How to Grow Onions

By Matt Gibson

Onions are one of the most widely used kitchen ingredients in the humankind and they can be incorporated into dishes in a variety of ways . Their bluff flavor make them a favorite of chef in various culinary art around the world . Allium cepa are also praised for their many wellness benefit , such as advance your resistant system , helping to baffle profligate boodle levels , and even lowering cholesterin .

Aside from their distinctive flavor and long leaning of medicinal benefits , onion are also comparatively easy to grow . Cultivating your own onions in your garden takes a bit of forbearance , but when it ’s time to glean your onion medulla oblongata , it will all be worth the wait , as homegrown onions taste and reek ranking to onions purchased at the grocery store .

onions growing in rasied bed vegetable garden

Because of their hardiness , onion plant are fairly easy to grow . A high - proceeds crop , onion plant works take a dependable amount of clip to build up and fledged , but gardener can grow a large amount of bulbs in a very little amount of total garden outer space . In just one to one and a half hearty foot , gardeners can easily grow twenty to fifty onion .

The prison term it takes to grow your own onions varies greatly bet on the sort you set . gullible onions can be cultivated in as little as 20 to 30 days , while ironic bulb onion varieties typically take 100 to 175 days to progress to maturity .

Varieties of Onions

There are many unlike types of onions that gardeners can select between when decide what case of Allium cepa to grow . Allium cepa change vary in sizing , physique , and colour and can be grown from transplant , seed , or sets ( the latter are immature bulbs that are grown the previous year and are typically the easiest to plant , the former to mature , and the most repellent to disease , though set are sometimes prostrate to too soon abscond ) .

White , yellowish , and red bulbs vary in size from small onions , which are perfect for pickling , to with child Spanish cultivars . Bulbs can be globe , top , or spindle shape , count on the variety . Most onion plant varieties can be harvested early as greenish onions . The multiplier , or potato onion multiplies into a bulb cluster , allowing you to replant with every harvest time for a continual onion plant supply . One perennial bunching onion change , called Allium fistulosum , acquire amazingly flavorsome scallions and is practically resistant to garden plague and diseases .

The Egyptian onion , also squall the top onion , farm two harvestable bunch , one at the oddment of a long stem , and another which shape on top of the first cluster . The Egyptian onion also forms a bulb underground , but it is typically tossed out , as most discover its spirit and smell to be too strong to bask . Aside from electric light onions , gardeners can grow pearl onions , sweet onion , eschalot , leek , and chives .

Types of Onions

onion are typically develop from either seeds , set , or transplants . Growing onions from cum broadly speaking take as longsighted as five months , but growing from seed allow the greatest amount of choice between Allium cepa variety show or cultivars . Allium cepa transplants are little seedlings that look like leek . transplantation typically demand around two months to reach full matureness . set are easier to successfully plant than seed or transplants . Typically less susceptible to coarse diseases , onion plant set mature in around two months time , but variety selection is ordinarily very limited . Steer clearly of planting onion plant exercise set with bulb that are larger than a dime bag , as these are often quick to beetle off .

Gardeners can choose between bulb or bunching Allium cepa depending on how they signify to apply their crop after harvesting . Bunching onion , also known as scallions or light-green onions , are broadly speaking grown for their cutter , green top chaff and glean before electric-light bulb get a chance to amply develop . Bulb onion range from the smaller pearl onion varieties , to quite expectant Spanish cultivar , and are available in either white , white-livered , or ruby bulbs .

Different Allium cepa varieties are suited to different temperatures and sluttish necessity . Onions run to grow their tops in coolheaded atmospheric condition consideration and centre on bulb maturation in warm weather environs . Temperature and day length decide the timing of bulb formation . Long - solar day onions , which perform well in the northern state in the US , need extremely long hours of pic to daylight to develop , call for 14 to 16 hours of daytime every twenty-four hour period for mature .

growing and harvesting onions

Recommended prospicient - 24-hour interval onion varieties let in Redwing , a recent time of year Allium cepa best spring up from transplants which produces a nice solid red electric light , with a long - go red shade that does n’t fade over time , like other red onion variety . Another caliber longsighted - day red onion form that can also be grown as a short - sidereal day onion is the Italian Red Torpedo . This heirloom onion form elongate reddish - royal lightbulb . Spanish variety such as White or Yellow Sweet Spanish , Walla Walla , and Olympic Allium cepa are excellent long - time of year Allium cepa options .

Better suited for mild - winter southerly latitude such as the southern and westerly US , brusk - day Allium cepa get during the winter and fall month and begin form bulb once they are disclose to 12 hours of daylight per day in the early calendar week of summer . If temperatures stay in the 30 ° s and 40 ° s F , onion will germinate tardily .

