’ve just started doing this and in a little over a week have several shoots that are six inches long. So it seems to work as well as everyone says! However, it is a little tricky to keep the roots upright – if they fall over and the whole things are submerged in the water, they won’t sprout. I’m using pebbles and that helps a bit with the tipping problem.
I’ve re-grown green onions before. It works pretty well. The onion tops seem to grow thinner and if kept too long the texture becomes mushy and wet. I’m the only one in my family that likes them so I do this often to extend the times I need to purchase fresh green onions.
I usually put them in one of my flower pots on my porch-this will be good for winter though
I do this all winter because I end up missing watching my garden grow. So for me this is the next best thing.
I do this all the time. They grow just as well stuck directly in the dirt, and either way, they grow FAST. If you let them keep growing and don’t harvest, they get tall with a really interesting bloom at the end.
If you let the bloom grow you will actually have green onion seeds to plant in the spring.
I do this often. They will usually regrow about 3-4 times, and I just keep them as a kitchen windowsill plant and trim some top off when needed!!
I do this with onions that are sprouting. Just put them in a cup with water on the roots, and you can cut onions all through the winter.
are you taking about yellow onions?
Yes, yellow, white, or red onions will work. All onions are biennials. The first year they sprout from seed. If you harvest them early you have “green onions” or scallions. If you wait until the end of the season you have a bulb onion (yellow, white, red). The onion will stay dormant for a while, but eventually they’ll sprout and try to go to seed. If you planted it in the ground, the stalk would grow, get woody, and eventually flower. If you let the flower go it eventually dries and you will find (usually 3 or 6) seeds in each of the tiny flowers that make up the floret. In the second year you get seed, not bulb. Does that make sense?
I’m curious too… you cut the sprouted parts off? Does it grow another onion??
Yes, cut off the sprouted parts and use them like green onions. Eventually the bulb will be dried out and stop producing shoots. Just compost it at that point. Here’s a picture of one I forced:
http://orthodoxfastingrecipes.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/force-sprout-an-onion-for-green-onions/
You can force an onion just like any bulb (tulip, hyacinth, etc)
Here is our family’s favorite recipe using green onion:
Cheese Ball
2 – 8oz Cream Cheese (softened)
1 – Small Jar Dried Beef (chopped) – I usually get the Armour brand 2.25 oz jar.
1 – Small bunch Green Onions (chopped)
1-2 tsp Soy Sauce
Chopped Walnuts
Mix beef, onion, and soy sauce in a bowl. Work in cream cheese until well blended. Refrigerate overnight. Form into a ball and roll in walnuts. Serve with crackers.
**You can chop the beef and onions any size you prefer. I usually run them in the food processor until they are chopped fine. Soy sauce is to taste. This cheese ball makes several appearances around Christmas because of its yummy taste, but also because the red and green specks of the beef and onion in the white cream cheese just looks festive.
I’m going to try this!
I have never done this, but I have a good use for them. I dice them finely and mix them up in a container of cottage cheese. It is yummy by itself or as a low fat dip alternative. You can also mix in other veggies ie broccoli, tomatoes, carrots.
Love this idea!!!
We do use green onions quite a bit in a rice and beans recipe a friend passed on to me.
Cook rice until done
Add black beans and let them heat through with the rice.
Serve topped with:
diced tomatoes, chopped green onions, grated cheese (or other toppings you like).
Mix all ingredients with Italian dressing.
It sounds kinda funny, but we love the mixture of flavors. Almost like a vegetarian taco salad. And good for stretching the food budget!
Thanks for sharing this tip!
I did this a few weeks ago and they grow great and taste delish!!
Note to Jen K. – onions keep in the garden and grow next spring even with very cold northern Minnesota weather. I had onions in my garden that I forgot to harvest in the fall show up in the spring growing!
I live in MN. I did the same thing. I didn’t have time to harvest all of mine. Left them there and they ended up peaking through the last little bit of snow. So I had onions right away in the spring!
During the summer, we stick ours in hanging baskets out on the patio. I just walk out the back door & snip off the tops whenever needed.
I have been doing this for about a year. It works great and is amazing (to me). I do change the water often (every day if you remember) because the water seems to get very bad smelling after a few days.
I plant the bottoms of my green onions and they are the heartiest plants…they’ve survived winter, super hot summer, etc! It’s so fun to go out back and clip off a few shoots to add into any meal and they add some greenery to our garden
http://www.whatilivefor.net/2011/03/green-onions.html
I always planted the roots in the garden, and now I never have to buy green onions anymore
I’ve done it and it does work well, but when you cook with green onions you’re supposed to use the white & light green part, which is the part you need for sprouting. So it kind of defeats its own purpose. I guess if you like to eat the top part it would be worthwhile.
We use green onions all the time in frittatas, salads, fried rice, peanut noodles, etc., so I’d rather spend the dollar and use the part that tastes good.
I was just thinking that this is a really cool idea for some things, but I LOVE the white part too. I’d still have to buy new ones for those recipes.
You can do this with pineapple too. Just put the top in water.
I’m doing this right now actually!! my green onions have already gained 5+ inches in only a week!!!
We’ve done this for a long time! We use a ton of green onions and so it is a nice way to save a little more money. They grow back VERY quickly too! It is a fun thing to try. It was actually one of our Daily Dose of Thrifty tips a while back here: http://thethriftycouple.com/2010/09/07/daily-dose-of-thrifty-the-ever-growing-green-onion/
wow, what a great tip! I use green onions alot, so this will save me quite a bit of money. thanks!
My daughter did this and it worked wonderfully. I recently saw where you can do this with pineapple. Has anyone tried doing it with fresh pineapple?
Hey Kim,
It’s possible! If you’re interested you can read more in Bob Flowerdew’s “No Work Garden.” Unfortunately, it’s too much work to be worth it, but Bob says to try it if you’re interested.
Works perfectly the first time, but each time you cut it back the new growth is less. Still, we get at least double and often triple use out of every scallion we buy.
Same results with mine.
I love getting more use for the same amount of spent money.
We haven’t bought green onions in about 3 years now. We planted the white rooty ends we got back then in a pot outside the kitchen door. They’ve grown huge (some are two feet long!). We just cut what we need when we need them, and they regrow. The older ones aren’t as tender, but if you use scissors to cut them up into tiny bits they work fine. The younger smaller leaves are best for salads and such. They make pretty white flowers in the spring/summer too just like a regular onion or a garlic plant.
I just stuck them out in the garden. They never formed bulbs, but we had great scallions.
I started growing mine a few weeks back. We used some over thanksgiving and again tonight in our Asian Chicken Salad! You can do this with basil too.
We do this all the time. They grow very quickly and require little to no growing room. Pineapples take a long long time to grow and quite a bit of room. They shoot a rod out of the top of the plant and grow another pineapple. The kids think it’s really cool, though.
I have a clump of chives growing in the ground outside my back door. I can pretty much get a hand ful of ‘green onions’ year round (I live in MO). I’d like to try the green onions thing though too! It sounds like fun!
I’ve been doing this for a while on the windowsill over my kitchen sink. They are delicious flavoring in stir fries, Mexican dishes, etc.
I used to do this before but it doesn’t last very long in a container of water, at least not in my experience.
We would “regrow” our green onions and then harvest a bit of it for any of our cooking, mainly a non-fried “fried rice” and then replant it outside.
My mom loves doing this and is always making herself a little green onion garden in my kitchen when she comes to visit.
I am SO excited about this. I LOVE green onions, but hate buying them and having them go bad after a few days. This is a perfect solution! We’ve been doing it the past few days and it works great! THANK YOU for posting this!