• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Greedy Vegan

Indulge in delicious, vegan food!

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Breakfast
      • Bread & Buns
      • Bread Spreads
      • Breakfast Smoothies
      • Energy Bars & Balls
      • Muffins & Sweet Bread
      • Oats
    • Main Dishes
      • Pasta Dishes
      • Pizza
      • Rice Dishes
      • Casserole, Pies & Tartes
      • Crepes, Sandwiches & Wraps
      • Soups & Stews
      • Pancakes & Waffles
    • Sides & Appetizers
      • Vegetables
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Bread & Buns
      • Rice & Grain
    • Desserts & Sweets
      • Frozen Desserts
      • Mousse & Puddings
      • Pancakes & Waffles
      • Cakes, Pies & Tarts
      • Cookies & Cupcakes
      • No-Bake Cakes & Bars
    • Beverages
      • Smoothies
      • Juices & Lemonades
      • Mocktails
      • Tea & Coffee
      • Vegan Milk
    • Condiments
      • Dips & Sauces
      • Hummus
      • Pastes & Pestos
      • Pickled & Fermented
      • Oils & Vinegars
      • Seasonings
  • Home & Garden
    • Kitchen How-To’s
    • Garden How-To’s
    • DIY’s
  • Shop
    • Kitchen Must-Haves
    • Pantry Essentials
    • Photography
  • About
    • About The Greedy Vegan
    • Features
    • Working with The Greedy Vegan
    • FAQ
    • Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / Home & Garden / Garden How-To's / How to Grow and Harvest Onions

How to Grow and Harvest Onions

April 20, 2016 By Gloria 4 Comments

Pin8
Reddit
Yum
Share
Share
Share3
Tweet
Email
WhatsApp
11 Shares
Please note that this post contains affiliate links of products that I love and use. This rewards me with a small commission if you choose to buy through the links and none of this will cost you anything – but it does help me pay the bills and deliver you quality content. – Love, Gloria.

Onions are a staple ingredient in most culinary cultures around the world. In my household, I tend to go through a lot of onions per week including spring onions, leeks and other types of alliums out there. I pickle them, make chutneys and use onions in a huge variety of dishes.

How to Grow and Harvest Onions

In my garden, I decided to grow the most common onions and picked at least one of each variety. This post will focus on how to grow the common red and yellow onion to get the most out of your plants.   By that, I mean a solid, great tasting onion that can store for 4-5 months over winter before we get our first spring onions started again in the garden. So here is my guide on how to grow and harvest onions and spring onions.

How to Grow and Harvest Onions

Preparing the planting area

Onions like fertile, well-drained soil that has not had fresh manure on it in at least one season. I rotate my crops so that the onions go where some of the heavier feeders like tomato or beans were the previous season. That way you get them into a space that is well fertilised but also not prone to be carrying any disease that onions are prone to if they are grown in the same space every year. The place you are planting your onions in needs to have at least part of the day in the sun to properly form bulbs, so a south or west facing bed will give you the best results. To improve the drainage of the soil, it would be a good idea to dig in some sand, grit and other material that will aerate your soil.

Bear in mind that we live in Hampshire, southern England. For us south facing spots seem to work the best, but you might have to adjust it depending on your location.

Planting:

If you are using sets of smaller onions to plant out, you can do this during March or April and have a good crop in a relatively short time. If you are sowing seeds, these will need to be started around Christmas time and planted out at the same time as you would do it with the sets. Unless you are very confident at sowing seeds or want a special variety, I would go for the sets. We usually do as you can see above.

Plant the sets or seedlings in rows based on what you are going to use the onions for. If you are going to use them as spring onions, you will not need such a great distance between each plant – meaning that you can save a lot of space by having an area for spring onions and an area for the onions that you want to go to a bulb. As a rule of thumb, onions should be planted 10-12 cm’s (5 inches) apart if they are going to become bulbs. You can halve this distance if you are going to grow spring onions, in fact, your spring onions will be best if they are a bit cramped. 

The trick in this method lies in harvesting every second onion and use it as spring onion while leaving the other half of the crop in the soil to fully develop into a nice bulb.

Harvesting

To harvest onions that have been left to form bulbs, it is important that they get about two weeks to dry off. There used to be a tip that said that you should knock the growth of onions over once their bulbs have swollen, but this has been debunked. The most important thing to do is to make sure you dig any soil away from the top of the bulbs so that they can start hardening off. The leaves will indicate to you when they are ready for this by starting to fade. If you follow these steps, you will get onions that will store for much longer. Breaking the neck of the onion will only lead to it rotting more easily if you live in areas with regular rainfall. For spring onions grown from seed all you need to do is to keep picking and re-sowing, that way you have a continuous harvest.

How to Grow and Harvest Onions

The last tip that I can give you is to chop any onions that look a bit scruffy or small and freezing them straight away. Frozen onions are great for dishes that require chopped onions. This way you are guaranteed that you will not waste any of your homegrown vegetables. I hope you enjoyed my guide on how to grow and harvest onions – please let me know how yours are doing if you grow any yourself.

Related

Pin8
Reddit
Yum
Share
Share
Share3
Tweet
Email
WhatsApp
11 Shares

Filed Under: Garden How-To's, Home & Garden Tagged With: gardening, grow your own, vegetables

Previous Post: « Peanut Butter and Raspberry Oats
Next Post: Identifying and Picking Wild Garlic »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. geordiegardener says

    April 20, 2016 at 4:50 pm

    i always thought i had to do spring onions from seed. now im definetly doing it with sets!

    Reply
    • Gloria says

      April 20, 2016 at 4:52 pm

      They won’t be exactly like the spring onions from the store. The bulb will be a little bit developed already if you plant from sets. They will look like in the picture on the top of the post and they are delicious!

      Reply
  2. Doris says

    June 3, 2016 at 7:05 am

    Thanks for this excellent post, it really came in handy.

    Reply
    • Gloria says

      June 6, 2016 at 12:23 pm

      Always happy to help! – Love, G.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar




Popular Posts

Watermelon Lemonade Without Added SugarWatermelon Lemonade Without Added Sugar
How to Freeze AvocadosHow to Freeze Avocados
Perfect Crispy Sweet Potato FriesPerfect Crispy Sweet Potato Fries
Carrot Soup with Ginger and TurmericCarrot Soup with Ginger and Turmeric
Grilled Zucchini Ribbons with Sriracha MarinadeGrilled Zucchini Ribbons with Sriracha Marinade
Peanut Butter and Jelly SmoothiePeanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie
How to Pick ElderberriesHow to Pick Elderberries
How to Grow Succulents From SeedHow to Grow Succulents From Seed

Also on the Blog

Zingy Chickpea and Sorrel Salad

Roasted Baby Eggplants and Mediterranean Herbs

Mixed Summer Berries in Frozen Yoghurt

How to Make Vegan Ice Cream

Footer

Connect

Welcome to The Greedy Vegan! This is a vegan food blog with a focus on delicious recipes made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. I try to use as much local and in season produce as possible while at the same time proving that vegan cooking is exciting. Read More…

More from the Blog

As seen on

 

Copyright © 2023 The Greedy Vegan™

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT