Do onions come back as spring onions?

[Bigmallly]

Last year I had some onions that were quite small so just covered them with straw & left them over winter. I took the straw of today to find that the bulb had gone and the stem had multiplied giving me what looks like 2 spring onions per bulb. What's happened to my onions?...............

[zazen999]

They are in year 2 so they are trying to either divide or seed. You'll probably see a flower stalk soon.

[Bigmallly]

Cheers Zaz, this is new to me so I'm intrigued.

[Brengirl]

I too was intrigued when I read that when you chop the root end off spring onion you can reset it for another crop.

[Bigmallly]

I too was intrigued when I read that when you chop the root end off spring onion you can reset it for another crop.

Run that by me again Bren.

[Jillyreeves]

I too was intrigued when I read that when you chop the root end off spring onion you can reset it for another crop.

Really

Do tell me more

[Brengirl]

It's wot I said and it does.

[zazen999]

You can chop the root off of any allium and it will grow back.

[Jillyreeves]

Sorry if Im been a bit thick here :-)

So rather than pulling the whole spring onion up roots and all just cut it at the base and leave the roots in the soil and a new top will grow - cut and come again so to speak. Or pull the whole thing cut off the root and replant it?

[Bigmallly]

So is there a down side? as I would think we all throw the roots away.

[zazen999]

You could do...should you want to. This is how I am trialling my new permanent leek bed.

Not sure how tough they would get after a couple of slicings....

[SlugLobber]

I'm trying this with leeks at the moment, but haven't seen signs of new growth, yet. If it does succeed, it would make sense that you can do the same with onions. I'm guessing, though, that people don't do this for hygiene reasons? Disease control and all that?

[WeeGarden]

Before I had a proper veggie bed, I used to leave about 1" of the white stalk of supermarket bought spring onions (with roots), put them in water for a bit until the middle started shooting up again, and plant them up in pots. Could get new spring onions from that.

[binley100]

I'm sorry I've got to say it Bigmalley that picture ...it just looks wrong (but funny)

[chriscross1966]

You can chop the root off of any allium and it will grow back.

It's a desperate but working way of dealing with leek moths.... cut the leek off below the damage (burn the affected bit) and they will come back, not as big as they would have been but at least you get a crop... I had to on some of mine this year....

chrisc