How to Grow GREAT Onions!
Chefs and at-home cooks alike use A LOT of onions. Sure, you can buy them readily, but why? They are easy to grow whether you have only a little growing space or a full garden plot.
Onions are so commonplace in the dishes and food products we enjoy that it’s easy to take onions for granted. Even those that “don’t like onions” would probably be surprised to find out how much of the food we eat - including sauces (like ketchup!), stews and soups - usually contain onions of some kind. Many of enjoy Latino food and top our tacos, tostadas, and enchiladas with minced onion.
While growing your own onions isn’t very difficult, there are a few things to know, including storage and taste characteristics, what fertilizers to use, and the day-length you need for your area. HUH?
Let’s start with day-length - an onion term that isn’t very well known, but key to getting great results. Day-length refers to the average duration of daylight that will trigger bulb production for a particular onion variety. Depending on your latitude (further south or north), you’ll need to choose a short, intermediate, or long-day variety. It’s not as complex as it sounds, and here is a great short video by Bruce Frasier of Dixondale Farms, along with a free chart showing what type of onion to choose for your setting.
https://www.dixondalefarms.com/onion_plant_daylengths
Why is this an issue? When the plant starts growing, its first task is to grow as many leaves as possible. You also want that to happen fast because each leaf equals one ring in the onion. The more leaves you have, the more rings, and the bigger the onion will be. Once the day length is reached later in the growing season, the plant will not produce any more leaves. Instead, it will begin the bulbing process. If at that point you have 4 leaves, you’ll get a small 4-ringed onion. If you’ve got 10 leaves, well, you get the idea.
As a quick reference (thanks, Dixondale Farms!), short-day varieties start bulbing when the days are 10-12 hours long, intermediate at 12-14 hours, and long day converts to bulbing at 14 - 16 day lengths.
As for rough equivalent United States latitudes for these day-length “zones”, here goes. Short day does best from 25°N to 35°N, Intermediate day from 35° N to 41° N, and long day from 41° N to 49° N.
Onions can vary in the amount of sweetness. Generally speaking, the sweeter the onion, the shorter the storage time. Many onions contain a higher percentage of sugar than apples, but it’s not apparent because of the sulfur compounds in onions that give them their characteristic “bite” and flavor - as well as inducing tears while processing them. However, the sugar content becomes apparent when roasted or sauteed. That browning is caramelization - burnt sugar!
Growing them is easy. We recommend getting starts (baby onion plants), rather than seeds or sets (little onion bulbs). We buy all of our starts from dixondalefarms.com and have been VERY happy with the results. Seeds are easy to start, but we can get a jumpstart with very good economics by purchasing bundles of starts. When we get them, we plant them about 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) apart, in rows about 12 inches (30 cm) apart.
We avoid using sets simply because a larger amount “bolt” (go to seed) than the other methods. This is because the onion is actually a biennial (it takes two years to complete the lifecycle of seed, sprout, bulb, overwinter, go to seed and die). We harvest it in its first year to enjoy all the carbohydrates the plant has stored for the following season’s seed production. This is also why stored onions tend to sprout - it’s trying to go to seed to complete its life cycle.
They like a sunny spot and consistent water. They are shallow-rooted, so control weeds and grasses with SHALLOW cultivation. They don’t compete well with other plants and need a significant amount of nitrogen to get the top growth needed to have as many rings in the bulb as possible.
Bunching onions (my mother called them “multipliers”) are also easy to grow and need to be harvested ongoing while the tops are tender as they are cut up with the slender bulbs. The younger the onion, the milder it will be.
So, consider growing your own onions during the current and future growing season. You can get more varieties, enjoy the freshest taste, and relish the satisfaction that only comes when you JUST DO IT YOURSELF!
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