Chives are an easy to grow perennial herb. They explode with beautiful purple flowers early in the spring, making them both ornamental and delicious. Chives are great for cooking, and can be used in tons of recipes. Plus, you can harvest them all season long.
Harvesting chives sounds easy, but can be tricky if you’re not sure how to do it. The first few times I harvested chives when I was a newbie, I thought I needed to dig up the individual bulbs (like the green onions you buy at the grocery store).
My chive plants are mature and very dense, making the task of digging up only a few bulbs pretty much impossible. When I tried it, there was so much woody old growth included, I couldn’t even eat them. It was gross. Plus, most of the tiny bulbs were cut or crushed in the process of digging them up, and that wasn’t pretty. Eek!
As it turns out, I was making the task of harvesting chives way too difficult. After doing some research, I learned that you don’t harvest chives by digging up the bulbs, you harvest them by cutting the foliage. But you can’t harvest just any foliage. If you harvest at the wrong time, or the wrong types of leaves, you’ll end up with inedible woody sticks.
How to Harvest Chives
The best time to harvest chives is either before they flower in the early spring or after they’re done flowering. I do both. Plus the flowers are edible too, and delicious in salads. Some people even use chive flowers to infuse olive oil or make herb butter. Yum, I need to try that!
Harvest Chives When Young
Harvesting chives before they flower: Look for tender, lush green new growth in early spring. Yellowish leaves, thick leaves, flower stalks, and old growth will likely be woody and inedible. To make chives easier to harvest in early spring, cut the entire plant down to the ground in the fall.
Tender New Growth On Chives
Harvesting chives after they flower: Deadhead chives after the flowers have faded in late spring, and cut back the entire plant to within a few inches of the ground. A sharp pair of garden hedge shears makes this job super easy!
This is the perfect time to collect chive seeds to grow new plants, or share with a friend. Chives are easy to grow from seed. I grow two types, regular chives and garlic chives. Just keep in mind that chive seeds are only viable for about a year.
Deadhead Chives
After a few weeks, you’ll start to see tender and delicious new growth that’s perfect for harvesting. This tender new growth can be harvested throughout the growing season.
To harvest chives, simply grab a handful of the tender, green foliage, and cut it off with clean shears. I use my kitchen shears for this job, but you can use a sharp pair of garden snips, or even bonsai shears.
Chive Harvest
Related Post: How To Freeze Chives
Chives are delicious and can be used in countless recipes (I especially love them with eggs and in soups). Harvesting chives may take some trial and error, but once you have harvested them a few times, it’s easy to identify the right type of foliage to harvest.
More Garden Harvesting Posts
- Harvesting Parsley Fresh From The Garden
- When To Harvest Onions From Your Garden
- Harvesting And Storing Basil Leaves Fresh From The Garden
- How to Harvest Tomatillos
- How To Harvest Lavender Fresh From The Garden
Share your tips for harvesting chives, or your favorite recipes in the comments section below
Anonymous says
Stupid question: Where can I get chives? Can you start them from seed, or do you buy the whole plant at a nursery?
Amy Andrychowicz says
Yes, you can grow them from seed or get them from a nursery (probably small starts rather than whole plants). They are super easy to grow from seed. In fact, they are so easy that you have to deadhead them to keep them from spreading around too much. Just keep in mind that chive seeds are only viable for about a year, so make sure you buy fresh seeds and plant them soon after.
Amy
From Sugar Cookies to Peterbilts says
Interesting! I did not know about deadheading them. Thank You!
Amy Andrychowicz says
You're welcome, glad I could help you out. 🙂
Anonymous says
question though, I have a large chive plant, but how do I preserve them? in stores you buy the freeze dried, but what about these? chop and freeze, dry out? I don't know where to start lol
Amy Andrychowicz says
You could freeze them; or if you have a dehydrator, you could dehydrate them. Here's how I preserve my chives… How to Freeze Chives
Anonymous says
I have had chives for years and years. They now occupy 3 10" pots, and I move them around for sun (Florida patio). They do the job 12 months of the year. Fertilize now and then, add more soil whenever, and enjoy. I chop and us, then freeze what's left over. They surely are tolerant! They do better in pot with "super" soil than in the sand of Florida. Lots less
Amy Andrychowicz says
Wow, it's great that you've had them for so long in pots! You can harvest them year round too, wonderful! So winters are mild enough here in Minnesota that we could harvest though most of the year, but definitely not once the cold and snow sets in.
Amy
Carole Coates says
I’d like to hear more about more ways to use chives, especially frozen.
Chrissy Rex says
I always have about 7 complete yields of chives outside from cutting them completely back every few weeks in northeast USA. I also grow then in our Living Ledge window gardens all year inside using the same method, cutting completely back every few weeks never allowing to flower. I do use fish emulsion as fertilizer 2 times per year and repor as necessary. I think they are one of the easiest herbs to grow. Thanks for a great post and for helping people understand how
Super simple it is to grow their own !
Amy Andrychowicz says
Wow, that’s wonderful Chrissy!
Amy
Joanne Tipler says
I make sure to break up the lovely flowers and spread them throughout our Salad Greens. I also sprinkle them over just about everything we eat.
Amy Andrychowicz says
Awesome, great way to use the whole plant! Thanks for sharing!
Shelly says
Love the flowers on the chives. Mine have never done that! I love letting the herbs go to sed and flower.. some of them like my pineapple sage are so beautiful!
Edye says
Thanks for the helpful post, Amy! I don’t have a green thumb so I need all the help I can get 😉
Blessings,
Edye
Amy Andrychowicz says
You’re welcome, thanks for stopping by!
Crystal says
This is very informative information for me because I know NOTHING about gardening at all. I was surprised to even find out that chives had flowers on them. (I just love to use them in my recipes.)
Thank you for sharing this with us on the #HomeMattersParty. We hope to see you when we open our doors on Friday at 12 AM EST.
Amy Andrychowicz says
Awesome, glad you liked it! Thanks for stopping by!