Growing Onions – Who does not know onion? This concentric rounded bulb known for its pungent aroma is one of the top used and cultivated vegetable worldwide.
People would find onion’s sharp flavor in many savory dishes, from fried, grilled, baked, stir-fried or in soups. Besides the bulb, onions are also associated with scallions or green onions. It is the long, greenish part that grows on the bulb. It has milder taste and aroma than onion that would be ideal for garnish.
Without a doubt, onions hold the key ingredient into flavorful meal. Now, who knows onion can be so easy to grow? Onions are one of kitchen scraps gardeners can regrow.
Though it is a seasonal crop, it yields a satisfying harvest even within a limited space. Learn more about growing onions to make sure you grow them successfully on your garden.
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Growing Onions from Seed
There are several types of onions, including red onions, yellow onions, white onions and shallots. Generally, yellow onions are more popular for cooking. Meanwhile, people typically enjoy red onions as it is raw and fresh for salads.
Apart from that, they have similar steps and stages of growing. As it is a cool-season crops, gardeners starts planting onion in early spring. Typically, growing onions is easy either from seeds or from heat-treated sets. You can read and follow these guides to grow your own.
Start the seeds in a tray
Initially, the seeds need to germinate or grow sprouts. In order to start, gardeners require a seedling tray and fresh seeds. Fresh seeds are available at gardening stores. The fresher the better, because aged seeds may fail to germinate. Sow the seeds in a tray filled with seedlings compost with a space of a half-inch between each seed. Cover the seeds lightly with more compost, keep it under bright light for about 12 hours everyday. Don’t forget to water the tray. This germination process usually take up 10 days. It will last shorter in ideal temperature of 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Gardeners usually prepare bottom heat for the tray. For instance, they keep the tray over a flat surface that generates heat, such as the top of the fridge.
Transplant seedlings to garden
Eventually, the seeds will sprout seedling leaves. Keep an eye on the height not to exceeds over 3 inches tall to prevent the seedlings from falling over. So gardeners need to trim back this leaves accordingly. After some time, the seedlings produce the third leaf. This is the cue for the gardeners to transplant the seedlings to the garden ground. Raised beds are one way to make sure that the onions will get better drainage. Other than the garden ground, gardeners can also have them transplanted in a container which is at least 4 inches deep. The best soil to grow onions are well-drained, loose soil with pH range of 6.0 to 6.8. Plant the seedlings about 1 inch deep so the neck is not buried while the roots are perfectly covered in the soil. Distance each plants about 2 inches. Make sure the location gets full sun and shield them from the wind damage.
Provide nutrients and enough water
During the early growth, onion roots will need to be fed much more than ever. Onions needs many intake of phosphorus by the aid of certain mycorrhizal fungi in the soil. Phosphorus deficiency in the soil may lead to delay of onion’s growth. It is essential to produce more and improve the size of the yields. Therefore, gardeners need to provide the planting bed with sufficient bioactive compost. Other than that, gardeners also need to keep the soil moisture. As onion’s roots are shallow, it can’t absorb water very efficiently. So they need regular supply of water, particularly when the weather is dry.
Remove the weeds
Weeds are inevitable just directly after seedlings are
If not thoroughly taken care of, weeds will take over the water and nutrients in the soil. It will affect the development of the bulbs and risk to fail crops. Gardeners need to hoe the soil regularly to remove weeds, usually using hand-held hoe is enough for small spaces. Another option is to invest in weeds prevention by mulch the soil thinly. Fine mulch such as grass clippings that is pesticide-free and weed-free are great for this situation. It also locks the moisture in the soil longer. Remove the mulch only when the bulbs are pushing above the soil surface. If not mulching, gardeners can opt to plant smother crops in between the onion rows. Arugula, lettuce and other leafy greens are great company amongst the onion while also suppress the weeds.
Know when to harvest
By growing onions, gardeners can harvest both green onions and the onion bulbs. Green onions are ready for harvest anytime since the first week of planting. Gardeners can harvest the green onions according to their needs. However, they leave onions with thick neck because they will give bigger and healthy-looking bulbs later. As for harvesting the bulbs, gardeners need to wait until the plants mature completely to get full-sized onions. During the development of the bulbs, they will push forward to peek above the soil. Draw the soil away from the bulbs because they need to be exposed under the sun. Eventually, the leaves turn yellow, dry, and fall over. This is when harvest occur. Gardeners later keep the harvested onions in dry, airy storage with top leaves still attached. Naturally, the roots will shrivel and gardeners can prune the dried top leaves in the storage.
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Growing Green Onions
Green onions are not merely a garnish. It helps enhance rich flavor of any dish and adds a spark of color in it. Green onions take only a couple of weeks to be ready for harvest. It also regrow from cuttings easily.
Green Onions Vase
Green onions regrow easily from the roots. Don’t throw out the leftover roots after you cook. Growing green onions from roots will need a little vase and fill it with clear water. Then place some roots inside, submerged in the water. Within a week, its green leaf will sprout upward.
Recycled Egg Tray Planter
Egg trays are common to use as seedling trays. In the case of growing green onions, the roots require much vertical space to grow healthy. Therefore, gardeners set up some large egg shells and sow the seeds in it. Not only it gives enough room for the roots, it also help the seedlings looking neat in the tray.
Plastic Bottle Planters
Rather than dumping them, prolong the plastic bottles life cycle in your household by using them as planters. Firstly, create a large cavity in the upper half of the bottle. Secondly, fill the bottle with potting soil until up until the cavity. Don’t forget to make little holes underneath to allow water to flow out of the bottle. Then, you can sow the seeds in it. The best thing of this idea is that you can hang it up and free more space in the ground to plant other crops.
