How to grow onions is something I’ve toyed around with for over a decade, trying to perfect the art of a good bulb onion. There are some nuances, but great onions just require a few considerations to get onions all year.
In this video we answer: how to grow bulb onions, how to cure onions, how to store onions, what to do with flowering onions, should I trim my onions, why trimming onions is not a great idea, onion varieties, short day, long day, intermediate day, day neutral.
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47 Comments
Several commenters have asked about onion fertilization which I definitely overlooked in this video so thank you! You can sort of think of onions like "medium feeders" They don't require the nitrogen of a tomato but maybe need a little more than a carrot. What I usually recommend (if not following a nitrogenous cover crop) is about 1 inch to a half inch of a decent compost on the surface, lightly worked in. Onions are shallow rooted so the compost does not have to be deep in there. If all you have is, say, chicken manure or a really rich nitrogenous fertilizer, use about half that amount. If you prefer something like alfalfa meal or blood meal, just a light dusting should do. Onions honestly benefit a lot from being in the ground when the soil begins to wake up in the spring and we get that first big push of Co2 and coming out and Nitrogen being made available. So they don't need a ton of help from you, but I like the compost addition personally. Seems to make for happy plants 👍
I just made a comment.
I don't know about everyone else, but I find myself using half a large onion, more often than needing the whole thing. More smaller bulbs is desirable in my household.
This has been a very frustrating crop for me. Thank you for the tips.
Thank you 🙏🏼
Great video! I've been growing about 4000 onions per year for a local food pantry with pretty good success. Can you talk about how you plant live plants, specifically about how you make your holes, the hole size, and how you manage the long roots that are often reluctant to go completely in the hole.
For making my holes, I use a 1" x 8" x 2' long board with two rows of ½" wooden dowels stuck into the board. The dowels are spaced on a 6" x 7" grid, and the ends are sharpened like a pencil to aid penetration. The board has a pipe sticking up as a handle. I walk down my path and… stomp, stomp, stomp. Each time I press the board into the soil, it makes 8 perfectly spaced holes, four across the bed and 2 down the bed. I plant one live plant per hole. I use a string to ensure straight rows, and this allows me to use my 6" stirrup on my wheel hoe while the plants are young and the leaves don't catch on the wheel hoe.
Best onion video I’ve watched so far!
One mistake I made was planting the onion plants too deep. That greatly reduced the size of the bulbs. Basically only the roots need to be underground.
Actually there is "1" good reason to trim onions. We live in a very windy area and because we are on a steep slope, and have to use overhead watering, if we don't trim, then our onions get bent over too quickly and basically stop growing. We found that if we trim when planting, we get stronger tops and have less risk of the tops getting bent over.
Can you add a thanks button? I would gladly donate 👍
THANK YOU!!!!!
I grew Sturon in this way in 2022, (zone 9 UK) 3-4 onions in a clump spaced at 30cm and harvested some huge onions, the largest weighing in at 650g. I'll try closer spacing this year. Onions need lots of water during dry summers so to help retain moisture I applied a mulch of cut grass which seemed to work really well. Love your videos.
Great info, thanks! I live in north west NC, can I transplant later than March to avoid the double freeze bolt thingy?
I'm in Boston I plant plants the first of April ,I use a grid of 6inch centers and mulch right away Really enjoy your vids first discovered you about three weeks ago keep up the good work.
Lovely stuff I hope that my onions are good this year. I’m growing them from seed for the 1st time this year
I used the 2 inch soil blocks for onions last year with 4-5 seeds per block, and now I’m wondering if that was a waste of soil if you’ve been successful with the 35 blocker, which I also own.
Also, did you mention how many weeks before transplanting?
Thank you for all of your knowledge and the time you take to share. I know you said you do not trim them when transplanting but do you trim the tops of the onion while they are growing? I've been told this helps to produce large bulbs.
I love onions!!!
Does using a sun-oven count as cooking with the sky?
i trimmed my onions a few years ago and they did terrible!! now i know why LOL thank you!!
I’ve been determined to figure out a good growing practice for my own consumption. I’ll definitely try them in soil blocks next year.
Moving to seed was the ticket!
I’ve trimmed and got great yield.
My question is, being in nearly the same climate as you (southern Ohio) and having to start them indoors, I’m curious if I need to limit light for them in the early stages. Rolling them out when weather permits. Also, trying hard to not let them get the constant shift of freeze and thaw once planted out. I only had a few bolt last year.
I started in January this year…my plants are big already. Bigger than what I normally plant out. Happy about it, yet intrepid they’ll stay nice till 3rd week in March.
Still experimenting!
Really like these videos of diving deep into each crop breakdown!!🙌🏻
Keep them coming!!😁
I like having kale starts ready to put in when the onions come out. i put them at much closer spacing because they wont be growing for to long before winter puts them to sleep. I have been really happy with an oat pea mix (heavy on the peas) cover crop for alliums.
How deep should I plant the seedlings?
Must admit, I learned that trimming the tops off encourages the growth of more leaves that are attached to rings of the onion. Last August I trimmed for the first time. I had an amazing onion harvest for the first time ever and I have been growing onions for many years. I don't know about the research or studies but I probably will trim at least half of the onions this year.
