My sister e-mailed in a Pinstrosity that she just couldn't get to work...The Everlasting Green Onion pin that took the web by storm.
The Original Pin
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| http://homemadeserenity.blogspot.com/2011/03/putting-food-by-beef-onions-and-vanilla.html |
Just put the white ends in a jar of water, put it in the sun, and in a few days time you'll see growth!
Well, this didn't quite work out for my little sister. She said, "a couple weeks ago I got a bunch of green onions. I decided to try out this tip for having almost continual green onions. I saved the white end, put them in a glass of water, and put them on the windowsill. After a week and a half there was no new growth, and my kitchen smelled like strong onions starting to go bad, so I dumped out the failure of this pin. I don't know if I cut too close to the roots for it to grow again, or if I needed to change out the water, or if it was too cold out side so the cup was exposed to too cool temperatures, or what. If it has worked for anyone else let me know what to do!"
Now I had great success with this, and I didn't even have a sunny window to put the onion ends in. I saw growth on the 2nd day. So when she and I got together over this past weekend for family photos we talked about this to try and figure out what went wrong. Luckily it just took one question..."How much of the white end did you leave?" In our family we use just about the entire green onion, and so she had cut down pretty close to the root and then put that little end in the water. That there was the problem. When I tried it I left at least an inch or an inch and a half of the white end above the root. There needs to be enough of the actual onion to be able to grow and to get both water and air. So if you're wanting to do this, you'll have to think ahead and remember to not use as much of the onion as maybe you're used to (if you're like our family).
What I did with mine was to put them into a bit of water straight home from the store. Within days they were still growing, yes, but the tips got yellow and a bit wilty, and when I trimmed some to use, those fresh cut ends did the same. I checked the pin again and it said to change the water periodically, so I went to do that and also added some of the potting soil I was using for my herb garden, because as my husband pointed out, onions aren't bog plants...they grow in soil. The tips have still yellowed, but all in all they seem to be healthier now. Better, at least, than the live basil I bought at the same time. :P
ReplyDeleteI did this and they worked great for me...for a while. I guess like Susan suggested, they eventually just couldn't live without soil. They grew amazingly for several weeks in just water, though. Eventually though they just stopped putting out new growth. They were great while they lasted, though.
ReplyDeleteI can't see this being a long-term idea in just water. I tried it using soil, and my results have been fabulous:
ReplyDeletehttp://fastcheapandgood.blogspot.com/2012/03/onion-tale.html
My family has done this since forever, and it's always worked beautifully for us!
ReplyDeleteMine Have always worked really well too. Until I get tired of keeping up with them. There's another pin where you cut them up and put them in a water bottle and freeze them to keep them longer.
ReplyDeleteThe pin for freezing them was very helpful along with this pin. I found that my windowsill green onions were growing to fast for me to keep up with, so I used the two ideas together!
DeleteThis pin actually worked really well for me for at least a month or so. I did have to change out the water probably once a week and I trimmed them where the white started to turn to green. They worked really well but recently started to die. I transplanted them to my garden and they are doing great again.
ReplyDeleteThis worked well for me too for a few weeks but then I transferred to a small pot of soil. I haven't bought green onions in 4 months. I loved how after I got through the initial green onions and was using the fresh growth in my recipes, how much stronger the flavor was from "fresh" onions. I also keep my cilantro longer by placing it in cup of water in the fridge before storing it. I can keep it up to 3-4 weeks, instead of just a few days.
ReplyDeleteI bought some green onions not long after my mother's day flowers died (okay I kill flowers) and planted the white parts, about 2+ inches in the flower pot my kids painted and the next morning I had nearly 1/2 inch of growth. They grew quickly and well for a week or more. I was amazed that I can't grow flowers but I could grow onions!?!? Then, my cats got on my kitchen counter, pulled out the onions and drug them around the house :(
ReplyDeletemine grew slowly. also they started to get moldy near the roots. my solution: i cut the roots down to where they had been when i put them into the cup, and i peeled back and disposed of the outer layers until all that was left was 1/4 inch roots and the new stalks. worked really well and i had them for a long time. though, when i went camping for 3 days they sucked up all the water and shriveled.
ReplyDeleteI do this with every green onion I use. I rarely have to buy them from the store anymore. I have found that the green fades each time you cut and regrow. Each time I cut I leave a little bit of the green end so that the green stays bright. I reuse each onion 3-4 times before I ditch them. They usually grow about 7-8 inches in less than a week. It is awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a stinking fail at my house, it was actually funny! I came home from a long weekend trip to a kitchen that had a horrible, putrid, nasty, armpit smell. My husband and I searched high and low trying to figure out what the stink was from when my nose finally found the green onions on the windowsill. They looked great on top but below the water there was some kind of thing from the swamp being born. It was horrible. I threw out the whole jar. Immediately!
ReplyDeleteI tried this and it worked..sorta! However my kitchen stunk like onions, and I had to change the water everyday! Also the onions after a few days in water started to go soggy and rot! The ends looked like a pile of snot on water! BUT they did grow!
ReplyDeleteI've been doing this for years - way before pinterest (learned from hippie-ish Mom :) lol) - and yes, you need some onion on it - and if you cut lower than expected, it needs to at least be enough so the top is above water - you also need to change the water occasionally - especially if you do them more than once :) They do seem to get thinner and more delicate after each regrowth, so I don't believe it would be indefinite - or maybe if you were patient enough to wait to use the regrown until they were sturdier ;P
ReplyDeleteI have been doing this long before pinterest and my green onions have lasted weeks. I need to change the water every couple of days, but that is about it.
ReplyDeleteI've done this with onion, lemon grass, pineapple, celery, and avacado seed. All have done wonderfully. If you wold like to know how I did it feel free to email me at carebear10993@gmail.com ..All are pretty easy to do just take some time. put saves money in the long run
ReplyDeleteI've had this work with green onions. I left a decent amount of green and did change the water every few days (more frequently when the roots got super super long). The only downside I found was that after a few trimmings, the onions lost their oniony flavour.
ReplyDelete