learly specify both the day-length and the keeping-quality of their onion options. If they do not – go buy from somebody else. I mean it!
If you are an urban gardener or otherwise short on space, concentrate on growing fresh-eating sweet onions. The flavor difference on a truly fresh, just harvested homegrown sweet onion is up there with snap peas and corn. You’d have to taste it to believe it. Also, there’s a bit of an art and science to properly finishing and curing onions so that they will last as long as possible. If land is limited, outsource this task to your friendly local onion farmer.
If you have the land and the inclination, growing both a sweet variety and a storage crop of onions will pay off for the entire year, and it sure feels like an accomplishment to cook an onion you pulled out of the ground eight months earlier!
Specialty onions like cippolini and non-globe onions are worth considering if you are primarily interested in unique vegetables and flavors. I tried growing cipollini three years in a row and was not overly impressed in the yield-to-effort ratio compared to the globe types I grew.
Up here where I can high-five Canada, I only grow long-day varieties of onion. If any of you more southern readers want to chime in with your favorite sweet and storage varieties of onions in the comments, please do!
I’ve had great luck with the following varieties:
Recommended Long-day Storage Variety Onions
- Copra – The standard in yellow storage onions, these have stored very well in years when I’ve been diligent about about knocking down the tops and curing them well.
- Red Wing – A long-lasting red onion with great color.
Recommended Long-day Sweet Variety Onions
- Walla Walla – The best onion in the entire world, I’ve regularly grown sweet Walla Wallas that hit 2 pounds or more. Eat them first since they aren’t a great keeper.
- Ringmaster – A white Spanish type, I don’t think Ringmaster is quite as delicious as Walla Walla, but it’s mild and sweet and does last a bit longer.
4. Growing from Seed, Set or Plant Start: Decisions, decisions
The gardener has the choice of three “beginnings” for their onion patch. Onions can be grown from seed, like so many other annuals. They can also be planted from sets, which look like tiny cured onion bulbs. They can also be grown from baby onion plants, which look just like small, stocky green onions.
Onions From Seed
- Advantages: cheap and lots of variety.
- Disadvantages: a little fussy and time consuming
Onion seed ages like Mickey Rourke. Which is to say, not very well. Start with current-year, fresh seed. For the most uniform crop of onions, you might want hybrid seed which will help ensure your onion plants bulb at the same time, and reach harvestable size in a fairly narrow window. This makes harvesting and curing more convenient. If you prefer to avoid hybrid seed, make the effort to buy from a seed house that’s doing active work in keeping their open-pollinated lines reliable and consistent.
When we start onion from seed, really we’re growing our own baby onion plants to transplant later.
Start onion seeds very early in the year – in the Maritime Northwest, January isn’t too early. Sow them lightly in a tray filled with potting mix. Something like a take-out food tray that’s about 3-inches deep is absolutely perfect, just poke some drainage holes in there. Make shallow, 1/2-inch deep furrows across your tray, spacing the furrows about 3-inches apart. Aim to sprinkle about 6 onion seeds per inch along the furrows your tray (you know, 6-ish…you’re not transplanting kidneys here), then cover with soil.
Water in your onion seeds gently, and nurture your seedlings under lights or in a greenhouse or protected area until the chive-like sprouts are large enough to transplant out to the garden. If you can get them to the thickness of a straw or pencil, that’s ideal. If the onion plants get too floppy and unmanageable, give the plants a haircut, cutting an inch or so off the leaves. (You can use these trimmings like chives.)
As soon as the weather has warmed enough that you s