HOW TO GROW ONIONS

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Onions are the mainstay of many traditional meals and with prices of fresh produce steadily rising, growing your own onions has never been more attractive. However the price of onions should be the least of you concerns. Why? Because the far superior flavour and quality of home grown onions should be more than enough reason to justify growing them.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to growing onions - should you grow them from seed or onion sets? Its a good question and to be fair I do both. Growing onions from seed is cheap, and fulfilling - well I find it fulfilling, I can't speak for anyone else - while onion sets can go in later and hit the ground running - as it were.

GROWING ONIONS FROM SEED

When growing onions from seed, the secret is in the preparation. If you look at how the most exhibitors grow their prize winning onions it's always from seed, so you know you are already on for a good start. To begin with you need a sunny site with good drainage but the key is to grow them in a permanent bed in order to build up the soil fertility. There is a down side to this however as you can also encourage the build up of diseases. With that in mind it's advisable to rotate your onion bed with the rest of the vegetable garden every few years - unless you are in the habit of periodically steralising your soil.

If you can, start preparing your onion bed in the autumn by digging in plenty of well-rotted farm manure. This will give the ground a chance to settle over the winter period and allow frosts to break down the soil clods. If you soil is too acidic – below pH 5.5 – you will need to add lime to it according to manufactures recommendations. In general, onions prefer a pH of between 6 and 7.5.

It's possible to grow good onions on heavy soil, but you must improve the drainage first before planting. Add plenty of horticultural grit and bulky organic matter to the soil and then create a ridge of soil 4 inches high to further reduce soil moisture.

You can sow main-crop onion seeds as soon as your soil will allow which can be any time from late February, but you can steal a march here by picking a dry day a few weeks before sowing time and raking the soil to a fine tilth. Onions like a firm bed so tread over the area you have just raked.

Try adding a general fertiliser like growmore for extra fertility, and for an even earlier crop you can sow onion seed under glass or cloches in January.

Choose a dry day to sow onion seed when the soil is moist but not too wet, then plant the seed very thinly into drills ½ inch deep. If you are planting more than one row then each row should be at least 9 inches apart. Carefully cover the onion seed with soil and gently water in. Germination should then take approximately 21 days to occur. Once the new seedlings have began to push through the soil, they can be thinned out to between 1 and 2 inches apart. After a couple more weeks these can be further thinned out to one plant to every 4-5 inches. Remember to clear away all of your discarded thinning so as not to attract onion fly.

You will need to keep a a particular eye on the newly sprouting onion shoots as these will often attract the attention of inquisitive birds – particularly pigeons and black birds - who will lift your juvenile crops straight out of the seed beds for nothing more than a little mischievous fun. If you don't have some kind of protection in place you can end up losing almost an entire crop!
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Onions are not very good at supressing weed growth, and if regular weeding is neglected they will easily be out competed for nutrients resulting in your crop becoming stunted. Try to leave enough space between the rows to get your hoe in for weeding, but always hand-weed any weeds close to your onions as they can be easily damaged by garden tools.

To maintain a good year-round supply of onions, you can make a second planting during the late summer which should be ready to harvest from June. However, this second planting isn't recommended if you have heavy, poorly drained soils. In general, onions should be given as long a growing season as possible to reach their maximum size.

Your main crop onions should be ready for harvesting any time between August to September depending on both the weather and the individual variety. The onion bulb will be mature when the foliage turns yellow and begins to tip over, but you will need to leave them for another couple of weeks before lifting.

Choose a dry day and if the onions are fully ripe they will lift easily from the ground, any problems and you can carefully ease them out of the soil using a hand fork. They will now need to be dried and depending on the weather or the size of your onions this will take approximately 2-4 weeks for them to properly cure before they are ready for the kitchen. If any of your onions have developed thick 'necks' over the growing season, use these ones straight away as they will not store well and will be more prone to neck rot.

