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Green Onion
The fastest, easiest allium: slim, mild onions harvested young for their green tops and tender white base - a quick succession crop you can grow almost year-round.
Safety notes Safe for people; the whole plant (green tops and white base) is edible. Like all alliums, toxic to dogs and cats in quantity.
Overview
Green onions - scallions, spring onions, bunching onions, whatever you call them - are the allium for the impatient. There's no bulb to wait months for and no day-length puzzle to solve: you sow seed, harvest the slim young plants in about two months, and eat the whole thing, hollow green tops and tender white base alike. They're the natural gateway allium and one of the easiest crops in the garden.
The one thing to knowSow a short row every few weeks and you'll never run out; grow them in a pot on a windowsill; even regrow them from the cut-off root ends of a store bunch.
Quick facts
- Sprouts in
- 10 daysRange: 7–14 days
- Soil temperature
- 68 °FRange: 50–85 °F
- Start indoors
- 8 weeks before transplantRange: 6–10 weeks
- Height
- 14 inRange: 10–20 in
- Spread
- 2 inRange: 1–4 in
- Cold
- Takes hard frostdamaged below 10°F
- Heat
- Struggles above 90°F
- Life cycle
- Grown as an annualBotanically a perennial
- Save seeds
- About 360 days after plantingRange: 300–420 days
- Soil
- Well-drained
- Water
- Medium
- Plant spacing
- 2 inRange: 1–4 in
When to plant
Nothing is open today. Spring sowing opens 5 months, Mar 6 to May 15.
- Direct sow Mar 6 – May 15 Opens in 138 daysAbout 5 weeks before to 5 weeks after your last frost (Apr 10 here)Spring and fall are the productive windows; summer heat makes scallions sharp and bolt-prone.
Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.
Life stages
From the first start to harvest
Follow the growing sequence. Choose a stage to see its care and signs to watch for.
Stage 1 of 4 · The growing sequence
Germination
Day 0 to 10 from sowing
Care at this stage
-
Keep the seedbed evenly moist
Sow seed 1/4-1/2 inch deep in a band or dense row. Keep the surface damp; allium seed is slow and needs fresh seed to sprout well.
-
Expect looping grassy sprouts
Seedlings emerge as a single looped thread, then straighten. Cool soil is fine - scallions germinate down to about 50°F.
Stages can overlap; weather, variety, and growing conditions change the pace.
Harvest
- Stems pencil-thick or larger with 8+ inches of green top
- Firm, upright, and glossy - harvest before any flower bud forms
- Any size works; younger is milder and more tender
- Pull whole plants at pencil size or larger
- Or cut-and-come-again the tops · every 3 weeks
Per plant 1 to 3 green onionsPicking cut and it regrows
Cook with Green Onion
Watch out for
4 to know. None are high-risk for Green Onion. 1 is active in October.
Onion MaggotSeverity Medium PestSeason: Apr–JunIndividual plants yellowing and wilting while their neighbors look fine, and - on pulling one - small white maggots with brown, slimy rot in the bulb base, shank or stem.
Green onions' dense rows help the maggot move from plant to plant, which is the main risk here. Fast succession crops often outrun the problem entirely.
Individual plants yellowing and wilting while their neighbors look fine, and - on pulling one - small white maggots with brown, slimy rot in the bulb base, shank or stem.
There is no rescue for a maggot-riddled bulb. Pull and destroy infested plants rather than composting them, and never save affected bulbs for replanting. Beneficial nematodes drenched into the soil help suppress the larvae in a bed you have to keep using.
Rotate alliums yearly, cover the crop with row fabric through the fly's spring egg-laying window, space plants out rather than growing them in dense rows, and never plant into fresh manure, which draws the flies in.
The larvae of a small gray fly - the onion fly is the same insect - that lays its eggs at the base of allium plants. The white maggots tunnel into the bulb, shank or stem base, and the damage they leave opens the door to soft rot, so the plant yellows, wilts and collapses into a mush. It is worst in cool, wet springs, in unrotated allium beds, and in dense rows where the maggots can work from one plant to the next.
ThripsSeverity Medium PestSeason: Jun–AugSilvery-white streaks and fine speckling on leaves and petals, brown discolored patches, distorted buds and blooms that fail to open properly, and tiny sliver-like insects that drop out when you shake foliage or a flower over a sheet of white paper.
Green onion leaves are the crop, so the silvery scarring is exactly what you eat and it shows readily. Harvesting young usually beats the buildup.
Silvery-white streaks and fine speckling on leaves and petals, brown discolored patches, distorted buds and blooms that fail to open properly, and tiny sliver-like insects that drop out when you shake foliage or a flower over a sheet of white paper. Worst in hot, dry spells and on drought-stressed plants.
A strong water spray dislodges light infestations, and on a plant that can take it a hard shear and clean regrowth clears them outright. For heavier pressure use insecticidal soap, neem or spinosad, aimed down into the leaf sheaths and buds where thrips actually shelter, and repeat at intervals since eggs and pupae escape a single spray. Spinosad is a registered insecticide: use only a product labeled for the crop you are treating, follow the label exactly, and observe its pre-harvest interval.
