What it is
Green Onion (Scallion) (Allium fistulosum) is in the Amaryllidaceae (Amaryllis) family. Cut the green tops and they regrow — one of the most forgiving crops, even on a windowsill.
How to grow it
It wants full sun to part shade, water it even, and give it average soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.0. Space plants about 2 in apart. Expect roughly 60–80. Cool & mild seasons.
How it's used
Green Onion (Scallion) is used: raw, cooked, garnish.
🔎 How to identify it
- Slender hollow green leaves
- No real bulb
- Clumping habit
Edibility
How to grow & propagate green onion (scallion)
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate green onion (scallion)
The onion family is grown three ways: from seed, from little bulbs called sets, or — for garlic and shallots — by breaking apart a bulb and planting the individual cloves. Garlic and perennial onions are the easiest of all: plant a clove in fall, harvest a whole head the next summer, and save your biggest heads to replant. You never have to buy it again.
Growing green onion (scallion) in Texas
Give it full sun to part shade and average soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
Time your planting to our long warm season and watch the frost dates at both ends; the live weather tool on this site is built for exactly that.
In a container it'll dry faster than in the ground, so check the top inch of soil daily in summer; pots on a hot Texas patio can need water every single day.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 60–80 before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: whole plant.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.