Growing Food from Kitchen Scraps: Green Onions

I have recently discovered that you can re-grow food from your kitchen scraps. These include onions, garlic, potatoes, lettuce, celery, green onions, pineapple, and many others. This is a very economical way to get fresh produce, and also a great science experiment! Most of these plants take very little time to grow, and can be reused in as little as a week or two. My favorite plant to regrow is green onions, as they grow so quickly, and you can use them over and over again. To regrow green onions, simply place in water in a well lit area, and overnight, they will begin to grow.

These green onions, as you can see, start with a large amount of roots, and their growth is immediate. I have found that I have to find uses for green onions, or they start to grow everywhere. You can leave them in water, and they will continue to grow, but I have heard that after the third or fourth time of regrowing, they will start to loose some of their flavor due to a nutrient deficiency. I would recommend planting them at some point so that they can grow in soil. You can cut as much or as little as you would like based on your needs, but if you cut more than the top 2/3 of the plant, you risk that plant dying. Water every few days in soil, and I keep mine in direct sunlight, and they have been very happy.

These green onions were planted as scraps, each only about 2 inches long. They grow constantly, and are very tall after a month or so. I use green onions in my cooking weekly, so we are able to maintain some semblance of control over this plant, but as you can see, after two months, the plant begins to look a little unruly. The plant on the left side of the pot is a potato that I have been regrowing from scraps, and I will have a post about that one to follow.

I will go over many of the other plants that you can regrow from kitchen scraps, but since this plant grows so quickly and without fail every time (for me at least!), I would definitely recommend starting your scraps garden with this one!