Growing Onions for Multiple Benefits
Growing onions is easy and requires little extra space in the Garden. As onions can repel or deter many common garden pests, I often plant onions in the gaps left between other plants.
Although onions can be started from seed, this would need to be done very early in the season. I usually don’t have enough space in the house to accommodate a lot of starts, so I choose them carefully. Onions can be purchased as “sets” or small bulbs from mail-order catalogs, some grocery stores, and Garden Supply Stores. They are relatively cheap, and ready to plant in mid to late March. Onions are very tolerant of freezing temperatures, though I will often mulch if expecting a very heavy frost or snow, just in case.
Plant the sets with the pointy end up. Onions are quick to set roots and within a week there is usually some green sticking above the ground. Very young onions can be pulled and used as a scallion. I harvest some of the leaves through the growing season, being careful to just take one or two from each plant. Although the onions will not be full size, in an emergency you can harvest a couple onions to add to dishes throughout the summer. I have found that mid-summer onions are a little stronger tasting, so a little goes a long way. Onions that do not get enough water while forming bulbs will also have a stronger taste when harvested.
In the late summer or early fall, the leaves will die back. Once this happens, the onions are ready to harvest. Carefully dig the onions out, clean thoroughly, trim the extra roots and the dead leaves, and allow to dry before storing.
My bunching onions come back in the spring after dying back over the winter, producing lovely purple-white flowers in the early spring, many of the onions I left in the ground over winter simply rotted. However, a few survived to flower and produce seed the following year.
-editor
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