Stop buying onions. Here are 2 methods to grow onions at home for free forever

Red onions, sweet onions, yellow onions galore! You could be saving yourself some serious cash by growing your own savory veggies right at home.

We use onions for what seems like every meal. Whether you’re sauteing them for an omelet or cooking them low and slow for some mouth-watering pasta sauce – it’s hard to imagine cooking without them.

And, if you’ve ever forgotten about some onions in the bottom of your cabinet only to find them sprouting after a few weeks – you probably realize how simple it is to grow these veggies from home. If you want to know how to grow some seriously fresh onions, here’s two ways to do it.

– Onion
– Knife
– Cutting Board
– Starter Pot, plant bed or garden
– Fresh, nutrient rich soil

You know that part of the onion you always chop off? At the bottom with the little sprouts? Well, Instructables explains that next time you cook with onions this is the part you’re going to want to keep so you can grow your own.

Be sure to chop it off with a little ‘onion’ meat attached too – about 1.5 to 2 inches. Then, leave it out to dry for a few hours or even a few days in the shade. You want it to callous over so that it is dry to the touch and slightly shriveled.

You can either work with a pot or plant your onion-butt directly into the garden, whichever you prefer. Either way, you need to cover it with about 1-2″ of soil and make sure to keep it well watered.

Soon you should begin seeing leaves develop from your onion plant. At this point, it is time to remove the onion scales and separate the plant out.

Often when you plant an onion like this you actually get a few new onions out of it. You can separate them out by slicing between the plants and leaving roots attached to each piece, then replanting them in a new growing bed or pot.

To make sure the bulbs develop fully, though, you should cut the leaves down by a third. This will help regrow the leaves with less stress on this newly trimmed and replanted onion.

You should have fully grown onions soon, and then you can start the process all over again with your home-grown onions.

If you forgot about some onions in the bottom of your drawer or pantry, well, you already have a head start because these guys are probably already sporting some nice and new green sprouts. If you haven’t, though, Anktangle explains it will only take you a couple weeks of leaving some onions in a nice dark spot for this to happen.

Just like you do when you normally go to chop an onion, peel away those papery layers. But, be sure to leave those new sprouts intact.

Now you need to separate the onion in half so you can get to those new sprouts. To do so, carefully peel or cut apart the onion so you can get to these new roots. Set the roots aside, but you can eat the outer part of the onion if it still looks fresh.

Grab your pot or head to your planter or garden and place the sprouts with the white part in the soil and the green part sticking out. Water and care for your new onion plant well, and soon enough you will have a brand new fresh onion to enjoy.