How to Grow Green Onions from Seed or Bulbs

Green onions are one of the easiest crops in the garden and one of the most useful in the kitchen. Sow seeds thickly in a row or pot, keep them moist, and you can start snipping in about 3 to 4 weeks and pull full-size scallions in roughly 8 to 10 weeks. Plant small onion sets (bulbs) instead and you can harvest green tops in as little as 3 weeks. With a fresh sowing every 2 to 4 weeks from early spring to late summer, and a cold frame or pot by a window in winter, you can have green onions almost year-round in most US zones.

Part of our Vegetable Gardening & Raised Beds guide →

In this guide

1. What Exactly Is a Green Onion?
2. Seed vs Bulbs (Sets): Which to Plant?
3. Best Green Onion Varieties
4. When to Plant
5. Site and Soil
6. How to Sow Green Onion Seeds
7. How to Plant Onion Sets for Green Onions
8. Growing Green Onions in Pots
9. Watering, Feeding and Weeding
10. Succession Planting for Continuous Harvest
11. Harvesting Green Onions
12. Pests and Problems
13. Companion Planting
14. Frequently Asked Questions

What Exactly Is a Green Onion?

“Green onion” and “scallion” describe the harvest more than a single plant: a young onion with a slim white base and hollow green leaves. True bunching onions (Allium fistulosum, sometimes called Welsh onions or Japanese bunching onions) never form a large bulb, so they stay straight-shanked and tender. You can also harvest any regular bulbing onion (Allium cepa) young as a green onion, which is what happens when you plant sets close together and pull them early. If you are curious about the naming confusion, our scallions vs green onions explainer clears it up.

This guide is about growing green onions in the garden from seed or sets. If you want to regrow store-bought scallions from their roots in a glass of water, see how to regrow green onions instead.

Seed vs Bulbs (Sets): Which to Plant?

Factor	Seed	Sets (small bulbs)
Time to first harvest	About 3 to 4 weeks for snipping, 8 to 10 weeks for full scallions	About 3 to 4 weeks for green tops
Cost	Very low per plant	Higher per plant
Variety choice	Wide, including true bunching types and red-stemmed varieties	Limited, usually yellow, white or red bulbing onions
Ease	Easy, but needs steady moisture to germinate	Very easy; just push into soil
Best use	Long-term succession, containers, perennial clumps	Quick early-spring greens

Many gardeners do both: a few rows of sets in early spring for fast greens, then seeded bunching onions for the rest of the season. Our comparison of onion sets vs seeds covers the trade-offs for bulb onions too.

Best Green Onion Varieties

• Evergreen Hardy White (Evergreen Long White Bunching): very cold-hardy perennial bunching onion that can overwinter in much of the country.
• Tokyo Long White: long, straight white shanks; good for spring and fall sowing.
• Ishikura: Japanese type with long, thick white stems similar to a small leek.
• Parade: uniform, upright plants that resist bulbing.
• Red Beard and other red-stemmed types: colorful stems with mild flavor.
• Bulbing onion sets: any yellow, white or red set harvested young.

When to Plant

Green onions are cool-season crops that tolerate light frost. Seeds germinate best in soil around 60 to 80°F but will sprout, slowly, in cooler soil from about 45°F.

• Spring: direct sow or plant sets 4 to 6 weeks before your last frost date, as soon as the soil can be worked.
• Summer: keep sowing every 2 to 4 weeks; in hot zones (8 to 10), give afternoon shade and extra water, or pause in midsummer.
• Fall: sow 8 to 10 weeks before your first fall frost for fall harvests. Hardy bunching varieties sown in late summer can overwinter in zones 5 and warmer with mulch.
• Mild-winter areas (zones 8 to 10): fall through spring is the main season.
• Indoors: start seeds in trays 8 to 10 weeks before transplanting if you want an early jump in cold climates.

Site and Soil

Choose a spot with full sun, at least 6 hours a day; green onions tolerate light shade, especially in hot climates, but grow thinner. They have shallow, fibrous roots and want loose, fertile, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter. Work 1 to 2 inches of compost into the top 6 inches before planting. A soil pH between about 6.0 and 7.0 is ideal. Raised beds are excellent because they drain well and warm early in spring.

