Step-by-Step Guide to Turn 1 Onion Bottom Into 21 Onions

We will share with you a step-by-step guide on how to grow many onions from just one onion bottom. With this knowledge, you will never have to buy onions again. It’s so easy that anyone can do it, and we will provide tips for success along the way.

To start, cut the bottom one-third of the onion bulb and remove the papery outer leaves and dried-up roots. Next, cut the top part of a plastic bottle or glass cup and fill it with clean water. Place the onion slices on the bottle, making sure that the bottom is in contact with the water. After two days, new roots and shoots will start growing, and after nine days, the green leaves will be more visible. Once this happens, you can transplant the onion bottom into soil to grow more leaves and shoots.

Key Takeaways

Cut the bottom one-third of the onion bulb and remove the papery outer leaves and dried-up roots.
Place the onion slices on a bottle filled with clean water, making sure that the bottom is in contact with the water.
Transplant the onion bottom into soil to grow more leaves and shoots.

Preparation of Onion Bottom

To get many onions from one onion bottom, start by cutting the bottom one third of the onion bulb. Remove the papery outer leaves of the onion bottom and trim off some of the dried up roots. Now cut the top part of the plastic bottle or use a glass cup. Fill almost the brim with clean water and place the onion slices on the bottles, making sure that the bottom is in contact with the water. You can use toothpick to hold it in place if the onion is too small.

New roots and shoots will start growing after just two days. After nine days, the green leaves will be more visible, and so will the roots. When that happens, you are sure that they will survive once transplanted into the soil. It’s now time to transplant the onion bottom into soil to grow more leaves and shoots. For this, you just need to fill a container with well-draining soil to at least 15 centimeters or six inches high. Create a hole deep enough to cover the roots and parts of the onion bottom, place the sprouted onion bottoms into it, and cover with soil.

Water it and keep it in a sunny area. By day 40, more shoots would have developed, and the leaves would have grown longer. The onion cluster on the left is what was planted from the onion bottom. Onions on the right were planted from full bulbs around the same time. This shows that growing from the full bulb has an advantage since they grow faster and bigger. But as you’ll see later, you can still get a decent yield from just the onion bottom.

The next step is critical to ensure that they get decent-sized bulbs. You have to pull up the onion cluster and transplant it again. Each shoot from the onion bottom can be used as a seedling since it has roots and leaves. Carefully separate the shoots or seedlings, making sure that each of them has roots attached. You can use a knife to help with this separation. If a cluster proves too difficult to pull apart without destroying the seedlings, put the whole cluster back into the soil and allow it to grow a bit more before transplanting.

Transplant the separated seedlings into well-draining soil to at least 15 centimeters or six inches high. Water it and keep it in a sunny area. Once planted, ensure it receives adequate moisture and sunlight until the bulbs grow big and show signs of maturity. At this stage, you can stop watering and allow it to mature before harvesting.

On day 90, I transplanted seedlings from the onion cluster that couldn’t be separated early on in containers. They could have been transplanted earlier than this, but I wanted it to mature much later; that is why transplanting was delayed. By day 120, some of the bulbs would be ready for harvest. You know the onions are mature when the leaves have toppled over. At this stage, you can let it dry down before harvesting or harvest it and let it cure before storing.

It can take another 30 days for more bulbs to mature. The bulbs growing in bags are now ready for harvest. There are eight of them. The bulbs that didn’t have roots are also ready to be harvested, and there are five of them. This makes a total of 13 bulbs. When the thirteen bulbs are added to the eight bulbs that were harvested earlier, it brings the total to 21 bulbs.

So there you have it; we have just obtained 21 onion bulbs from a single onion bottom. If we had left the onion bottom to grow without separating, it would have resulted in much smaller onions as can be seen in this bulb cluster.

Creation of Growth Setup

To grow many onions from just one onion bottom, we followed these easy steps:

Cut the bottom one-third of the onion bulb. The remaining two-thirds can be used for cooking.
Remove the papery outer leaves and trim off some of the dried-up roots.
Cut the top part of a plastic bottle or use a glass cup. Fill it almost to the brim with clean water.

Place the onion slices on the bottle, making sure the bottom is in contact with the water. Use a toothpick to hold it in place if the onion is too small.
Wait for new roots and shoots to start growing. After two days, the roots and shoots will be visible.
Transplant the onion bottom into well-draining soil at least 15 centimeters or six inches high. Create a hole deep enough to cover the roots and parts of the onion bottom. Place the sprouted onion bottoms into it and cover with soil.

