How to Regrow Green Onions from the Fridge
Regrowing green onions from fridge scraps will save you $1.99 a month! That’s $23.88 a year. Whoo Hoo!!!
Okay, this might not make you rich and it won’t change your life, but it’s something you should try just for fun. It is truly amazing how quickly your green onions will regrow their green tops with just water and a bit of sunlight.
There are many other kitchen scraps you can regrow or seeds you can start, but none are as quick and practical as green onions. Within days, you’ll see results and within weeks you can use your regrown onions – that apple seed or avocado seed is going to take a lot longer! Two other scraps I like growing are celery and romaine.
Also Try: Regrowing Romaine, Regrowing Celery, How to Dehydrate Green Onions
Eat and enjoy the top parts of the green onions in whatever recipe you’d like (eg. Our Favorite Veggie Dip, Hamburger Soup, Thai Red Curry).
Step by Step – How to Regrow Green Onions
- Start with a regular bunch of store bought green onions – organic or not – your choice.
2. Cut the onions so there is about one inch of white root end remaining. Place the root ends, root side down in a small glass (shot glasses work well). Fill with water.
3. Place on a sunny window ledge and replace water ever 2 to 3 days.
4. Enjoy watching how quickly those greens will start to regrow (here’s Day 6).
5. Once they’re 2-3 inches long, you can cut the greens as you need them and keep the roots in the water. They will continue to regrow.
6. Over time, you’ll want to clean up your green onions. Trim the roots and remove any dead layers on the outside of the onions.
How to Plant Your Green Onions
If you’d like to give your green onions a more permanent home and have them last even longer, transfer them to a small pot filled with potting soil. This gives the green onions some nutrients and will make them stronger. If the weather is consistently above freezing, you can even transplant them into your garden.
I often start them in water, but because green onions come with roots in tact, you can actually plant them directly in the soil when you get them from the store. That’s what I did with this pot.
How cool is that?!
I’ve done this several times and am always delighted with the results. I’ve also done celery and romaine lettuce. Have a look.
How to Regrow Romaine Lettuce from the Stem
Will you try regrowing green onions? Let me know if you do and how it works out for you.
Getty Stewart is an engaging speaker and writer providing tasty recipes, time-saving tips, and helpful kitchen ideas to make home cooking easy and enjoyable. She is a Professional Home Economist, author of Manitoba’s best-selling Prairie Fruit Cookbook, Founder of Fruit Share, mom and veggie gardener.
I’m a little confused here – so we’re cutting off and replanting the part with the most flavor – doesn’t that defeat the purpose? I do cut up the whole onion when making stir fry, but the bottom 1 inch is the best part so I don’t think I’ll be wanting to sacrifice that!
You love the white part – I love the green part! I can see why this wouldn’t be a great technique if you love the bottom part. I use the greens as a finishing touch on sooo many recipes, I want to have as many greens as I can, but you’re right – definitely more onion flavour in the white part.
Hi. I notice in the last picture that the tips. Of the leaves are browning. Is that normal? The same thing is happening to my onions…
I have had browning on some celery and romaine but never on my onions. If browning starts, I’ve discovered that things just go down hill from there, go ahead and eat the non brown bits before it gets worse then try again with the next leftovers you have. I suspect it’s lack of nutrients that causes the browning, this process certainly does not provide optimal growing conditions for any of these plants. Since we’re using scraps that would have gone in the compost, it’s not a huge loss if things don’t go well, but a pleasant bonus when they do!
Thanks! This is amazing and thank you for sharing! I’ll defo be giving this a go. Can you plant, cut and continue to regrow and regrow? 🙂
Hi Rachel,
Yes, I have planted several batches of green onions outside and continuously harvest them all season long. I’m saving $.99/month!! Whoo Hoo! Okay, it’s not really about saving mega cash – it’s just super fun!