Today, I’ll share with you my method for growing and harvesting white onion:
Choosing the right location
– White onions are a cool-season crop, so they should be planted in the spring or fall. The ideal location for growing white onions is a sunny spot with well-drained soil. The soil should be loose and crumbly. If your soil is not well-drained, you can improve it by adding sand. The idea is to keep the soil from turning hard and compacting from the sun’s heat and drying winds.
– Before planting, you should prepare the soil by working in some compost or other organic matter, such as leaves, grass clippings or manure. This will help to improve the drainage and fertility of the soil. You should also remove any rocks or debris from the soil.
Planting the onions
– White onions can be planted from seed or transplants. If you are planting from seed, sow the seeds 1/2 inch deep and 2 inches apart. If you are planting transplants (sets), space them 6 inches apart. I prefer to grow from onion sets as they’re much easier to manage than seeds.
Caring for the onions
– Once the onions are planted, you need to water them regularly. The soil should be kept moist, but not soggy. You can also fertilize the onions every 4-6 weeks with a sprinkle of fresh compost, manure or a balanced organic fertilizer.
– 5. Harvesting the onions
White onions are ready to harvest when the tops have fallen over and the necks have begun to turn brown. To harvest, simply pull the onions up from the ground. Shake off the excess dirt and cut off the tops, leaving about 1 inch of stem.
Here are some additional tips for growing white onions:
Plant onions in a location that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight per day.
Water the onions deeply and regularly, especially during hot, dry weather.
There you have it - With a little care and attention, you can grow your own delicious white onions at home!
Thanks for taking the time to read my post, I hope you find it interesting. Which of my fellow Local Guides also garden? What are you currently growing or harvesting? My next post will hopefully be one featuring my garden veggies in the Kitchen… Stay tuned!
A nice, different and interesting post @Mikeinthefalls . The onions will keep for several months!! Really? Are you by chance an onion farmer Mike? I don’t grow onions but I at the moment am growing Garlic Chives and absolutely love them.
@AdamGT I’m glad you found this post and topic of interest
Yes! When harvested properly, the onions can last for months. The cooler the room the longer they’ll last.
I do grow onions, Adam, and a bunch more as well I’ve been gardening my whole life. Hated it as a child because it meant lugging buckets of water and pulling weeds, all in the hot sun. Once I moved away from home into my first apartment and started buying canned vegetables - all that work started to make a lot of sense! Lol
Some years I grow more than others but there have only been a few years that I haven’t had a garden. My son also loves garlic chives! He has been eating them freshly picked since he was in elementary school haha. Herbs are one of my favorites to grow and I have a pretty decent perennial herb garden. I dry all of them for year round use and the taste is far superior to the ones lining store shelves.
@MelTG has been bit by the gardening bug as well and now has quite the herb garden, herself. She grows a mean tarragon!
Wow @Mikeinthefalls now I’m more than just impressed. I only wish you were my neighbor lol. And to boot, your typical weekly harvest in August looks amazing haha. It pays to not inly be self sufficient but like you say you get year round use and the taste is far superior to the ones lining store shelves. Well done you!
Hello there, @Mikeinthefalls ! Your gardening journey with white onions is great that you addeddetailed steps for growing and harvesting makes it really informative and neat. If I had green thumbs myself (or any sun) I’d give it a go!
Thanks for sharing this insightful post with your fellow Local Guides! I’m looking forward to your next update about your garden veggies in the Kitchen. Keep up the good work!
Thought I’d see what you’ve published and found this article. Although it seems like a lifetime ago, I used to be a commercial vegetable grower, tomatoes is what we grew for $$, but also operated the largest U-Pick in FL, and part of that involved ONIONS.
Unfortunately, Onions are not something one wants the public to U-pick because they pluck everything, choose the largest, and leave the others out in the sun to rot. Because of this, I used to be part of the onion crew when I was a kid. Pretty much everything you mentioned in this article is rock solid, like the outer layer of those onions you plucked from the ground. If given adequate time, most onions will all end up pretty close to the same size, and we usually went out every week or 2 and just selected the largest, which is done by using your fingers to check the diameter just below the dirt level. Our plant spacing was 6", and looks quite similar in your photo, but you mentioned planting the seeds 2" apart. I’m guessing that’s because some don’t germinate. INSTEAD, we dropped 2 or 3 seeds in the hole (as with corn or other veggies), or planted single seedlings. Once the plants germinate and are more than 4" tall, choose the one that’s growing the best, and pinch or pull the others so that there’s one onion in the hole. Otherwise you end up with some oddly shaped onions when they mature.
One thing we DID learn is that one shouldn’t be too hasty about cutting back the tops. It exposes them to the air, and sometimes tells the onions…the coast is clear, try growing again, and you end up with the centers of your onions turning green again and they’ll put out shoots shortly thereafter. I remember seeing a movie which showed onions hanging in a cellar by thei tops when I was a kid, and asking my dad why we didn’t do that. He said “When you’re selling them, you want them to present well. Otherwise leave the tops on so the plant doesn’t think its time to start growing again”.
I don’t imagine your one that’s easy to impress, so I’ll gladly accept that compliment @AdamGT and thank you!
My grandfather loved gardening and beekeeping and I was always happy to tag along when he would “head to the back” and I learned a great deal from those countless trips. While I still aspire to keep bees one day, I’ve been gardening consistently for around 20 years.
If you were my neighbor, I’d gladly share some of these delicious onions with ya! Thanks again for checking out the post.
@HeyitsNicho Hello! My apologies for not replying sooner, I must’ve have missed your notification.
I’m glad to read that you appreciate the detailed steps and wish you had sun, so you could put them to use.
I just posted a new recipe today that utilizes peppers, onions, squash, kale, spinach, garlic and thyme from my own garden. Check it out and let me know what you think!
As a kid we always had a veggie garden at home @Mikeinthefalls and dad gave each of us a patch, well a strip, and I guess he had an idea that more hands, less weeds lol. From these childhood experiences, when we got into our own home I developed an urge to grow my own veggies and it was always fun and a great diversion from the other usual pressures of life. To this day I’m still interested in healthy eating and I guess homegrown food goes with that but not having a veggie garden we source out health food stores.
If I were your neighbor Mike I’d gladly accept your offer and enjoy your onions and more
Wow @Mikeinthefalls , this is so interesting! I myself would love to be able to have a garden, however I seem to have a black thumb and I’m afraid nothing good would come out of that.
I’ve been gardening my whole life. Hated it as a child because it meant lugging buckets of water and pulling weeds, all in the hot sun. Once I moved away from home into my first apartment and started buying canned vegetables - all that work started to make a lot of sense! Lol
Your gardening journey with white onions is great that you addeddetailed steps for growing and harvesting makes it really informative and neat. If I had green thumbs myself (or any sun) I’d give it a go!
