Any person wants to be sure of the quality of the products and vegetables that he eats. First of all, this applies to purchased vegetables and fruits, since on store shelves they are already found with a lot of chemical additives.
Therefore, more and more often people are planting herbs and vegetables in their gardens or even at home. You can grow green onions on your windowsill all year round: they grow well at room temperature and are considered the fastest growing crop.
Growing this crop at home is not difficult: you just need to choose the appropriate method and do everything according to the instructions given below. First we plant greens, and then we grow onion sets in the beds.
Fresh homemade greens are rich in vitamins, which the body especially needs in the winter season. Onions contain a lot of iron, potassium and magnesium, so it is recommended to use it to improve hair condition, for good intestinal function and to strengthen the immune system.
How to grow green onions at home on a windowsill
Firstly, you need to know that you can grow onions at home either with or without soil, in water. This is done very simply on water, and within a week or two you will be able to try homemade greens for salads or other dishes.
Moreover, you won’t need to mess with the soil.
In order for onions to grow in water, you will need an ordinary onion from the store, suitable containers, water itself and activated carbon. You can use a glass or a small jar as a container.
If you plan to plant a lot of bulbs, you can take a plastic egg tray; this will be more convenient than placing each bulb in a separate glass.
To plant 1-2 bulbs, you can take a jar or glass, but it is necessary that the neck is small and the bulb does not fall inside.
The head for planting must be healthy, without rot or any dark spots. It is better to use filtered water or let it sit for 24 hours.
Stages of growing green onions using water:
- First you need to remove the top husk and soak the heads for half an hour in warm water (45 degrees). You can hold it not just in water, but in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. This way the greens will appear faster. If the head already has at least small sprouts, then you can do without soaking. If there are no sprouts, then the head can be slightly cut.
- Next, pour water into a suitable container, but so that the head does not float in it. Only the root system of the bulb should come into contact with water, otherwise the process of decay will begin. To do this, you can build a special circle of cardboard so that the head rests firmly on the glass and does not rot from excess moisture.
- Now the heads can be planted in the container.
If there is little space and you need a lot of onions, then they are planted in a plastic bottle. They fill it with soil, make holes, and place the heads. Watering occurs through the neck from above.
There is one secret here: bulbs in jars and glasses often take on more moisture than they need and begin to rot. To prevent this from happening, you can use a little trick: take an ordinary sock, place an onion in it, and then plant the head directly in the sock in a glass or jar. This method is good because the onion will not be able to take up excess water; the sock will only moisten the lower part of the head. Accordingly, the decay process will not begin.
Also, for germinating onions in water, there is a special container with holes into which the heads are inserted. The container is made in such a way that the bulbs cannot come into contact with water, so feathers appear faster. It can be purchased at any gardening store.
In this way, green feathers begin to appear after about two weeks, sometimes a little longer. The process of ripening greens is affected by the temperature in the house, as well as lighting. If you feed, the maturation will go faster.
Mineral fertilizers and wood ash are well suited as top dressing. But you need to apply fertilizer only when the bulbs have already begun to sprout.
Another way to grow at home is in the ground. To do this, you need to take a pot or a regular container, depending on the number of bulbs being grown.
It is better to buy universal soil and add a little perlite or charcoal to it to loosen the soil. The soil must be moistened before planting.
Take healthy bulbs and lightly press them into the ground (do not deepen them). They should be almost completely on the surface. Next, it remains to regularly water the ground, but so that the water does not fall on the heads themselves.
Settled water at room temperature is suitable for irrigation.
Selection of capacity
To sprout onions, you should use a special container for seedlings, which is sold in flower shops. But you can make the container yourself; ordinary household items (plastic bottles, egg cells, plastic bags and toilet paper) are suitable for this.
Plastic bottle container
For this method you will need a regular plastic bottle with a volume of 5-6 liters. It must be thoroughly washed from the inside with the addition of laundry soap, and then cut round holes with a diameter of 2-3 cm in its walls, keeping a distance of 5-6 cm between them.
This is easier to do with a soldering iron, since soft plastic is difficult to cut evenly with a knife. You should also remove the top of the container and make several drainage holes at the bottom of the bottle.