Water it and keep it in a sunny area.
After 40 days, more shoots will have developed, and the leaves will have grown longer.
Pull up the onion cluster and transplant it again. Each shoot from the onion bottom can be used as a seedling since it has roots and leaves.

Carefully separate the shoots or seedlings, making sure that each of them has roots attached. If a cluster proves too difficult to pull apart without destroying the seedlings, put the whole cluster back into the soil and allow it to grow a bit more before transplanting.
Once planted, ensure it receives adequate moisture and sunlight until the bulbs grow big and show signs of maturity.
On day 120, some of the bulbs will be ready for harvest. The onions are mature when the leaves have toppled over. At this stage, they can be harvested and let to cure before storing.

By following these steps, we were able to obtain 21 onion bulbs from a single onion bottom. While growing from the full bulb has an advantage since they grow faster and bigger, you can still get a decent yield from just the onion bottom.

Transplantation into Soil

Once the onion bottom has sprouted new roots and shoots, it is time to transplant it into soil to encourage further growth. To do this, we need to fill a container with well-draining soil, at least 15 centimeters or six inches high. We then create a hole deep enough to cover the roots and parts of the onion bottom, placing the sprouted onion bottom into it and covering it with soil. We need to be careful not to plant too deep, or the plant will die. We water it and keep it in a sunny area.

By day 40, more shoots would have developed, and the leaves would have grown longer. The onion cluster on the left is what was planted from the onion bottom. Onions on the right were planted from full bulbs around the same time. This shows that growing from the full bulb has an advantage since they grow faster and bigger. But as we have seen, we can still get a decent yield from just the onion bottom.

The next step is critical to ensure that the onions get decent-sized bulbs. We have to pull up the onion cluster and transplant it again. Each shoot from the onion bottom can be used as a seedling since it has roots and leaves. We carefully separate the shoots or seedlings, making sure that each of them has roots attached. If a cluster proves too difficult to pull apart without destroying the seedlings, we put the whole cluster back into the soil and allow it to grow a bit more before transplanting.

We transplanted one set of onions directly into the ground between our pineapples. We also planted another set in containers. If some seedlings don’t have roots, we can still plant them. However, they will take longer to mature, and we’ll notice some differences when they mature. Once planted, we ensure it receives adequate moisture and sunlight until the bulbs grow big and show signs of maturity.

On day 90, we transplanted seedlings from the onion cluster that couldn’t be separated early on in containers. They could have been transplanted earlier than this, but we wanted them to mature much later, which is why transplanting was delayed. By day 120, some of the bulbs would be ready for harvest. We know the onions are mature when the leaves have toppled over. At this stage, we can let them dry down before harvesting or harvest them and let them cure before storing. We can also eat them right away if we want.

So there you have it, we have just obtained 21 onion bulbs from a single onion bottom. If we had left the onion bottom to grow without separating, it would have resulted in much smaller onions, as can be seen in this bulb cluster.

Comparison with Full Bulb Growth

We compared the yield from growing onions from an onion bottom to the yield from growing onions from full bulbs. While growing onions from full bulbs has an advantage since they grow faster and bigger, we were still able to get a decent yield from just the onion bottom.

After 40 days, the onions planted from full bulbs were visibly bigger and had more shoots than the onions planted from onion bottoms. However, by day 120, we were able to harvest a total of 21 onion bulbs from a single onion bottom. This is compared to the 25 bulbs we harvested from the full bulbs.

It is important to note that if we had left the onion bottom to grow without separating, it would have resulted in much smaller onions as seen in the bulb cluster.

Overall, while growing onions from full bulbs may be faster, growing onions from onion bottoms is a great way to get more onions from one kitchen scrap.

Transplantation of Onion Cluster

At Dr. Obi’s Garden, we have learned a simple and easy way to get many onions from one onion bottom. By following the steps outlined below, you too can grow onions without ever having to buy them again.

Cut the bottom one-third of the onion bulb. Remove the papery outer leaves of the onion bottom and trim off some of the dried-up roots.
Cut the top part of a plastic bottle or glass cup and fill it almost to the brim with clean water. Place the onion slices on the bottle, ensuring that the bottom is in contact with the water. Use a toothpick to hold it in place if the onion is too small.

