Onions like an abundance of moisture and a temperate climate, without extremes of heat or cold during the growing season. Green onions and scallions grow well in all zones, while bulb onions prefer zones 3 and warmer.
Planting Onions
Onions love lots of sun and rich, well-drained soil. Apply compost or mushroom manure to low-fertility soils, and a natural source of phosphorus such as bonemeal or rock phosphate. Onions also need a good source of potassium in the soil, such as kitchen compost or fireplace ashes.
Dig the soil until it is free from clods of earth and remove rocks over 1 inch in diameter. Onions can be started in a few different ways:
- Purchasing sets, which are like tiny onion bulbs.
- Purchasing bunches of green sets, (mainly for sweet onions).
- Starting seeds (best for long-storing and cooking onions).
- Purchasing seedlings.
For summer harvest, start seeds indoors 3 to 4 months before the last spring frost. Set out 3 to 4 inches apart a month before the last frost. For a fall harvest, sow the seeds outdoors a month before the last frost of winter. Thin to 3 to 4 inches apart.
For a quick crop, plant the sets, or "onion bulbs." Plant sets 1 inch deep and 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Once the shoots are almost 1 foot tall, pull up every other one for use as scallions.
Tips for Growing Onions
- Keep onions well weeded. Onions have very thin leaves and can easily become shaded out by competing plants.
- Water during dry periods, and fertilize with fish fertilizer or compost tea to encourage good early growth.
- The first few months of care will determine the eventual bulb size.
- Small onions are caused by unsuitable onions for the zone, or not enough feeding and watering in early life.
- Onions with empty centre point to drought early in the planting season.
- Watch for onion maggots; use row covers supported by hoops to keep out the onion maggot fly, which lays the egg that hatches the maggot.
Read more about the prevention of root-eating pests in Worms are Eating my Root Vegetables.
Popular Onion Types for the Garden
- Potato Onion - called the multiplier onion, they form a cluster of underground bulbs, and are often harvested in the second year after planting. Eat the large bulbs, and replant the small ones.
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