Interplanting in small beds? I just put in a couple rows of bush beans alternating with onion sets. First time trying this.
I'm in the UK alot of the old time allotment growers trim onion roots it encourages new strong roots to form
Excellent.
Did you say you planted around the solstice – Dec 22? I'm approx the same zone as you and planted mine mid Jan and will try to get them in the ground mid-March like you weather permitting. I thought I was early getting seeds started in mid Jan but sounds like I could go even earlier.
Let's….Get….Dangerous!!! Let's….get….crop-specific!!!
1:50 When you say daylight/sunlight of 14-16, 12-14, 10-12, do you mean DIRECT sunlight?
I'm quite far north, Canadian Prairies, but my onion growing spot is pretty weak at 6-8, maybe 9-10 at longest day of year. That being said, I remember growing long-day onions one year and they bulbed up really nice, so I'm wondering if indirect is indeed 'counted' by the bulb, since our days were really long, just that 40-50% was indirect light.
8:30 this would very likely then be true of the exactly same online recommendation for trimming leek transplants? In fact, I've seen recommendations to trim both the roots and the tops of leeks.
What do you think of trimming onion roots? e.g. if they are long? I believe the idea here is that otherwise when you transplant, you are likely to get spiraling roots rather than roots that spread out
Idea being that it will be exceedingly difficult, tedious, & time-consuming to make a hole deep enough for long roots to go deep, and transplant and fill in the hole in such a way, that doesn't end up with the crown too deep either. You would have to hold the transplant suspended at the right depth with one hand, use other hand to place/drop the long roots down directly into deep hole, and use that same hand to then fill in the dirt, while still holding the transplant/crown itself in it's hovering spot.
At least that is how I've done it in the past due to not believing/trusting the online recommendation to trim the roots to just 2-3 inches.
We are lazy and never have trimmed our onions grown from seeds. I haven't seen any detrimental effect from not trimming. We also buy bulk quantities of wala wala just because of space and time issues. It's not a bad way to go. Transplants we buy are of much bigger size than what we can grow in timely manner so for us its well worth it.
For weed issue, we may opt to transplant part way its growing cycle. Easier to deal with weed pressure. Vidalia growers opt for this approach.
Great video and thanks for confirming our experience of not trimming.
2 years ago we bought candy onions which weren't specific for storage. But they stored great all through winter. Last year we got a specific white onion variety that was advertised as a storage onion. They all rotted by late fall and were a total loss. Both varieties were from Johnny's.
Great guide. 👍👍👍
My heart sings when I watch this video… thank you
Man, you are like a GOD to me. Thanks for your hard work and thanks for how well you share your knowledge. You have a very high quality of character. Salt of the Earth.
Just for the record, "Candy" onions are a variety owned by seminis/bayer seeds (formerly monsanto). Up to you if you want to support them.
I did the soil blocks last season and got too many small-medium onions. I will sow them in open 10×20 flats this year 200 seeds per tray. Then singulate and plant at 4” spacing 3 rows.
i fell victim to the trim your onions for bigger bulb myth, fortunately they were for personal use not a cash crop; but that experiment failed miserably, sometimes leaving things alone is the key. i ordered close to 1000 plants, for this year from an outfit in Texas, i've used them before with great results; but made the mistake of not using them last year. this was a helpful video, i'm a subscriber; a retired veteran, who will grow for my wife to sell at the farmers market. just learning how to go from personal to market gardening. it's fun, the growing part; the selling part, not so much.
My old seeds just keep on growing
Great information on trimming
So… when you plant in March in Kentucky… {I live near Duluth and Lake Superior… ground is 3 feet under the snow atm} I should plant when?
I had my best onions ever last year when I trimmed. My observations have been that strong spring storms where I live are hard on recently transplanted onions. By trimming I encourage new growth and the shoots become stronger growing in the windy location of my garden. The second trimming was selective trimming of shoots that were starting to fall over. This was based off of internet people saying that shoots that fall over and bend at the stem release hormones that tell the onion to be done. Maybe this is bs but I did it and the results were great. Does this biology about plant hormones line up or is it more internet mumbo jumbo? If the biology seems legit, I will take that over studies. I noticed your studies were from TX and India so perhaps location matters. I live in MN. Also if I had a better environment for starting seeds where they could be exposed to a breeze while younger it would help. But I'm just a home grower and have to make due with what I have. So for this year I will still be doing whatever I can to prevent the spring storms damaging my plants and that still includes trimming. Thanks for your video.
A (NO BULLSHIT) approach to how its done! Well done jess & the team & thank you so much for clearing up the topic of (trimming onions) ,However…….. yes you do need to work on those raspberries 7/10. All in all absolutely diamond vid mate & very informative too, as always!
Gaz Queensland Australia.
Just wanted to say that you’re awesome. Love the science, smarts and dad jokes you bring into your videos. I always learn a bunch (ha, ha onion pun intended). Keep up the fantastic work. I always look forward to new videos coming out especially these crop specific guides.
so it’s okay to cure onions in the sunlight in a greenhouse??