Vintage Drawer Box
One of fun activities you can do for the garden is to decorate and create a theme of your herb garden. You can style some pots in the corner into attractive vintage spot in the corner of the garden. Plant green onions in one of the pot and fill others with different types of herbs or spices. The difference of shapes and sizes within a spot can make such a little space an eye-catching spot.
Custom Wooden Pot Set
For a rustic style lover, this planter set would be ideal match to the wooden tabletop. The whole visual will bring a raw, romantic feels of a natural scene only by a set of row planter. It would be great for the kitchen as it grows some of essential ingredients such as scallions in healthy thick greens.
Growing Onions in Containers
Indeed, container gardening is practical to grow certain crops. Those crops includes growing onions which roots only grow up to 4 inches below the soil. Container gardening provides space for gardeners who don’t have a yard. Moreover, the onions in container need less maintenance as it reduces the weeds that may grow with the crops.
Regrowing Containers Set
The leftover onions in the kitchen are pretty durable and can regrow simply with water. Cut up a plastic bottle 1 inch under the neck and fill it up with water. Let the onions growing roots while sitting there on the bottle. Within a week, new sprouts will shoot up. Gently separate the sprouts by peeling off the onion layers before you transplant them into the soil.
Vertically Grown Onions
Remarkably different from other container, this rectangular container grows onion on top and on its four sides. In result, the gardener get more yields while only taking up little space. This brilliant idea may need some effort at the front but it gives much more benefit long term.
Plastic Jar Container
You can start growing onion from bulbs using jar container filled with potting soil. Choose for deep jar so it will be fit for the onion bulbs and growing roots. Keep the soil moist while onions growing sprouts and you can transplant them to outdoor garden.
Curved Custom Clay Container
This idea shows unique shape of clay pot to grow onions in pot. Any garden would love for a touch of something one-of-a-kind. This custom clay container is definitely a precious addition to your garden collection.
Table Ceramic Onion Planter
The idea of round onion planter is not usual that it becomes something appealing in the garden. Those sprouting shallots are growing happily given ideal condition of moisture in the soil. They are ready to be transplanted into deeper container or raised bed in the garden.
Growing Red Onions
Red onions are always a good idea to add in salads, salsa or sandwiches. It has purplish color with slightly milder taste than yellow onions. It is good to eat red onions raw just at it is or pickled to add in cold dish. Now check out these ideas of growing red onions in the garden.
Small Individual Tray Red Onions
Similarly, growing red onions also need germination process in the seedlings tray. Notice how the purplish neck indicates the red onion seedlings. These plastic trays are good for seedlings stage prior to transplantation into garden soil.
Round 9×9 Onion Tray
The round tray can individually host for a bulb of red onion to regrow in it. Gardeners keep the soil moist daily so it absorbs enough water and nutrients to sprout leaves upward healthily. Place it near the window to thrive in warm and bathe in bright light daily.
Recycled Plastic Glass Planter
Seedlings can also grow inside clear plastic glass. So you need to collect and keep the plastic glass after you emptied it. Fill it with potting soil, get your bulbs prepared and sow them to get new seedlings.
Repurposed Plastic Box Planter
The plastic box after you purchase eggs or vegetables from the store are reusable as a seedlings planter. You just need to make sure it has enough holes on the bottom, fill it up with soil and sow the bulbs. Then, you should wait until it is tall enough to be transplanted to the garden soil.
Re-grown Red Onion from Bulb
Growing red onions from bulb can be done with a jar filled with water. It is pretty similar steps as how you would regrow any onion, which is to submerge the roots to grow in the water. You can halve the onion to reveal the sprouts so you can carefully took it out later for transplanting.
Growing Onions Indoor
Indoor gardening for the onions are acceptable as long as you can provide the ideal growing conditions. Indeed, it is possible. Without further ado, scroll down to see more ideas to grow onions inside your house.
DIY Easy Onions Gardening Indoor
You can apply affordable and practical onion gardening using an emptied water gallon. Make some holes on the gallon as big as the bulb can be. Fill it completely with potting soil and sow the seedlings on each holes. Water them regularly until it matures.
Kitchen Counter Planter
Growing green onions indoor should not be so hard. Plant the seedlings in the growing box and locate it where it will get full sun daily. As long as the temperature fits and you keep it moist, it will produce pretty green onions for
Self-watering Container Kit Indoors
This self-watering kit for onions exist to support green onions to grow from onion scraps. You can use this indoors to get fresh supply of green onions close by the kitchen. Grow them near the window to get sufficient lights daily.
Neatly Grown Green Onions from Scraps
Plastic egg tray comes in this cover resembling eggs which has a good depth to start onion seedlings. To start growing green onions in water just like this, select several green onion roots. Submerge them partly in the water, roots facing down. The shapes of the tray will hold the sprouts from falling over while growing.
DIY Hydroponic Onions Container
This container applies hydroponic concept on growing green onions. With onion bulbs sitting on the lid cover, the long roots hanging down reaching for water inside the container. It grows healthy green onions indoor with less maintenance needed.
Conclusion
Onions are common vegetables in cookings and gardening. Onions and green onions grow from seeds, heat-treated sets or from kitchen scraps. It is a cool-season crops that need sufficient bright light if 12 hours a day. Green onions are available to harvest a couple of weeks after the planting while the onion bulbs take at least 3 months to mature completely. All in all, onions are easy to plant, either in raised beds, containers or indoors. Successful planting will give satisfying yields that it becomes annual crops in many gardens.
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