Along the same lines as my last post on survival tips (how to start a fire), I started researching how to grow your own food and things like that. I randomly looked up “how to grow green onions” and found out just how easy it actually is!

When you go to a grocery store, you’ll find that green onions/scallions are normally sold with the root end included (the white end with roots coming out of it). The quick summary is, you can use the ends of the green onions you buy to create an endless supply of green onions. There’s no need to buy seeds to plant or things like that, which is what enticed me in the first place. All you do is cut the ends of the green onion where the roots extend out (the white part of the green onion stalks). And then you place these roots in water, keep them under sunlight, and watch them grow. That’s it!

You don’t even need to plant them in soil if you don’t want to. A simple water cup is all that’s necessary.

Essentially if you buy one bunch of green onions, you can keep regrowing and regrowing them. Cause once it’s fully grown you can cut off the green parts and let it grow back out again. Though green onions don’t cost much at all (under $1 per bunch), growing them in your own home or backyard makes things all the more convenient so that you don’t have to drive back out to purchase new ones.

How to Grow Green Onions

The First Experiment

So this was my first experiment. As you can see, all you need is a cup and a bit of water. I also tried to use small rocks to keep the green onions standing upwards.

This actually ended up failing pretty badly. I put too much water in the cup and the roots were too short so they wouldn’t stay in place. The water started smelling and bubbling a lot, and the roots did not stand straight upwards. I dumped this out knowing I had done it incorrectly.

The Second Experiment

I tried one more time. This time I purchased green onions from a local farmer’s market instead of a supermarket (not sure if this made a huge difference or not). And then I cut the stalks so that the stems were longer, with more of the green on the stalks showing. I placed them meticulously between the small pebbles. By doing this I was able to stand the scallions upright.

After 2 days it looked like this: 

We kept this water cup in our living room near a window so that the sun would shine on them. My dad and I would add a little bit of water to the cup each day.

After 9 days it looked like this:

And after 12 days it looked like this (pretty much the same):

We cut off the stalks

As you can see, in a matter of 9 days or so, the green onions are already good to go! We cut off the green parts of the stalks and they were ready for cooking. My mom is going to use these scallions for her next dish!

All of this is so easy. If you want a longer lifespan from these plants, you may want to consider planting them in soil. And if you do decide to plant these scallions in soil, you can fill a pot half full with moist soil and arrange onion plants 2 inches apart, with the roots inside the soil. Pack the soil around the bulbs until just the green is peeking out. Water and place near a sunny window (and make sure it received 6-7 hours of light a day). By planting these green onions in soil, they will last longer, most likely year round.

The next time you’re solo traveling perhaps on a month-to-month basis, you may consider visiting a local farmer’s market and picking up some scallions, and trying out this easy-to-do experiment after you’ve cut off the green parts you need. To me it’s kind of exciting to grow your own food, especially cause I had never done it before! As always, let me know if you have any questions or feedback in the comments!