Growing green, bunching scallions

Hey guys, first off happy Thanksgiving! I am wanting to grow green bunching onions from seed starting now. I am in Dallas Texas and I have two options. 1 I can start them Outdoors and protect them with frost cloth or I can grow them inside a greenhouse. Would this be an okay time to start them? I think I could make this work. What do you think? Thank you for your experiences.
Drew

Oh yeah I want to start the Evergreen Hardy type.

No problem. Many seed sellers and cookbooks refer to these as scallions.

I like the Egyptian walking onions for scallions. Plant them once and they are perennial and have just the right amount of pungency. Here in the northeast, they provide about 2 distinct crops a season that spread through most of it- they die back during full heat of summer and when temps dip below the 20’s- usually in Nov. Probably would stay useful for about 9 months there. If they actually come from Egypt they ought to work well in TX.

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If u put the seeds in now, they are the first to come up in Spring. I don’t know where you are but I am in MA, northeast. they are really easy!

Yes walking onions , they are so easy,

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I have grown the walking onions before and I prefer the more traditional scallion types. Which method do you think would be better starting the seeds Outdoors or indoors? Keep in mind the temperatures will be in the upper 60s and 70s in Dallas the next two weeks. Thank you.

not sure if ‘mexican green onions’ are your thing, but their seeds and seedlings are amazingly resilient to 17F outdoors, just as they are unfazed by 117F under blazing sun.

Don’t know if I know about them. Can you tell me more about them?

not really sure what cultivar or strain it is, but it is commonly sold as mexican green onions at walmart/hispanic stores.

pictures are probably the best way of depicting –

btw, seeds are the cheapest way of getting started, but we often plant them as live ones since a package of mex greenies costs almost nothing. Seedlings take a while to bulk up into vigorous ornamentals

what they look like planted straight from the bag –

growth after about a month, hands down the best and fastest edible ornamental filler for empty beds –

they start blooming usually on 2nd yr of planting –

butterflies love the blooms. Hummingbirds too –

they develop monstrous spears on 3rd year –

flower heads typically droop or snap off and scatter seeds all over the place--

flower heads also sometimes exhibit weird asexual repro by forming live tiny bulbs on the flower heads, but couldn’t find picture just yet

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Good job !
If I go to the produce section I too am usually looking for something to grow.
I have plenty to eat, I want something to grow

Thank you for all the great info! I’ll have to try and find a package. Wow.

while you’re at it, you could probably try lemon grass if you havent. It is as good for stir-frying as mex onion greens! :slight_smile: Also excellent for roasts.

often sold as pups with its young leaf sheaths at asian or specialty grocery stores, and good likelihood some of them sprouting.

lemon grass is as tough and vigorous as mex onions in vegas’ 117F summer sun. While it will die back at 17-32F, the below-ground pups will regrow come spring. Not sure about its lower winter temp limit though.

Lemongrass is a key ingredient in Southest Asian cuisine as well as a wonderful herb. I brought my potted lemongrass in the house this year.

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your lemongrass ‘feels the love’ @mamuang ! Have you actually overwintered it outdoors and unprotected, just to test its mettle?

quite cosmopolitan an edible ornamental, at least from my perspective. One of the few perennials that survive vegas’ outdoors year-round and with no protection. Certain onions, garlic, aloe vera are few others that do very well here year-round just as they do in the ultra-tropics.

Planted them in ground a couple of years ago. Grew like weeds ( as thet are). Too lazy to dig them up. Left in ground unprotected. Dead. Temp here can be brutal and ground could be frozen solid for months. I don’t think it would survive even under a pile of mulch. I will try it next year just to see.

I love the smell of cut up lemongrass esp. in a Tom yum soup. :smile:

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probably not able to withstand a CT winter, but won’t hurt to give it another try, since these multiply relatively rapidly.
for now, 17F is its lower limit, until your sacrificial trial proves otherwise

I love lemon grass! Haven’t grown ito in years though. Heck yeah I need to grow it. Thanks for the suggestion. Believe it or not I actually lost it a few times over winter even in Texas. I can over winter it in a greenhouse though. Please share some stir fry recipes! I must say I am a vegan though, but I’m pretty good at modifying recipes though to fit my diet. Thanks for all the tips and suggestions!

i am trying to be one – currently working on it by keeping my animal product intake to a minimum.

for vegan meals, i’d say it would do well if you’re stir-frying or sauteeing tofu or other vege-‘meats’. Using it does not require exact measurements, as it does not really overpower other flavors.

you could also use it as you would lemon rind or citrus rind for tea, curries, etc