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How to Grow Scallions • From Seed to Harvest
Have you ever grown scallions, also called green onions and bunching onions? This is one of the fastest, easiest and most productive vegetables you can grow and today I'm going to show you exactly how to grow scallions in your garden.
The two varieties I'm growing are Deep Purple and Evergreen Hardy White. Deep Purple is especially eye-catching with a rich reddish purple stem while Evergreen Hardy White is famous for its cold hardiness and long white stalks. Both are excellent choices for home gardeners.
Planting
Let's start with planting. You can grow scallions by direct seeding outdoors or starting transplants indoors.
Direct Seeding
For direct seeding, sow the seeds as soon as the soil can be worked in spring. Plant them about a quarter to a half inch deep in bands that are 2 to 3 inches wide. You can sow the seeds fairly dense because scallions don't need much room.
I like to water the row before sowing, sprinkle the seeds evenly and then lightly cover them with soil. I keep the bed consistently moist until germination which usually takes about a week or two depending on the soil temperatures.
Transplanting
If you want an earlier harvest or thicker scallions, try transplanting. Start seeds indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost date. Sow several seeds per cell, around 6 to 8 seeds, works well. This is because scallions actually grow beautifully in clusters.
Once the seedlings are about a quarter inch thick, transplant them into the garden facing the clusters about 6 to 8 inches apart. You can plant them deeply to encourage extra long stalks.
Plant Care
Now let's talk care. Scallions grow best in a site that offers full sun. That's 6 to 8 hours of direct light every day as well as fertile, well draining soil. These are shallow rooted plants and need a consistent supply of moisture so don't let the plants dry out for an extended period of time.
One of my favorite tricks for growing long, tender stems is hilling. As the plants grow, gently mound soil around the lower stem every couple of weeks. This blanches the stalks and gives you more of that tender portion that we all love.
The scallion on the left was blanched by hilling up soil. The cluster on the right wasn't blanched and as you can see, the white parts of the stalks aren't as long.
Harvest
Harvesting is simple. You can start pulling scallions once they reach a usable size, usually about 60 to 65 days from seeding, depending on the variety. Loosen the soil gently with the trowel or other garden tool and pull up whole plants, clusters or harvest every other one to give the remaining plants more room to size up.
Evergreen Hardy White is especially cold tolerant and can even overwinter in many gardens as long as there is good drainage. And Deep Purple, besides the gorgeous color, it also handles cool weather really well and adds amazing contrast in the garden and kitchen.
And the best part, because they are so quick and easy to grow, you can succession plant scallions every couple of weeks for a non-stop supply of these tender greens.
Happy growing!