How Deep Do You Plant Green Onions?

Green onions add flavor to soups, salads, stir-fries and fried rice.

Select white onion sets from your local garden supply store to grow green onions. Plant them after the last frost in the spring, usually in early April. To grow green onions, plant them close together to impede bulb development. Once the tops have reached 4 inches in height, hoe the soil along the row to form a small hill. This helps prevent weeds from growing and competing for resources.

Things You'll Need

• Trowel
• Compost
• White onion sets

Instructions

1. Dig a trench in your garden 1 inch deep. If you plan to add compost or other soil amendments, dig the trench about 2 inches deep and add about 1 inch of soil amendments.

2. Place the white onion sets in the trench. Set them close enough to each other to allow the bulbs to just barely touch each other.

3. Cover the trench with garden dirt, gently pressing down.

4. Harvest dry onions as green onions, alternatively, if the sets are spaced 2 inches apart. Pull up every other onion to harvest it as a green onion. This allows the remaining bulbs to develop as dry onions.

Tips & Warnings

• Fertilize your onions three weeks after you plant them with a nitrogen-based fertilizer, such as ammonium nitrate.

• Harvest green onions when the tops have grown to 6 inches.

References

• University of Illinois Extension: Watch Your Garden Grow: Onion
• Texas A&M University: Onion Planting

Resources

• "University of Minnesota Extension Service"; Growing Onions; Beth Jarvis