How To Grow Onions
2011-02-19 at 01:10 pm pshipley
How To Grow Onions
Welcome to our guide on How To Grow Onions. Growing onions is relatively straight forward. Onions are grown as annuals, most have brown or creamy coloured skins, and cream flesh but some have red or yellow skins and red coloured flesh. They vary in size and flavour too.
Bulb onions are quite frost tolerant, and prefer cool temperatures during the early stages of development.
They can be eaten raw or cooked, mature or young. Some varieties store extremely well, hung up or in boxes.
Cultivars are grouped as short or long day, dependant on whether they need a short or long day for the bulb to swell. Long day varieties are generally grown in more northern regions and short days are generally grown down south.
Soil For Growing Onions
Grow in an open site, with medium to light soils, which is well drained and have been manured the previous autumn.
How To Grow Onions From Seed Or Sets
Onions are grown from either seed or from sets. Sets are quicker to grow but seeds give more choice of cultivar (varieties)
For those who want to know how to grow onions from seed then simply sow seed on a firm seed bed in rows about 20-25cm apart and about 1cm deep. For an early crop sow in the autumn and the onions will be ready for harvesting early the next autumn.
They will however need protection through the winter and will require thinning to 4cm apart for small cultivars and 10cms for larger cultivars.
Sets are very popular for growing onions, they are small onions in an arrested stage of growth. When replanted it continues to grow as normal. They are planted so that the tips are just above the surface, in rows that are 30 cm apart and at a spacing of 10-15cms.
Onions start to form bulbs in the summer, no matter when they were sown, so later sowings produce smaller bulbs. For larger bulbs sow earlier in the spring.
Growing Onions Care Tips
Feed overwintered onions in the spring, water sparingly in dry weather and hoe to remove weeds.
Keep an eye out for:-
Downy Mildew – Poor Growth. White, fluffy fungus on lower side of leaves, upper surface may be blotched, yellow.
Onion Neck Rot – Grey fungal growth and hard black coloured sclerotia, neck soft and discoloured.
Onion White Rot – White fluffy fungus at base of bulb and roots, hard black masses.
Onion Flies – Yellowing leaves, maggots in bulb and poor growth.
Harvesting and Storing Onions
Knowing how to grow onions and growing onions is one thing but you need to know how and when to harvest and store your onions.
Onions sown in spring take around 12-18 weeks to mature, and autumn sown as long as 42 weeks. The leaves turn yellow and the outer layers on the bulb turn brown when ready for harvesting. Lift carefully with a fork to loosen roots.
Be careful not to bruise them and wait for the leaves to die back naturally, leave to dry in the sun for a week off the ground, or in a greenhouse. Wait until thoroughly dry then pack carefully in boxes and store at 0-7C in low humidity (will store for 3-6 months).
Suggested Onion Varieties
Autumn Harvest – `Ailsa Craig`, `Giant Fen Globe` or `Buffalo` F1.
Red Onions – `Red Baron`, `Long Red Florence`, or `Blood Red`.
Traditional and Japanese Overwintering Onions – `Reliance`, `Express Yellow` or `Imai Yellow`.
Sets For Autumn Planting – `Sturon`, `Centurion` F1 or `Unwin`s First lady`.
Thank you for reading our simple How To Grow Onions guide why not check out our guides on how to grow other vegetables from the menu on the right side of this page. Good luck growing onions!