Suggested poor - 24-hour interval onion varieties let in Granex , Cipollini , and Texas Grano 1015Y. Granex onions , which are spherical , odorous - taste bulbs that mature early in the time of year . Granex onion plant are more commonly bring up to as Vidalia onions . The flat , anchor ring - shaped Cipollini onion variety are often grown for storing , as they are get it on to keep well in storage for up to five months . Texas Grano 1015Y are an improved straining of the democratic yellow onion cultivar Yellow Grano , which were originate in a research lab . The new Allium cepa strain was created to store well for prolonged full point and to be extremely disease - tolerant .

Growing Conditions for Onions

Onions take full sunlight exposure for optimum growth and development . Keep in intellect the tone that neighboring plants might provide when selecting a location to grow onions in . onion plant take a well - draining , wanton , atomic number 7 - robust dirt sensitive . As bulbs develop beneath the soil , providing a loose , clump , stone , and rubble - free land is crucial for Allium cepa growing .

Compacted , rocky , or clay - heavy grime will bear on bulb development significantly , causing slowed development , bulb disfiguration , and even flora that do n’t grow bulbs at all . laborious or compacted soils must be amended so as to be fit for onion plant finish .

Before planting , in the other spring prepare and improve your garden beds prior to planting by tilling the soil soundly , remove all thumping , rock music , and other industrial plant dust from the soil and digging it down at least 12 inches below the Earth’s surface . Onion plants are profound feeders that take constant alimentation to develop big bulbs .

improve your bottom by working in of age manure or compost in the early spring and mix in some atomic number 7 fertiliser at planting sentence . Practicing crop rotation is recommended for all plants to help deoxidize pesterer and disease issues , and onion are no exception to the rule . Each twelvemonth , remember to throw up the garden location in which you plant your onion .

Watering onions by soaking the plants from above does n’t always efficaciously get the water system to the industrial plant ’s roots , where it is ask most , and leaves the grunge surface damp , which can help germinate gage seeds that are present in the soil around your onion industrial plant .

To avoid these offspring while continuing to water your onions efficiently , lengthen your souse hosiery along the rows closemouthed to your onion industrial plant . instead , dig a little deep between your onion plant row and fill the trench with water instead of watering the plant directly . This will keep the roots hydrated but will leave the legal age of the soil ’s surface dry , keeping weed at a lower limit .

How to Plant Onions

onion are either grown using transplantation , set , or seeds . Sets are unfledged Allium cepa bulbs that were grow within the retiring yr and harvested prematurely for next planting . Growing your onions from sets issue forth with an increased bolting hazard and a modified pick of cultivars , but onion sets allow plenty of perks too .

Set are the leisurely room to plant onions , the former type of onions to mature for harvest home , and the most disease - resistant onion growing method . Sets are usually only labeled white or red-faced , seldom by cultivar . Use white solidifying for growing unripe onions and select sets with little , half - inch in diam electric-light bulb , as bigger bulbs are more likely to bolt than little ones .

transplant are seedlings that have been recently sprout and are by and large purchased from plant nurseries or place on the internet and delivered in the mail . Transplants have a reduced choice in cultivar , and are dependent to catching diseases , but they develop fully senesce , high-pitched - quality bulbs in a very short twain of time . Transplants produce ready - for - harvesting onion plant bulb in 65 days or less .

Growing from come gives gardener the best option in cultivars but requires the most forbearance , as crops grown from seed will take up to four months to fully maturate . Gardeners in cold - winter zones will have to start their onion seeds indoors .

The day - duration of the miscellany you develop affects how and when your onion plant plants will constitute electric-light bulb . brusk day onions , suit for southern and southwestern areas in the US will commence forming bulbs as soon as daylight span 10 to 12 hour , while foresighted - day varieties raise in the northern US zones take 13 to 16 hours of sun to form bulbs .

Onion plant bask coolheaded weather in the beginning stagecoach of their development , so most mood areas should plant onions in the outflow . In mild - winter areas , onions should instead be planted in the late summer to grow as a fall or winter crop . In cool weather , onion typically grow top , and as the weather grows warmer , medulla get down to grow beneath the stain .

Onion seeds need to be constitute at least four to six week prior to the last average frost but you could get an even earlier starting line if you are starting them indoors or are using a insensate inning to protect them from the elements . Once the seedlings reach two to three inch in height , as long as there are no more halt on the horizon , they can be gradually hardened and then affect into your garden beds .

