Unlimited Onions

How would you like to have unlimited onions? What I mean is, when you cut up an entire onion, wouldn't it be great if that onion would perpetuate itself. Well, actually in most cases it can! What? For quite some time I've been using my onions to make more onions simply by cutting them with propagation in mind.

Step One: Cut off the top to expose the onion flesh and to help remove the dried outer skin.

Cut onion and remove all the dried outer skin.

Step Two:  Turn the onion onto the top cut surface and slice the side from the old root to the top all around.

Slice all around the onion to remove all flesh leaving the core.

Step Three: Remove remaining flesh down to the round central bulb, including trimming around the old root stem into a wedge shaped cylinder.

Cut and remove flesh down to central bulb.

Trim around old root stem in a cylinder wedge shape.

Step Four:  Put remaining bulb old root stem down in shallow dish and add a small amount of water. Let onion remain until a goodly amount of new roots grow and some green growth starts to show. Before the onion flesh begins to shrivel up, take outside and plant in the garden. This can be done in the good weather months - except when snow is on the ground.

New onion bulb in saucer ready to begin developing new roots.

Note:  Below are three onion bulbs. The one on the left is the one pictured above. The middle bulb is two days in a saucer and the one on the right has been in a saucer for about five day.

Sample of the progression of root growth. Left is the newest.

 So, there you have it - new onions from old ones. The longer you let them grow in the garden the more flesh you get. Let them grow an entire season and you can get and entire new slicing onion. And there you go - perpetual onions!