These days, most of us want to make the most of our grocery dollars — and our trips to the grocery store. We want to stretch our food purchases as far as we can. One way to do that is to regrow green onions bought from the grocery store.
Even if you don’t have a green thumb, it’s easy to regrow store-bought green onions. After you have used the green onions and cut them down to the point where just the root and a little of the onion stem are left, simply plant each onion stem with the roots facing down in your garden or in a pot. Depending on how much stem you have left, you can completely bury the stem or leave a bit of it showing above the soil. I usually regrow my green onions in a pot because it prevents them from potentially spreading in my yard.
You don’t need a large container for green onions either. A medium-sized pot, around 8 to 12 inches wide, is plenty of space. Fill the pot with some quality garden soil if you can, but green onions are forgiving and will grow in just about any kind of soil. They are vigorous enough that they sometimes even sprout and send out new shoots in my compost bin, so they’re pretty difficult to kill even if you have the worst black thumb.
Green onions regrow quickly outdoors in warm spring and summer weather. When you want some green onions for a recipe, simply cut off the amount you need, rinse them clean under the kitchen faucet, and enjoy. The green onions will continue to grow in your pot as long as the weather is good. If you don’t cut the green onions and allow them to grow indefinitely through the season, they may even develop flowers at their tips.
I usually pull them out of the pot and compost them in the fall at the end of the growing season, but last fall I left the green onions in their pot on my porch. They turned brown and dried up, but come spring this year, they sprouted again. I cleared the brown, dead onions to make way to the new sprouts, and now I once again have fresh green onions to use in tacos, fajitas, Mexican-themed casseroles, seafood dishes, and more. Because green onions eventually get mushy when stored in the refrigerator, I appreciate having a ready supply of them growing fresh in my garden.
So the next time you pick up some green onions from the store, don’t throw away those roots. Plant them so you’ll have fresh green onions at home all spring and summer.
