Onions right out of the garden make some of the best eating available.  They are high in vitamin C and taste wonderful.  Growing onions is not too complicated.  There are some things you need to know to get a good crop.

Day varieties defined

Onions come in long, medium, and short-day varieties.  While we think of the days as longer at the equator, that is only true in the winter.  In the summer, the hours of sunlight increase the further north you go.  That means people along the Canadian border need to grow long-day varieties while people in Texas grow short-day varieties.  Long day onions need 14-16 hours of sunlight a day.  Medium-day onions need 12-13 hours of sunlight a day, and short-day onions need 11-12 hours of sunlight a day.  Get the wrong type of onion and you won’t get much of a crop for your trouble.

How to grow

Onions can be grown from seeds or from sprigs.  Most people purchase springs from the feed store or nursery at the appropriate time for planting.  Around here, they come in bundles of 25 or so sprigs.  You dig a shallow trench the length of your row as soon as you can work the soil in the spring.  Then lay the onion sprigs in the trench.  Cover up the trench and you should have a row of sprigs standing up, ready to grow.  Water them in and you are done.

Sprigs

The only problem with that is that you do not get many choices about what varieties you plant, and you do not know how they were treated.  By that I mean if you run an organic garden, you do not know how the sprigs were treated so they cannot be called organic.  There are some places to buy organic sprigs, but they are expensive as all get out.

Seeds

The other option is to plant the onions from seeds.  You have to plan ahead a lot further to do this.  Where I live, you plant seeds in October.  They grow some before the cold weather, then go dormant until spring.  You cover them with straw to keep them warm. 

In January, you uncover them and the onions start growing again.  They are ready for harvest at the usual time, around May.  You can get organic seeds from places like Seeds for Change, or regular seeds from the seed catalogs.  Onion seeds are tiny and hard to handle.  Some places sell them in a tape, which you bury with the seeds.  Otherwise, you just do the best you can and thin the resulting seedlings.

Seeds are planted 1/4 inch deep and 1 inch apart.  When they are about 6 inches high, thin the seedlings to one every two to three inches.  You can eat the ones you pulled out as green onions, or plant them in another row as transplants.  Transplants are put 3/4 inch deep and three inches apart.

Fertilizer  

Like most plants, onions appreciate some fertilizer.  Two to three pounds of fertilizer spread over a 100 square foot area of the garden, then raked into the soil, making the onions happy.  Be careful with rake and hoe near the onions — you do not want to damage the onion root.

Watering

Watering should be done once or twice a week, depending on the drought conditions.  Onions grow best if watered slowly and deeply, so drip irrigation is the best way to do that.  In any case, an inch of water each time you water is best.  Make sure you keep the weeds pulled so they do not steal water from the onions.

Fertilize the onions again when they have five to six leaves.  One-half cup of fertilizer for every ten feet of row is good.  Side dress the onions, which means scattering the fertilizer between the rows.  Then water it in.

Pests

Onions are remarkably free of insects and diseases.  Tiny thrips may infect the center of the leaves, but Sevin, sulfur, or BT will kill them.  Sometimes onions get brown leaf tips or brown spots.  Sulfur can help this as well.  Be sure to read the label and follow it for all pesticides, even organic ones.

Harvesting

Onions are generally ready to harvest in May or July if planted in January as transplants or October as seeds.  When the tops droop and fall, the bulbs are ready.  Let cure a day or two more in the ground, then store in an airy, dry place or in the refrigerator.

Want to learn to garden? My first attempt at gardening ended up in failure. The weeds took over and squeezed the vegetables out. I was very frustrated by this waste of good seed, time, and money. So I became a master gardener and spent a lot of time helping other people avoid or overcome problems in their garden. 

In order to help others garden successfully, I have written a book, Vegetable Gardening from the Ground Up, available in an ebook or a paperback from Amazon. It is also in Kindle Unlimited.