Chives?

Has anyone here grown chives? I've never grown any kind of onion from seed before, only from bulbs or sets.

My wife and I like chives on salads and baked potatoes, and I found that a little shaker of dried chives costs about 5 bucks in the supermarket! I think fresh-anything is always better than dried, so I got a pack of seeds and planted them in a 4 gallon pot on our deck.

I mixed MiracleGro Potting Soil and dirt from my vegetable garden, and scratched in some chive seeds about 1/8" to 1/4" deep in it. Quite a few came up, but crabgrass came up in the pot even thicker. I've pulled the little crabgrass seedlings out now, and boy, that was microsurgery - getting those out and leaving the little chive seedlings behind. When that was done there were some bare spots in the pot, so I scratched in the rest of the chive seeds. Hey, I can always thin 'em.

I'm hoping to keep that pot going for awhile - outside in the warm months, and we'll bring it inside in the winter. Will that work, and can I harvest small amounts of chives as we want them for a meal? Do you take just a few spikes from a plant, or all of them - and if you do, will they re-grow?

Somebody tell me about growing these, please. Thanks.

p.s. - The oak twigs are stuck in the pot because otherwise my wife's cat would probably think that's a fine place to lay down. lol

I have chives and i just cooked some today. I bought seedlings few years ago and I planted them in clusters and now ii must have few hundreds. t/hey keep coming back.

I add chives to salads, meats and like you said bake potatoes. I wish i could take picture but I have company and more Co. coming after these leaves. Happy gardening!! Belle

They are much better than the dried store bought chives - a huge world of difference. You seemed to have done everything right.

When you harvest don't cut off just the tops - harvest from the earth upwards and take as much as you want. They may go brown with the heat of summer but they will bounce back. No point taking them indoors for winter. It's the outside sunshine that brings out the flavor. You can always cut, wash, dry on paper towels and try freezing them on a cookie sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag.

Any thinnings can be used for another pot of chives - it's hard to have too much of something you love. I have pots on all sides of the house.

They self-seed like crazy so you may want to remove the flower heads (pretty lavender and adds a bit of spice to salads or vegetables - don't cook - use them as is). If you don't remove the flowers you'll have fields of chives.

"No point taking them indoors for winter. It's the outside sunshine that brings out the flavor. You can always cut, wash, dry on paper towels and try freezing them on a cookie sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag."
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Interesting. I want to make sure I understand this right.

Are you saying that we can use fresh chives off them through the warm months, and that the tops will die down for the winter anyway so there's no use bringing them inside? In the fall I should cut them all down to ground level, freeze what I cut off, and leave the little bulbs outside in that pot to come up again in the spring?

Our ground stays frozen for weeks at a time and it gets down to around zero degrees here a couple of times each winter. Will the bulbs survive that outdoors in a pot? Thanks.

This message was edited May 29, 2011 11:13 AM

Our temps goes down to the teens so the experience is Virginia Beach. Leave some outside and bring some in and see how they do.
This is a recipe that I use chives for. Check on line for adobo recipe. In fact I cooked calamari adobo for lunch and DH loves it. you can make meat adobo or veggie adobo.
I do not dry chives but I freeze some. i use it all summer long. Belle

Yes, use all you want. Fall will having them growing again and you can still continue cutting and using or freezing, though I prefer the frozen ones in things like Potato Leek Soup.

The roots really will live. If you're afraid then put them on the warmest side of your home, in containers, and surround with mulch but I'll bet you won't have to do that. Test it a few different ways and see what works for you.

I will try to remember to take photos as mine go brown and then bounce back to life.

Indoor basil, regardless of the amount of sun in any window, will never taste as good as when it's grown outside. It's just one of those facts of gardening life.

I had the same14 inch terra cotta pot of chives for about 4 years until this past spring when my mom was helping me out with some spring cleaning and she accidently dumped them out. :( Anyway, started off again this spring with some transplants that I found in the produce section in the supermarket and they are doing great! To harvest, cut from the base and they will start growing back right away. I always leave mine outside during the winter with no protection whatsoever. In fact, I am surprised that the pot hadn't cracked with all that freezing and thawing. They are really hard to kill, but I notice that if you don't harvest on a regular basis, the older individual chives will start to yellow. When this happens, I just cut the whole plant back and within a few weeks, it's green and beautiful again. We use them in salads for the most part, but after reading this thread, I will definitely give freezing a try. My 3 year old enjoys munching on fresh chives too, which is odd since she's is averse to eating anything that's in the green category!

Right on all counts, weasel! You could also chop up the chive and add to soft butter, then freeze for winter use.

"When you harvest don't cut off just the tops - harvest from the earth upwards and take as much as you want. They may go brown with the heat of summer but they will bounce back."
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OK, we haven't used any chives yet - but I'd like to.

I read on a website somewhere that chives shouldn't be cut until after they've bloomed. Mine haven't bloomed so I've held off, but I'm starting to think that advice is wrong. C'mon, we can start using these, right?

I think they've done fine. We're close to 100 degrees every day now, but I've kept the pot watered and I've occasionally added liquid fertilizer. A few of the older stalks are turning yellow, but they're mostly green.

I'm thinking of cutting these almost down to ground level, sorting them, and freezing the ones that are still green and fresh. That should give them time to come up again before winter, and I don't care if they bloom or not. What do you think?

Perfect eatin' size, Ozark! Cut 'em. Store some in an open baggy in your fridge for eating now, or just cut half your pot and freeze those and continue to clip from the other half for fresh just-picked eating.

I've had chive plants in 4" pots (customer sales) that have had to put up with total neglect, heat, dry periods, then I discover them and water them well and they bounce right back, probably one of the lowest maintenance plants you can grow.

Diggin' spuds yet? Just think, fresh dug taters with fresh clipped chives for supper tonight, eh?

shoe

Ozark, if you cut them down now, you will have a similar harvest within 4-6 weeks max. In fact, you should be able to squeeze in a few more harvests before winter. Chives are pretty cold-tolerant. In fact, my potted chives start coming up pretty early in the spring. Keeping the pot in the sun helps too.

Don't wait for flowers! Enjoy them now! They do bounce back remarkably fast.

Is the purpose of eating chives, that you only eat the greens and not the bulbs? So if you pull the whole chive out to use it, will the other chives have more room to grow, & maybe multiply?

Yes, the greens and not the bulbs. They manage to have the ability to multiply whether you want them to or not.

If your thought is that you want another pot of them, just cut off a section with a sharp knife and repot it. The vacancy in the original area will fill in soon enough.

Chives are the easiest thing that I've ever grown. A friend in Wisconsin sent me the seed three years ago. I planted them in a shallow pot that is about four inchs wide and twelve inchs long. I have been eating chives for the past three years off the same plants. I just cut them off at ground leve and they pop right back up. If they start to flower I cut them all off.

I agree with Jim!