GROWING ONIONS FROM ONION SETS

Growing onions from onion sets is probably the easiest way to produce a good crop of quality onions and generally you will achieve better success this way when compared to growing onions from seed.

To begin with you need a sunny site with good drainage but the key is to grow them in a permanent bed in order to build up the soil fertility. There is a down side to this however as you can also encourage the build up of diseases so it is advisable to rotate your onion bed with the rest of the vegetable garden. Avoid soils that have been planted with onions within the past three years, and because onions are shallow rooted and poor competitors with other plants, try and avoid sites with a history of perennial weeds.
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It is possible to grow onions on the same bed year after year but in order to maintain successful and healthy cropping a strict health routine must be followed. If there are any onions that you suspect are harbouring any kind of disease then remove not only the plant but also a small amount of soil from where the onion was growing. Hopefully this will eliminate any unwanted bacteria in the soil. It is also worth watering the bed with a dilution of Jeys Fluid once the crop has been harvested - this again will help to kill any unwanted bacteria or fungi. There are onion beds that were started over 140 years ago that are still in production today using this method!
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If you can, start preparing your onion bed in the autumn by digging in plenty of well-rotted farm manure. This will give the ground a chance to settle over the winter period and allow frosts to break down the soil clods. If you soil is to acidic – below pH 5.5 – you will need to add lime to the bed according to manufactures recommendations. In general, onions prefer a pH of between 6 and 7.5 and a fine tilth to be planted into. Weather permitting, the frosts should do a good job of this.
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You can plant onion sets as soon as your soil will allow you to which can be any time from late February, but you can steal a march here by picking a dry day a few weeks before planting and raking the soil to a fine tilth. Onions like a firm bed so tread over the area you have just raked. Try adding a general fertiliser like growmore for extra fertility, and for an even earlier crop you can plant onion sets under protective cloches at the end of January. (There is an advantage that can be gained by setting up cloches before planting. If cloches are placed over the ground prior to planting, the ground has some time to warm up, reducing the chances of a check in growth). The soil may require some watering to achieve a uniform moisture before planting onion sets, but try and avoid planting them into a dry bed.
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Plant onion sets 4 inches apart in rows about 1 foot apart and plant them to a depth where only the very tips of the sets are just showing through the soil. Dig a hole in the soil with a trowel and place them in the hole with their necks uppermost. Do not just push them into the soil as they may grow out of the soil as the season progresses.

Micro-nutrients are also important in onion production - in particular boron and zinc - so look at giving your onions a periodic liquid feed of seaweed based fertiliser. However if your onions are clearly growing well then this will probably be unnecessary.

You will need to keep a a particular eye on the newly sprouting onion shoots as these will often attract the attention of inquisitive birds – particularly pigeons and black birds - who will lift your juvenile crops straight out of the seed beds for nothing more than a little mischievous fun. If you don't have some kind of protection inplace you can end up loosing almost an entire crop!

Onions are not very good at supressing weed growth, and if regular weeding is neglected they will easily be out competed for nutrients. This will result in your crop becoming stunted. If you can leave enough space between the rows to get your hoe in for weeding. However, always hand-weed any weeds close to your onions as they are easily damaged by garden tools.

To have a year-round supply, you can make a second planting during the late summer which should be ready to harvest from June, although a second planting isn't recommended in heavy, poorly drained soils.
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In general, onions should be given as long a growing season as possible to reach their maximum size.Your main crop onions should be ready for harvesting any time between August to September depending on both the weather and individual varieties. The onion bulb will be mature when the foliage turns yellow and begins to tip over, but you will need to leave them for another couple of weeks before lifting. Choose a dry day and if the onions are fully ripe they will lift easily from the ground by hand, any problems and you can carefully ease them out of the soil with a gardening fork. They will now need to be dried and depending on the weather or the size of your onions it will take approximately 2-4 weeks for them to properly cure. They are now ready for the kitchen. If any of your onions have developed thick 'necks' over the growing season, use these ones straight away as they will not store well and are prone to neck rot.

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