How to Grow Green Onions in Water from Your Food Waste

If you’ve forayed into so-called “PlantTok” before, you’ve probably seen tips and tricks on everything from how to propagate a plant to natural insecticides. One of the latest gardening trends making waves on and offline right now, though, doesn’t require a garden at all: learning how to grow green onions in water from your food scraps.

Regrowing veggies from food scraps is fun, free, and a great way to reduce waste. From celery to romaine lettuce, you can pop these food scraps in a cup of water and cultivate a vegetable patch right in your windowsill. And that goes for green onions, too.

Green onions—aka scallions—are one of the most versatile and easy-to-use vegetables around. Because of their mild onion flavor, they're a staple in a wide variety of cuisines and dishes. Just dice them up and add them to dips, stir-fries, and more.

So, how can you get started? Angel Wong—the chef, blogger, and YouTuber behind Angel Wong’s Kitchen—shared her simple steps for how to grow green onions in water in a YouTube video. 

"You use your green onions like you normally would, and when you come to the end, you'll see that there's this white root," she says. "Normally, you would toss this portion of the root out. But in this case, you want to save it."

When you're ready to learn how to grow green onions in water, here's how Wong says to go about it, step by step.

How to Grow Green Onions in Water

1. Chop about three inches from the bulb end of your green onion stalk, leaving the white roots that sprout from the bottom attached. 
2. Put the green onion base, roots down, in a glass or small jar filled with about one inch of water. The roots should be submerged.
3. Place in a well-lit spot, like a windowsill, where it'll get a lot of sunlight. 
4. Keep the roots moist, and change the water frequently. Wong recommends every other day for maximum freshness.
5. Watch them grow! In under a week, you can get 2 to 3 inches of new growth—the perfect amount for a finishing topper to a dish. Of course, the longer you wait, the more regrowth you’ll get.

By following these simple instructions, you'll have a steady supply of green onions for months!