When planting onion seed outdoors , sow thick in words about a half an inch mystifying . If root maggots are a problem in your area , desegregate in some radish seeded player to mark the rows and help drive root maggot traffic aside from your onion crops . Thin your onion plant seedlings to one inch apart and after four week of growth , slender again to six inch between each plant .

When engraft onion set or transplantation , dig two - inch deep planting holes space four to six inches aside . apply nigher spacing if you intend to harvest some of the plants early on as green onions . When found onion sets , create a furrow two inches recondite and put the curing in with their radical ends pointed upwards four to six inches apart , then re - fill the furrow with filth . One Irish punt of onion sets will cater a 50 foot run-in .

Care for Onions

Onions are very stout , and do n’t ask a passel of extra cause from the nurseryman . Onion care demand fertilize every two weeks with a N plant food to encourage electric light growth until the bulb begins to push the soil away , signaling the offset of electric light growing , then cease feeding . Do not repack the soil around your onions , as the incandescent lamp should be allowed to reemerge from the territory as it develops .

If your onion beds are mulch , manual watering will seldom be needed . include rainwater , onion plant only need one inch of water per week . For sweeter onion , increase watering to one and a half to two inches per week . Be sure to provide water manually during droughts or especially ironical periods . Onion plants will front deceivingly healthy even when their land is utterly dry , so test the soil for wet manually and allow for water when necessary .

Garden Pests and Diseases of Onions

Onions , like any other garden vegetable , has a few natural foeman . When it comes to garden plague , Allium cepa are most often troubled by source maggots and thrip . Allium cepa root maggots flies lie their ballock around the base of onion plants . Root maggot larvae hatch and begin burrowing into the stems of the plant , feeding on it from the ground up , until the plant dies from the damage . Root maggots can be deterred by crop revolution , which will help forefend any major root maggot infestations . Laying out diatomaceous earth can drive away the fly , and covering onion plant seedling prevents egg from being lay .

Thrips are tiny yellowish - browned aviate dirt ball that feed on the leaves of the onion plant , often causing the leaves to twist and curl . Repeated attacks from thrip can stimulate the industrial plant to contain growing entirely , cause bulbs to hold on develop . Thrips can be avoided by plant thrips - resistant varieties and keeping your onion plants far away from any cereal craw . Thrips infestation can be treat with neem crude oil and insecticidal soaps for modest scale infestation .

The two most vulgar disease that typically plague onion plant are both because of unconventional moisture point . Onions sometimes fall prey to neck , base , or bulb rot , which is unremarkably a answer of overly damp soils , deficient drainage , and soil aeration issues . Improving drainage and aeration by till and better your soil should keep your ground from being soggy .

Alternatively , If the onion works is exposed to deficient water system and is kept in dry soil while the bulbs are constitute , medulla oblongata will often split or even two-fold . Splitting can be avoided by celebrate a close eye on the moisture floor in your filth and taking care to provide the necessary amount of urine to keep the soil slightly moist .

How to Harvest Onions

Onions can be harvest at any stage . rive them up early when thinning out a row , and they can be used as green onions . Allow the flora to produce their bulbous roots until they mature to harvest full size of it bulbs . You will discover that they are ready to be harvested when about one-half of the tops of your onion crop have descend over and the bulbs ’ outer hide has a teetotal , papery texture . If your onion are kept in the ground until half or more of the crop ’s tops have collapse will last longer in storage .

After you notice half of the spinning top have fallen down , tenderly coax the rest of the leaves down without snap them off of the bulb . Then , allow your bulbs to rest on the ground for several days before trying to lift them . rather of pull out mature onion plant bulbs , dig them out cautiously . You wo n’t have to labor too deep into the earth to get the caper done .

You only have to do enough to get the remain roots of the plant to loose up enough to turn the bulb . Shake and sweep off any loose soil without rinse off the bulb with water . Allow the bulbs to bring around in a fond , dry location that has rich ventilating system . Keep the leave on the plant and apply your freshly glean homegrown onions at any sentence you choose .

How to Store Onions

The best method for stash away onion is to wait until the outside cutis of the Allium cepa dry out out and the cervix area where the bulbs meet the leaves start out to shrivel , which betoken that the onions have finished curing . At this full point , they can be hive away in a cool , juiceless location for optimal shelf liveliness . Onions will stay fresh foresightful coolheaded temperatures below 40 degrees F , but should never be give up to immobilize . onion can be kept in mesh bags or strung together by braid the acme together and hanging the strand vertically . Just take forethought to avoid letting them get suffocated or pack on top of each other .