Whether you mostly eat takeaway and warm up frozen dinner party or are a dedicated home chef , the harvest home time of year for homegrown scallions is a jubilant time .
They ’re so handy for chopping to disperse over a wintry dinner party entree or even canned soup , or to jactitate in with taco toppings or a unripe salad .
Or you may habituate them as the base for homemade spring onion pancakes , yummy pesto and fuss - tyke , or elaborated , sophisticated soups .
Before they reach the kitchen counter , though , you ’ll need to harvest them . There ’s a bit of a knack to the process , but nothing sturdy !
Mostly , you ’ll need to time the harvest for peak savour , and then use the good methods for picking scallion at various stages , including reap the eatable prime .
I ’ll share a few unequalled traits that distinguish them from unfledged bulbing onion plant at harvesting clip , and tell you how and when to piece or pull these standouts .
Here ’s what to expect :
What You’ll Learn
Unique Scallion Traits
foot as Microgreens
Clip Greens to expend Like schnittlaugh
Pull Bunching Onions
Harvest Scallion Blossoms
There ’s often a bit of mix-up when vegetable nurseryman bring up to scallion .
Many kinfolk call any onion that ’s harvested dark-green in the springtime a “ Allium porrum . ”
But because we ’re talking about harvest , we ’re go to distinguish between true Allium porrum , Allium fistulosum , and other Allium cepa that are referred to by the same common name but have a different emergence habit .
Scallions do n’t shape bulbs as they grow to full size of it , and are also acknowledge as “ bunching ” or Welsh onion plant .
And while you’re able to mature them as annuals and harvest them that fountain , the plants are perennials . They ’ll spread and amount back year after year if you do n’t draw up the whole plant at crop fourth dimension .
In contrast , spring onions areA. cepavarieties harvest at an immature stage . To add to the confusion , many folks also refer to spring onions as scallion . But these miscellanea will form fat bulbs if leave to mature , which often takes 100 or more day .
SomeA. cepavarieties are picked while they are unfledged for immediate use , while others are dry and cured for memory board .
Scallions , on the other hand , do n’t last long in storage , perhaps a few solar day in the fridge . And they suppurate more quickly than storage onions , ordinarily within 50 to 70 years of sowing , depending on the variety .
Now that we ’re all clean on which type of genus Allium we ’re dealing with , let ’s get to the good part : Harvesting these onions at their peak of look .
Scallions are popular to maturate as microgreens , sow in thick on the control surface of a growing culture medium , and harvested when they ’re just two or three inches marvellous .
They ’ll take about 15 to 22 Clarence Day to get marvellous enough to pick . Because the unripened stalks grow from the base up , you could lop some and they ’ll regrow , bring home the bacon a 2nd and sometimes a third harvest .
You canlearn more about acquire microgreens indoors in our guide .
Make certain to use hygienize scissors hold to snip the microgreens about half an column inch from the grime air .
If you ’re not planning to regrow a second harvest time you may also gently commit individual microgreens by hired hand , and snip the ascendent off once they ’re out of the ground .
you could treat yourself to a bit of onion feel before the scallion plants are full ripe by clipping a distich of the gullible stalks grow above the primer coat .
Wait until they ’re at least four or five inches improbable , and then contract only one or two from each clump , leaving the bottom inch of the stalk in office .
you may use these in place of chives in hot dishes , herb butter , and salads .
During the grow time of year , if you need the snowy contribution of the stalks to be long , be certain to hill a match of inches of soil around the dark-green stalks to “ parboil ” the portions growing beneath the open .
Once the green tops are about six inches marvellous , mound two inches of dirt around the base of the stalks a twosome of times before crop , once every two or three weeks .
I do n’t bother with blanching because I enjoy cooking with both the bloodless and green portions of scallions , but if you prefer the white part of the shuck , it ’s a good idea .
You ’ll know the scallions are quick to pick at full size when the chaff are between a quartern and half an in wide and the green tops are 10 to 12 in marvellous .
habituate size as your guide , and alsorefer to your ejaculate packetto determine how many growing twenty-four hours your variety postulate to reach maturity .
Start by pulling a sample stem . The white parcel should be at least two inch long . If it ’s not , wait a bit longer to deplume the rest of your harvest time .
strain to tear scallions the day after it has rained , so the soil will give easy and their flesh will be hydrated and firm .
In the absence seizure of rain , seek to give the plant about an in of supplemental water the day before harvest .
When you just stand for to pull a few at a time , use a claw or small trowel to tease the soil , and then softly lug the 1 you want using both hands .
Backfill the golf hole left behind , and give the clump a thorough watering so it will stay fat .
If you ’re grow bunching onions as an one-year , single - harvest crop , dig up the whole thud using a horticulture crotch . transfer it from the ground and separate the private dark-green onions , gently criticise off wanton soil .
Replace the dirt that come out of the ground with your harvest home , and make certain you slay any debris .
flora remains impart in your vegetable patch dirt from time of year to time of year can promote disease and also give insect pestis a space to overwinter .
For tips on post - harvest storage , preserving , and cooking , seeour guide to growing scallions for more entropy .
These plants form buds on the tops of their straw and then flower . When your plants pop to bud , you ’ll have a couple of decisions to make .
receive unseasoned blooms wo n’t alter the flavour of the white or green stalks . But as the blossom mature and start to form semen pods , this get the plant to be less vigorous since it concentrates its DOE on producing source , not the pungent , sapid stubble .
When you want to keep start the seed , of course of study , that ’s a good tradeoff . For direction on save genus Allium seeds , seeour template to acquire garlic chives .
But if you ’re more interested in the scallion stalk harvest , be sure to clip the buds as they forge .
I prefer to leave behind a couple of scallions to blossom , because the pollinators are drawn to them , and because I love eating the blooms .
They are dry and mild , with a faint onion taste . They ’re delicate , so they do n’t stand up to preparation .
But you could snip the flower petal to total to natural spring mixture or be adrift on soup , or use the entire flower heads as garnish or to inculcate oils or acetum .
pick the blooming is fairly simple . Just expend sporty scissors hold to cut short them from the top of the stem turn .
wash them softly with nerveless water and let them broadcast dry on a clean-living stunner towel before using them in fresh recipes or as garnish .
Do n’t pick the drop flowers to eat after the seed pods form , though . The pitch-black seeds within are too hard to chew , and at that dot , the stalks below are n’t as tasty , either .
Plant Once, Harvest for Years
I wo n’t fault you if you do n’t desire to fool with growing these onion as perennial . Some nurseryman demand their infinite for a unlike crop later in the time of year .
What ’s nice is the flexibility you have with theA. fistulosumharvest . you could pull all the ripe immature onion plant at once , or leave clumps to continue growing .
And formore information about growing onions in your garden , have a read of these guide next :
© Ask the Experts , LLC . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.See our TOSfor more details . Originally published March 15th , 2022 . Last updated : May 12th , 2025 . Uncredited pic : Shutterstock .
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Rose Kennedy