The container must be gradually filled with substrate up to the first row of holes. The bulbs should be laid on it so that the tails of the plants look out. So gradually you need to fill the bottle with soil and plant all the planting material in it. Several bulbs can be placed in the top layer of soil.
The planting will need to be watered with settled and filtered water. Then it needs to be placed in a cool and bright room. Caring for such a “bed” consists of regular watering. It is worth placing a tray under the container onto which excess liquid will drain.
Using the package
For this method of growing greens, you will need not only a transparent plastic bag, but also toilet paper.
- Toilet paper must be folded in several layers and moistened well with water.
- In this “substrate” you need to plant the bulbs with their bottoms down, placing them close to each other.
- Before this, the tops of the bulbs should be cut off. You can also pre-soak them in a dark solution of potassium permanganate to prevent the development of mold.
- Then you will need to tie the bag with thread and place it in a place that is not too dark and quite warm. Already on the second day, the bulbs will begin to grow roots. When this happens, it is necessary to move the package to a lighted windowsill.
- It is worth opening the “structure” after the bulbs have grown long enough feathers.
Instead of paper, you can use forest moss or onion peels for this method of producing greens. These materials contain phytoncides that prevent the development of mold.
Egg Tray
From a plastic egg tray you can make a convenient structure for germinating onions in water.
- To do this you need to cut the tray in half.
- Holes with a diameter of 1.5-2 cm should be made in each cell of one of the halves.
- Pour water into the untouched part of the tray.
- Then you need to put a half with holes on it. And so that they do not come into contact with each other, it is worth placing wooden sticks or pencils between them.
- You need to install an onion in the holes.
All that remains is to place the structure on the windowsill and wait for the harvest. But in the process, do not forget to add water to the bottom tray as it evaporates.
Is it possible to grow green onions on a windowsill in an apartment?
Not everywhere the climate allows for growing onions in the garden all year round. Therefore, many people do this at home - on the windowsill or in the loggia.
Onions grown in this way turn out no worse than those planted in the garden. It produces a harvest quickly - in just a couple of weeks you can cut the greens.
You can grow onions at home using either soil or water. The harvest will appear faster if the apartment maintains thermal conditions (at least 18 degrees) and has good lighting. Therefore, you can add additional light to the heads so that the onions ripen faster and give feathers.
Landing dates
Home conditions allow you to grow greens from bulbs all year round. Stable heat, a small place by the window or artificial lighting, regular watering are opportunities that any house or apartment provides. Therefore, there are no clear planting dates. As a rule, onions are forced in the autumn-winter-spring period, when there is a real shortage of fresh herbs.
Before planting, the seed must be soaked and then sown in boxes filled with nutritious soil mixture. The seed depth is 1.5 cm. Cover the crops with film until sprouts appear. Harvesting is carried out as the feather reaches economic suitability. The yield of onions occurs a little faster if the planting material used is turnips. To extend the harvest period, you need to plant it at intervals of 1-2 weeks.
When to plant green onions and greens according to timing
To obtain greenery in the country, onions usually begin to be planted at the end of April or in May. It is important that the earth has already warmed up enough and there are no frosts.
At home, this crop can be grown at any time of the year; it is only important that the place is sufficiently lit and the house is warm. Watering the soil is also equally important; it should not be dry.
As soon as the soil surface begins to dry out, you should immediately water the soil.
Good greens come from healthy and smooth bulbs; rotten or damaged bulbs should not be planted.
You can even plant not the whole part, but only the lower part of the head with roots. This will also create greenery.
Preparation of planting material
Since this type of crop is very unpretentious, almost any soil is suitable for it. The easiest way is to buy universal soil at a gardening store. It is important that the soil is loose, otherwise the water will make it hard and mold will appear on it.
Therefore, it is recommended to add some kind of loosening compound to the soil: charcoal, vermiculite, perlite, etc. Peat is also suitable; it can be mixed with ready-made universal soil from a flower shop or soil from a garden.
If soil from the garden is used, it must be taken into account that it must have a neutral pH level. Also, a little humus and sand are usually added to the garden soil.
And don’t forget about disinfection: it is advisable to dry any soil in the oven and treat it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
What containers to use for growing onions
Any container with a neck is suitable for growing on a windowsill: a glass, a jar or even a plastic bottle. You can buy a special container and plant the heads in it.
Many people simply take a plastic or paper egg tray and raise them in it.
