How to grow scallions

Scallions, or bunching onions, are a true perennial allium distinct from the common bulb onion; unlike a green onion pulled young from an onion crop, Allium fistulosum never forms a bulb, staying uniform from base to leaf tip. Home gardeners grow it as a direct-seeded crop, sown a quarter to a half inch deep in narrow bands and thinned as the seedlings come up. It occupies a bed for two to three months from seed to harvest and fits a spring or late-summer window, filling gaps between crops with a mild onion flavor harvested a stalk at a time.

The hardest part of growing scallions well is keeping weeds out while the seedlings are small. University of Minnesota Extension notes the young plants cannot compete with weeds and need gentle, frequent weeding early on. A second-year gardener who direct-seeds a dense band and waits, expecting the onion smell to discourage competition, will often let weeds get ahead of the thin seedlings before thinning day. Because the crop stays narrow and grass-like for weeks, once weeds shade it out the stand does not recover; a row seeded solid comes up patchy, worth pulling and starting over.