How to Sow Green Onion Seeds

1. Rake the bed smooth and remove stones and clods.
2. Make shallow furrows 1/4 inch deep and 6 to 12 inches apart. In a wide bed you can also band-sow a strip 2 to 3 inches wide.
3. Sow seeds about 1/2 inch apart. Onion seed is small and black; sowing thickly is fine because you will harvest the extras as thinnings.
4. Cover lightly with fine soil or seed-starting mix and firm gently.
5. Water with a gentle spray and keep the surface moist until seedlings emerge, usually in 7 to 14 days depending on temperature.
6. Thin to about 1 inch apart once seedlings are 3 to 4 inches tall if you want thicker scallions; leave them closer for slender green onions.

Onion seed loses viability quickly, often within one to two years, so buy fresh seed each season for reliable germination. A light board or burlap over the row for the first few days helps keep the surface from crusting; remove it as soon as you see green loops.

How to Plant Onion Sets for Green Onions

Choose the smallest sets in the bag, about the size of a marble or smaller; larger sets are more likely to bolt. Push them into the soil pointed end up, about 1 inch deep, so the tip is just covered or barely showing. For green onions, space them 1 to 2 inches apart in rows 6 to 12 inches apart, much closer than you would for bulb onions. Water in well. Green shoots appear within a week or two and are ready to pull or snip as soon as they are pencil-thick.

Growing Green Onions in Pots

Green onions are ideal container plants. Use any pot at least 6 inches deep with drainage holes, filled with a quality potting mix. A window box, a 12-inch round pot or a fabric grow bag works well. Scatter seed about 1/2 inch apart across the surface, cover with 1/4 inch of mix, and keep moist. A 12-inch pot can produce a dense clump you can snip from for weeks. Place it where it gets at least 6 hours of sun; a south-facing windowsill or a grow light works in winter. Containers dry out faster than beds, so check moisture daily in warm weather and feed with a diluted liquid fertilizer every 2 to 3 weeks.

Watering, Feeding and Weeding

• Water: about 1 inch per week from rain or irrigation, more in hot or windy weather. Uneven watering produces tough, strong-flavored stems.
• Fertilizer: green onions are leafy crops that respond to nitrogen. Side-dress with compost or a balanced fertilizer about 3 to 4 weeks after emergence, following label rates, or water with fish emulsion every few weeks.
• Weeds: onions have thin, upright leaves that cast little shade, so weeds outcompete them quickly. Hand-weed carefully and mulch lightly with straw or shredded leaves once plants are a few inches tall.

Succession Planting for Continuous Harvest

The secret to never buying scallions is to sow a short row or pot every 2 to 4 weeks. A 3-foot row sown every three weeks gives most households a steady supply. Combine this with a perennial clump of a hardy bunching variety: leave a few plants unharvested and they will divide into clumps you can split and replant each spring. In mild climates, these clumps keep producing for years.

Harvesting Green Onions

• Snipping: cut leaves 1 to 2 inches above the soil with scissors once plants are about 6 inches tall. They regrow from the base several times, though each regrowth is a little thinner.
• Pulling: for whole scallions, loosen the soil with a fork and pull when stems are pencil-thick, usually 8 to 10 weeks from seed.
• Thinnings: early thinnings are tender and perfect for garnish.

Store unwashed green onions in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to about a week, or stand them in a jar with an inch of water and a loose bag over the top.

Pests and Problems

• Onion thrips: tiny insects that cause silvery streaks on leaves, worst in hot, dry weather. Overhead watering and a strong water spray help; insecticidal soap or other products labeled for onions can be used following label directions.
• Onion maggots: larvae tunnel into bases, causing wilting, mainly in cool northern areas. Rotate crops away from where any onion family plant grew the previous year and cover seedlings with floating row cover.
• Damping off: seedlings collapse at the soil line in cold, wet soil. Avoid overwatering and sow when soil warms.
• Bolting: plants send up flower stalks after a cold snap or in heat. Harvest bolting plants promptly; the stalks are tough but the flowers are edible. If your sets are flowering, see why onion sets flower.
• Yellow tips: usually drought stress or low nitrogen.

Companion Planting

Green onions fit into gaps between slower crops. Tuck rows between carrots, lettuce, beets, tomatoes and brassicas; they take little space and are harvested before larger plants fill in. Many gardeners avoid planting onions right next to peas and beans. If you want a perennial that tastes similar and comes back every year, consider chives too; our chives vs green onions guide compares the two in the garden and kitchen.

For bed layouts, soil prep and planting calendars that fit green onions into a full vegetable plan, see our vegetable gardening and raised beds hub.