Hydroponic Spring Onions and Hops in 2025

At Eutrema, we don’t just formulate leading hydroponic nutrients like Liquid Gold (Gold Leaf in USA)—we rigorously test them on real crops. For 2025, we’ve chosen two unique plants to take centre stage in our R&D grow rooms: spring onions (a.k.a. scallions) and hops. Here’s why these crops are getting the spotlight this year.

🧅 Spring Onions: The Versatile Allium

Known as scallions in North America, spring onions are part of the allium family, alongside garlic, leeks, shallots, and bulb onions. What makes them fascinating is their sulphur chemistry, which contributes to that classic onion “bite.”

Key Reasons for Choosing Spring Onions:

• High sulphur demand makes them ideal for testing Liquid Gold, which contains all essential nutrients, including sulphur and calcium—often missing from other one-part fertilizers.
• We’re also testing Liquid Gypsum and Lime Sulphur, which can improve soil structure, act as biopesticides, and combat root rot—common in alliums.
• Mycorrhizal fungi may enhance their thick root systems, so we’re incorporating those in trials.
• Deep planting could enhance the white (etiolated) stem portion that consumers love.

Why It Matters:

Spring onions are quick growers—ready in 6–8 weeks, making them ideal for rapid experimentation. Plus, UK supermarket spring onions are currently poor quality: flaccid, dirty, and expensive. We believe locally grown, hydroponic spring onions could be a game changer.

And let’s be honest—nobody wants a flaccid spring onion.

🌿 Hops: The Other Green Gold

The second focus for 2025 is hops, a vital ingredient in beer brewing and a botanical cousin to a well-known North American crop in the Cannabaceae family.

Why Hops?

• One of our customers used Eutrema biostimulants and seaweed-based fertilizers and won Hop Grower of the Year in the UK—even during a year of bad weather.
• We’re setting up propagation rooms for high-value hop cuttings, especially for rare varieties only available to select UK growers.
• Hops are photoperiodic, female-flowering, and vulnerable to similar diseases and pests as other Cannabaceae crops, making them ideal for controlled studies.

And yes, we also like IPA, so this one’s personal.

Why These Crops?

Aside from the scientific curiosity, market readiness and edibility matter. Past experiments with niche crops like wasabi and Carolina Reaper chilies failed to impress local consumers.

But everyone loves spring onions, and everyone loves beer. These crops are globally relevant, grow quickly, and offer clear commercial pathways for both fresh produce and botanical ingredients.

Get Involved in Our 2025 Trials

We’re assembling a merry band of spring onion growers and setting up cutting-edge hop propagation systems. If you want to trial our products on either crop, or get involved in collaborative R&D, email us.

Expect updates throughout 2025 as we dive deeper into growing smarter, tastier, and more resilient crops.

Article by Dr Russell Sharp

If you would like to keep up to date with subjects just like this, you can listen to both our podcasts! Links can be found bellow:

Hydroponics Daily Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/207T7p7fw9sPjINfSjVXW2

Cereal Killers Podcast: https://t.co/eSEbBkTVHl