If planting is done in the ground, then you can take a regular flower pot, box or plastic container.
But a container or other planting container for growing in the ground must have holes where excess water will flow out. You can make drainage from pebbles or add hydrogel to the soil in order to regulate the level of moisture in the soil.
Growing in water
It is recommended to choose intact bulbs with a diameter of 3-6 cm as planting material. After cutting off their base, immerse them in water heated to 50°C for 20 minutes, then dip them in a solution of ash and potassium permanganate, rinse in cold water. Place the prepared planting material in a suitable container with water. To prevent the bulbs from rotting during germination, you should:
- keep the container with the planted onions in a cool place;
- change water daily;
- Pour water into the container so that it just touches the bottom of the onion.
Green onions in glass jars with water
Green onions in plastic cups with water
Temperature and lighting
In general, onions can grow to a temperature of 28-30 degrees Celsius. If it gets warmer, the greens tend to dry out. Therefore, a temperature range of 18 to 25 degrees is ideal for onion growth.
At the same time, if you grow the feather in a sufficiently warm room, the bulb will ripen faster and produce a harvest.
The lighting must be good if you want to get greens as quickly as possible. Onions love light very much, so they can be illuminated around the clock by installing a lamp at a distance of 70-80 cm from the planting containers.
But for the first time after planting, it is better to keep the onion in a dark place so that it can adapt for a couple of days.
Watering and care
Watering this vegetable crop should be stable and regular.
The soil should not be allowed to dry out. As soon as the soil dries out a little, it must be immediately moistened.
At the same time, you can water it with ordinary water, which has stood for 24 hours, or with a solution of sunflower ash.
It is advisable to do the first watering with a weak solution of potassium permanganate - this will help protect the soil from the appearance of fungus. If a fungus suddenly appears, you should water the soil with phytosporin and then sprinkle the soil with garlic infusion from a spray bottle. When watering, you must ensure that liquid does not get on the heads.
When growing onions at home, additional care is usually not required. This crop is unpretentious and does not require feeding, etc. But, if you need greenery to appear faster, you can still feed the bulbs with mineral fertilizer.
Basic care should be to monitor the soil moisture and, if the onion grows in water, not to let the head get wet, otherwise the process of rotting will begin.
Many people grow onions right next to the battery, but due to excessive temperature the feather can quickly turn yellow. It is better to choose another illuminated place in the apartment, where there are no heating elements nearby. If the temperature allows, it is easiest to grow in a loggia.
Growing in the ground
A more productive way to grow green onions on a windowsill in an apartment is to plant them in the ground. With this method, you can harvest 2 crops and avoid unpleasant odors.
As a substrate for growing onions, you can use special store-bought soil or ordinary soil from a summer cottage or forest. The main thing is that the selected soil mixture is nutritious, loose and drained. To do this, it is mixed with a small amount of sand, and drainage material is placed at the bottom of the container.
Fill a container with a drainage layer with soil to a height of 7 cm. Soak the selected bulbs in water for a while and then plant them in the soil:
- large turnips without deepening, the distance between the bulbs is 2-3 cm;
- sowing - deepening by 1-2 cm, with a minimum distance from each other.
Soaking bulbs in water before planting in the ground
Planting bulbs in the ground
In order for green feathers to grow quickly and well and have an attractive presentation, several rules must be followed.
- Maintain 12 hours of daylight with supplementary lighting.
- Water and spray the greens so that they do not lose their juiciness.
- Monitor the temperature so that it does not exceed +30° C, otherwise the greens will stop growing.
The feathers are cut when they reach 15-20 cm in height, after which the remaining bulbs in the ground are watered. After a few weeks, the cut feathers will grow back.
How to properly cut onions for greens so that they grow further
At home, onions can be cut several times, they will still continue to grow. But after a few cuts, you will notice that the feathers are no longer so juicy - then the bulb will need to be replaced with a new one.
Anyway, over time the heads become depleted, so in about a month and a half it will be necessary to plant a new batch of heads.
As practice shows, onions at home do not bear fruit for more than two months.
In order for the feather to grow further, you need to cut off the greenery above the place where the shoots grow. You can carefully pinch off one feather at a time. If this is the last batch of greens, then the feathers are completely cut off with a knife and the bulb is thrown away.
