Has an Onion or Garlic Clove Sprouted in Your Refrigerator or Pantry?
You’ve probably come across this situation plenty of times— you bring home a bag of onions or some fresh whole garlic, and a week or two later, you notice that one or two (or all) of them have put out roots and green shoots. Can you still eat them or just throw them away? Can you plant them?
In this article I’ll give you some helpful tips on what to do with onions or garlic when they’ve sprouted.
Can You Still Eat a Sprouted Onion or Garlic?
Probably. If the roots and shoots are still small, it’s probably still perfectly good. Some people even like the taste of sprouted onion (they have a lot of protein, so they’re popular with vegans), but some think the garlic shoots are too bitter. The roots aren’t usually very green— they’re white. Just chop the sprout off (unless you want to eat it— take a taste to decide), cut the onion or garlic clove in half, and remove any remnants of the shoots. Of course, you should also check for mold and rot, especially if the item in question has been sitting around in a cool, dark place for over a week. If there’s only a little mold, just cut it out and eat the rest. If the onion or garlic looks black and/or feels mushy, though, throw that thing away.
Can You Plant a Sprouted Onion?
Most likely, the answer is yes! The only exception is if the onion is seriously consumed by mold or rot. If there’s only a little, just chop off the bad bits.
Now you may be wondering, if I plant an onion or garlic clove, will I get more onions or garlic? With onions, unfortunately no, but with garlic, maybe. One thing you willget in either case is a lot of tasty green shoots which in my opinion are just as delicious, making planting that onion worth the trouble.
The same holds true for garlic, but instead of tasty green shoots (garlic shoots are bitter), you’ll get gorgeous flowers.
How to Plant a Sprouted Onion (and What to Expect)
- Select healthy-looking sprouted onions in 8″-12″ pots, one per pot. Be sure to cut off any moldy, rotted, or pitted parts before planting, taking care to maintain the roots and the core of the bulb.
- Fill each pot with potting mix, leaving a couple of inches of space at the top.
- Make a hole in the center of the dirt that is about the width and depth of the onion.
- Carefully place each onion in a pot, covering them with soil so that the base of the shoots meet the surface of the soil.
- Press down gently but firmly on the soil to remove air pockets.
- Water thoroughly until water drains from the drainage holes.
- Place the pots in a shaded spot for a couple of weeks. Allow them to get a little bit of filtered light, but don’t put them in the sun just yet. Their roots need time to grow and adjust.
- After a couple of weeks, you can slowly give them more sun— partial shade at first, then full sun.
- Harvest sprouts as needed. You can use onion sprouts just about everywhere you would use onion, and they also make a wonderful garnish.
- If your sprouts put up flowers, you can wait until the flowers go to seed, then save the seeds for planting next season (unlike the parent onion, these seeds will produce more onions if planted).
How to Plant a Sprouted Garlic Clove (and What to Expect)
- To produce more bulbs, you can use either sprouted or unsprouted cloves, just make sure to plant unsprouted cloves “pointy-end” up, about 1/2″ below the surface.
- Follow the first six items in instructions above, but know that you must let your plants think they’ve gone through winter if you want more garlic. You can achieve this naturally by planting them before the first frost, or artificially by putting them in the freezer for a couple weeks
- Once you’ve allowed them to go through winter (or “winter”), put them out in the sun to warm up.
- Keep the soil moist but not soaking throughout the growing process; it takes about 8 months for garlic to mature.
- You can use the sprouts during this period (if you enjoy that bitter taste), but only a little at a time, or you’ll stunt the bulbs’ growth.
- Prune back any flowering shoots that come up initially (this helps produce larger bulbs).
- If the bulbs aren’t already in 8″ or 12″ pots, transplant them carefully once they’ve showed some signs of growth.
- You will know the garlic is ready to be dug up when the tops of most of the leaves have turned yellow.
Source : dengarden.com
Want to be as self-sufficient as possible? Want to master all the lost skills our grandfathers had? Then you really need this amazing step-by-step guide. It is called The Lost Ways and it contains all the knowledge of our forefathers.
Here’s just a glimpse of what you’ll find in The Lost Ways:
From Ruff Simons, an old west history expert and former deputy, you’ll learn the techniques and methods used by the wise sheriffs from the frontiers to defend an entire village despite being outnumbered and outgunned by gangs of robbers and bandits, and how you can use their wisdom to defend your home against looters when you’ll be surrounded.
Native American ERIK BAINBRIDGE – who took part in the reconstruction of the native village of Kule Loklo in California, will show you how Native Americans build the subterranean roundhouse, an underground house that today will serve you as a storm shelter, a perfectly camouflaged hideout, or a bunker. It can easily shelter three to four families, so how will you feel if, when all hell breaks loose, you’ll be able to call all your loved ones and offer them guidance and shelter? Besides that, the subterranean roundhouse makes an awesome root cellar where you can keep all your food and water reserves year-round.
From Shannon Azares you’ll learn how sailors from the XVII century preserved water in their ships for months on end, even years and how you can use this method to preserve clean water for your family cost-free.
Mike Searson – who is a Firearm and Old West history expert – will show you what to do when there is no more ammo to be had, how people who wandered the West managed to hunt eight deer with six bullets, and why their supply of ammo never ran out. Remember the panic buying in the first half of 2013? That was nothing compared to what’s going to precede the collapse.
From Susan Morrow, an ex-science teacher and chemist, you’ll master “The Art of Poultice.” She says, “If you really explore the ingredients from which our forefathers made poultices, you’ll be totally surprised by the similarities with modern medicines.” Well…how would you feel in a crisis to be the only one from the group knowledgeable about this lost skill? When there are no more antibiotics, people will turn to you to save their ill children’s lives.
And believe it or not, this is not all…
Table Of Contents:
Making Your Own Beverages: Beer to Stronger Stuff
Ginger Beer: Making Soda the Old Fashioned Way
How North American Indians and Early Pioneers Made Pemmican
Spycraft: Military Correspondence During The 1700’s to 1900’s
Wild West Guns for SHTF and a Guide to Rolling Your Own Ammo
How Our Forefathers Built Their Sawmills, Grain Mills,and Stamping Mills
How Our Ancestors Made Herbal Poultice to Heal Their Wounds
What Our Ancestors Were Foraging For? or How to Wildcraft Your Table
How Our Ancestors Navigated Without Using a GPS System
How Our Forefathers Made Knives
How Our Forefathers Made Snow shoes for Survival
How North California Native Americans Built Their Semi-subterranean Roundhouses
Our Ancestors’Guide to Root Cellars
Good Old Fashioned Cooking on an Open Flame
Learning from Our Ancestors How to Preserve Water
Learning from Our Ancestors How to Take Care of Our Hygiene When There Isn’t Anything to Buy
How and Why I Prefer to Make Soap with Modern Ingredients
Temporarily Installing a Wood-Burning Stove during Emergencies
Making Traditional and Survival Bark Bread…….
Trapping in Winter for Beaver and Muskrat Just like Our Forefathers Did
How to Make a Smokehouse and Smoke Fish
Survival Lessons From The Donner Party
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