New roots and shoots will start growing after just two days. After nine days, the green leaves will be more visible, and so will the roots. When that happens, you are sure that they will survive once transplanted into the soil.
Transplant the onion bottom into well-draining soil at least 15 centimeters (six inches) high. Create a hole deep enough to cover the roots and parts of the onion bottom. Place the sprouted onion bottoms into it and cover with soil. Don’t plant too deep, or else the plant will die. Water it and keep it in a sunny area.
By day 40, more shoots would have developed, and the leaves would have grown longer. The onion cluster on the left is what was planted from the onion bottom. Onions on the right were planted from full bulbs around the same time. This shows that growing from the full bulb has an advantage since they grow faster and bigger.

Pull up the onion cluster and transplant it again to ensure that they get decent-sized bulbs. Each shoot from the onion bottom can be used as a seedling since it has roots and leaves. Carefully separate the shoots or seedlings, making sure that each of them has roots attached. If a cluster proves too difficult to pull apart without destroying the seedlings, put the whole cluster back into the soil and allow it to grow a bit more before transplanting.
Once planted, ensure it receives adequate moisture and sunlight until the bulbs grow big and show signs of maturity. At this stage, you can stop watering and allow it to mature before harvesting.
On day 90, transplant seedlings from the onion cluster that couldn’t be separated early on in containers. By day 120, some of the bulbs would be ready for harvest. You know the onions are mature when the leaves have toppled over. At this stage, you can let it dry down before harvesting or harvest it and let it cure before storing. You can also eat it right away if you want.

It can take another 30 days for more bulbs to mature. The bulbs growing in bags are now ready for harvest. There are eight of them. The bulbs that didn’t have roots are also ready to be harvested, and there are five of them. This makes a total of 13 bulbs. When the thirteen bulbs are added to the eight bulbs that were harvested earlier, it brings the total to 21 bulbs.

In conclusion, transplanting onion clusters is an easy and effective way to grow many onions from one onion bottom. By following the steps outlined above, you can enjoy fresh onions from your garden without ever having to buy them again.

Final Growth and Maturation

After transplanting the onion bottom into soil, new roots and shoots will start growing after just two days. By day nine, the green leaves will be more visible, and so will the roots. At this point, we can be sure that they will survive once transplanted into the soil.

By day 40, more shoots would have developed, and the leaves would have grown longer. The onion cluster on the left is what was planted from the onion bottom. Onions on the right were planted from full bulbs around the same time. This shows that growing from the full bulb has an advantage since they grow faster and bigger. However, as we have seen, we can still get a decent yield from just the onion bottom.

The next step is critical to ensure that we get decent-sized bulbs. We have to pull up the onion cluster and transplant it again. Each shoot from the onion bottom can be used as a seedling since it has roots and leaves. Carefully separate the shoots or seedlings, making sure that each of them has roots attached. We can use a knife to help with this separation. If a cluster proves too difficult to pull apart without destroying the seedlings, we can put the whole cluster back into the soil and allow it to grow a bit more before transplanting.

We can transplant one set of onions directly in the ground between our pineapples. We can also plant another set in containers, which we will see later. If some seedlings don’t have roots, we can still plant them. However, they will take longer to mature, and we’ll notice some differences when they mature. Once planted, we must ensure it receives adequate moisture and sunlight until the bulbs grow big and show signs of maturity.

On day 120, some of the bulbs would be ready for harvest. We know the onions are mature when the leaves have toppled over. At this stage, we can let it dry down before harvesting or harvest it and let it cure before storing. We can also eat it right away if we want. It can take another 30 days for more bulbs to mature.

The bulbs growing in bags are now ready for harvest, and there are eight of them. The bulbs that didn’t have roots are also ready to be harvested, and there are five of them. This makes a total of 13 bulbs. When the thirteen bulbs are added to the eight bulbs that were harvested earlier, it brings the total to 21 bulbs.

Harvesting and Yield

At day 120, the onions are ready for harvest. You can tell that the onions are mature when the leaves have toppled over. At this stage, you can let the onions dry down before harvesting or harvest them and let them cure before storing. You can also eat them right away if you want.

It can take another 30 days for more bulbs to mature. The bulbs growing in bags are now ready for harvest, and there are eight of them. The bulbs that didn’t have roots are also ready to be harvested, and there are five of them. This makes a total of 13 bulbs.

So, we have just obtained 21 onion bulbs from a single onion bottom. If we had left the onion bottom to grow without separating, it would have resulted in much smaller onions, as can be seen in the bulb cluster.