How to Harvest Immature Onions

If you wait to harvest onions until the tops dry and fall over, then you are harvesting them as large, dry onions. If you harvest them before this, when the onions are still immature, you are harvesting green onions. Green, immature onions are usually ready to harvest 30 days after planting and are excellent in salads, casseroles and soups.

Trowel (optional)

Instructions

- 1
  Harvest every other onion in a row, and let the other onions grow to full maturity, if desired. This allows you to plant onions closer together -- approximately 2 inches apart. When you harvest the immature onions, you are also thinning the gardening, making room for the other onions to grow.
- 2
  Wait to harvest immature onions until the tops grow at least 6 inches tall. According to the University of Illinois Extension, the longer you wait, the stronger the onion flavor, which is good for cooking, but not good for eating raw. Smaller green onions are sweeter.
- 3
  Grab hold of the green stalks and pull. The onions should lift from the soil easily, especially if the soil is slightly moist. If the onions don’t easily give, dig them out carefully with a trowel.

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