Scout early, before the damage reaches the part of the plant you care about. Start with clean planting stock, keep plants well watered since drought-stressed plants suffer worst, avoid heavy nitrogen, clear weedy hosts nearby, and hang blue or yellow sticky traps to catch the first arrivals. Reflective mulch deters them, and predatory mites, lacewings and minute pirate bugs do real work outdoors.
Tiny slender sap-sucking insects that rasp at leaves, buds and petals and drink what runs out, leaving silvery-white streaking and fine flecking, brown scorched patches, and new growth that comes out twisted or fails to open. They breed fast in hot, dry weather, shelter deep in leaf sheaths, folds and unopened buds where sprays struggle to reach, and several species also transmit plant viruses - which is often more damaging than the feeding itself.
Downy Mildew (Onion)Severity Low DiseasenowSeason: Apr, May, Sep, OctPale yellow-green oval patches on leaves with a downy gray-purple fuzz in humid mornings; leaves yellowing and dying back from the tips.
Pale yellow-green oval patches on leaves with a downy gray-purple fuzz in humid mornings; leaves yellowing and dying back from the tips.
Remove affected leaves, improve airflow, and apply copper protectively in a wet season. Harvest and cure carefully - infected necks invite storage rot.
Space for airflow, water at the base in the morning, rotate alliums, avoid low wet spots, and grow resistant varieties (Red Wing) where it recurs.
A cool, damp-weather disease (Peronospora destructor) that produces pale patches and fuzzy gray-violet growth on onion leaves, collapsing them and shrinking bulbs; also causes purple blotch to follow in the dead tissue.
Rust (Allium)Severity Low DiseaseSeason: May–AugOrange-red raised dots and streaks on the leaf blades, worst in humid spells and on crowded, poorly spaced or congested plantings.
Green onions are grown for exactly the leaves rust ruins, so even moderate infection makes the crop unappetizing. Harvest an affected planting promptly - the fast crop is usually usable before rust takes hold - and start the next succession in a cleaner spot.
Orange-red raised dots and streaks on the leaf blades, worst in humid spells and on crowded, poorly spaced or congested plantings.
Strip or shear off the worst-affected leaves early and let clean growth come back, improving airflow at the same time. A bulb crop usually still matures, so harvest on schedule rather than writing it off - rust rarely reaches the bulb itself.
Give wide spacing and full sun so the leaves dry quickly, avoid overhead watering and excess nitrogen, divide congested perennial clumps, and rotate alliums on a three-year cycle. Rust-tolerant varieties are available in some allium crops.
A fungal disease that raises bright orange pustules on allium leaves. The pustules destroy green tissue, and since those leaves are what feed the bulb, a heavy infection shrinks the crop or weakens the clump. It builds in humid weather, in crowded plantings and in high-nitrogen soil, and it rarely reaches the bulb itself.
Good & bad neighbors
Plant nearby
-
The classic allium-carrot pairing: onion scent is credited with masking carrots from the carrot rust fly. Different growth habits, no competition.
-
Fast scallions tuck between lettuces, sharing the bed; the allium scent may deter aphids from tender greens.
- Traditional pairings, thin evidence
-
Beets and green onions grow well side by side with different needs and root depths - a good bed-mate for tight spaces.
-
Alliums are traditionally credited with helping deter cabbage moths from brassica beds.
-
Often interplanted; the allium scent is credited with discouraging some strawberry pests.
Varieties · 6
You pick one when you add Green Onion to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.
Evergreen (White Bunching)
The classic hardy bunching onion: clumps of slim, all-white-based stems that never bulb, tolerate cold well, and can be divided or overwintered.
Variety details for Evergreen (White Bunching)
Upright clumps of slender stems with long white bases and dark-green tops.
bunchingcold-hardynon-bulbingheirloomThe dependable garden standard.
Tokyo Long White
A Japanese bunching type prized for extra-long, thick white shanks and good heat tolerance; excellent for hilling to blanch long white stems.
Variety details for Tokyo Long White
Long, thick single stems with a very long white shank.
bunchinglong-whiteheat-tolerantnon-bulbingA favorite for stir-fries and grilling.
Deep Purple
A striking scallion with deep reddish-purple bases that hold their color; as easy as green types but adds color to the plate and the garden.
Variety details for Deep Purple
Slim stems with vivid purple-red lower shanks and green tops.
bunchingpurpleornamentalnon-bulbingMilder and pretty raw.
Nabechan
A fast, tender Japanese bunching onion with a sweet, mild flavor and refined thin stems; quick to harvest and excellent raw.
Variety details for Nabechan
Uniform slim stems with bright green tops and clean white bases.
bunchingearlytendernon-bulbingA modern favorite for baby scallions.
White Lisbon
The traditional fast 'spring onion': quick, mild, and reliable from early sowings, with crisp white bases.
Variety details for White Lisbon
Slender stems with clean white bases and mild flavor.
spring-onionfastcold-hardyheirloomA classic for succession sowing and overwintering in mild zones.
Red Beard
A vigorous bunching onion with attractive red-blushed bases and a mild, sweet flavor; adaptable across seasons and a colorful alternative to plain green scallions.
Variety details for Red Beard
Slim stems flushed pinkish-red at the base with green tops.
bunchingrednon-bulbingornamental
Grower tips
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