Whether or not you principally eat takeout and heat up frozen dinners or are a devoted dwelling chef, the harvest season for homegrown scallions is a gleeful time.
They’re so helpful for chopping to scatter over a frozen dinner entree and even canned soup, or to toss in with taco toppings or a inexperienced salad.
Or you should utilize them as the bottom for do-it-yourself scallion pancakes, yummy pestos and stir-fries, or elaborate, subtle soups.
Earlier than they attain the kitchen counter, although, you’ll want to reap them. There’s a little bit of a knack to the method, however nothing robust!
Largely, you’ll must time the harvest for peak taste, after which use the most effective strategies for selecting scallions at numerous levels, together with harvesting the edible blooms.
I’ll share just a few distinctive traits that distinguish them from immature bulbing onions at harvest time, and inform you how and when to select or pull these standouts.
Right here’s what to anticipate:
Distinctive Scallion Traits
There’s usually a little bit of confusion when vegetable gardeners confer with scallions.
Many of us name any onion that’s harvested inexperienced within the springtime a “scallion.”
However as a result of we’re speaking about harvesting, we’re going to differentiate between true scallions, Allium fistulosum, and different onions which are referred to by the identical frequent title however have a distinct development behavior.
Scallions don’t type bulbs as they develop to full dimension, and are also called “bunching” or Welsh onions.
And when you can develop them as annuals and harvest them that spring, the crops are perennials. They’ll unfold and are available again 12 months after 12 months when you don’t pull up the entire plant at harvest time.
In distinction, spring onions are A. cepa varieties harvested at an immature stage. So as to add to the confusion, many people additionally confer with spring onions as scallions. However these varieties will type fats bulbs if left to mature, which regularly takes 100 or extra days.
Some A. cepa varieties are picked whereas they’re immature for speedy use, whereas others are dried and cured for storage.
Scallions, however, don’t final lengthy in storage, perhaps just a few days within the fridge. They usually mature extra rapidly than storage onions, normally inside 50 to 70 days of sowing, relying on the range.
Now that we’re all clear on which sort of allium we’re coping with, let’s get to the nice half: Harvesting these onions at their peak of taste.
Choose as Microgreens
Scallions are common to develop as microgreens, sown thickly on the floor of a rising medium, and harvested after they’re simply two or three inches tall.
They’ll take about 15 to 22 days to get tall sufficient to select. As a result of the inexperienced stalks develop from the bottom up, you may snip some they usually’ll regrow, offering a second and typically a 3rd harvest.
You’ll be able to be taught extra about rising microgreens indoors in our information.
Make certain to make use of sanitized scissors to snip the microgreens about half an inch from the soil line.
For those who’re not planning to regrow a second harvest it’s also possible to gently pull particular person microgreens by hand, and snip the roots off as soon as they’re out of the soil.
Clip Greens to Use Like Chives
You’ll be able to deal with your self to a little bit of onion taste earlier than the scallion crops are totally mature by clipping a few the inexperienced stalks rising above the bottom.
Wait till they’re at the least 4 or 5 inches tall, after which lower just one or two from every clump, leaving the underside inch of the stalks in place.
You should use these instead of chives in sizzling dishes, herb butter, and salads.
Pull Bunching Onions
Through the rising season, in order for you the white elements of the stalks to be longer, you should definitely hill a few inches of soil across the inexperienced stalks to “blanch” the parts rising beneath the floor.
As soon as the inexperienced tops are about six inches tall, mound two inches of soil across the base of the stalks a few occasions earlier than harvest, as soon as each two or three weeks.
I don’t hassle with blanching as a result of I take pleasure in cooking with each the white and inexperienced parts of scallions, however when you want the white a part of the stalks, it’s a good suggestion.
You’ll know the scallions are prepared to select at full dimension when the stalks are between 1 / 4 and half an inch vast and the inexperienced tops are 10 to 12 inches tall.
Use dimension as your information, and likewise confer with your seed packet to find out what number of rising days your selection wants to achieve maturity.
Begin by pulling a pattern stalk. The white portion ought to be at the least two inches lengthy. If it’s not, wait a bit longer to drag the remainder of your harvest.
Attempt to pull scallions the day after it has rained, so the soil will give simply and their flesh might be hydrated and agency.
Within the absence of rain, attempt to give the crops about an inch of supplemental water the day earlier than harvesting.
Once you simply intend to drag just a few at a time, use a claw or small trowel to loosen the soil, after which gently tug those you need utilizing each palms.
Backfill the holes left behind, and provides the clump a radical watering so it is going to keep productive.
For those who’re rising bunching onions as an annual, single-harvest crop, dig up the entire clump utilizing a gardening fork. Take away it from the bottom and separate the person inexperienced onions, gently knocking off free soil.
Substitute the grime that got here out of the bottom together with your harvest, and ensure you take away any particles.
Plant stays left in your vegetable patch soil from season to season can encourage illness and likewise give insect pests a spot to overwinter.
For recommendations on post-harvest storage, preserving, and cooking, see our information to rising scallions for extra info.
Harvest Scallion Blossoms
These crops type buds on the tops of their stalks after which flower. When your crops begin to bud, you’ll have a few selections to make.
Having younger blooms received’t alter the flavour of the white or inexperienced stalks. However because the flowers age and begin to type seed pods, this causes the plant to be much less vigorous because it concentrates its energies on producing seeds, not the pungent, flavorful stalks.
Once you need to save the seeds, in fact, that’s a very good tradeoff. For instructions on saving allium seeds, see our information to rising garlic chives.
However when you’re extra within the scallion stalk harvest, you should definitely clip the buds as they type.
I want to depart a few scallions to flower, as a result of the pollinators are drawn to them, and since I take pleasure in consuming the blooms.
They’re dry and delicate, with a faint onion style. They’re delicate, so that they don’t stand as much as cooking.
However you may snip the petals so as to add to spring combine or float on soups, or use your entire flower heads as garnishes or to infuse oils or vinegar.
Choosing the blooms is fairly easy. Simply use clear scissors to clip them from the highest of the stem.
Rinse them gently with cool water and allow them to air dry on a clear dish towel earlier than utilizing them in contemporary recipes or as garnishes.
Don’t decide the spent flowers to eat after the seed pods type, although. The black seeds inside are too exhausting to chew, and at that time, the stalks beneath aren’t as tasty, both.
Plant As soon as, Harvest for Years
I received’t fault you when you don’t need to idiot with rising these onions as perennials. Some gardeners want their house for a distinct crop later within the season.
What’s good is the pliability you have got with the A. fistulosum harvest. You’ll be able to pull all of the mature inexperienced onions directly, or go away clumps to proceed rising.
Are you rising scallions? Tell us within the feedback part beneath and share your harvest ideas!
And for extra details about rising onions in your backyard, have a learn of those information subsequent:
© Ask the Consultants, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for extra particulars. Initially revealed March fifteenth, 2022. Final up to date: Could twelfth, 2025. Uncredited pictures: Shutterstock.
