If you’re having problems growing onions, here are some points that will help you.
I grow over a 1,000 onions a year and use to grow as many as 3,000 a year when I grew for market. I’ve always considered them an easy crop — even when I first started raising them 32 years ago. I guess I just stumbled into getting it right from the very beginning.
I never gave the “whys” a lot of thought until this year when I heard several folks say they haven’t had good luck with growing onions. To be more specific: One friend who planted about 150 transplants said his never came up. Another person who plants sets never gets anything but small pearl sized onions.
These transplants are now spring onions size. The month is May.
WHEN you plant onions is critical.
The general rule of thumb is to plant onions 4 to 6 weeks BEFORE the last freeze date in the spring.
Here’s the reason:
Onions will form bulbs based on the hours of daylight. In order for them to get big, they need plenty of growing time BEFORE they start to bulb. If you plant your onions when the amount of daylight is already enough for them to bulb, you’ll get pearl onion size onions.
You must plant early enough to give them time to grow before the day length is reach that triggers bulbing.
Numerous varieties of onions.
Planting DEPTH – Only 1 inch.
I couldn’t understand why my friend who planted about 150 transplants didn’t have any come up. That is — until I found out the he had planted them 3 inches deep. Way too deep for onions!
When the drought broke in September, we had about 12 inches of rain within a few days and it brought his onions more to the surface. They started growing —-and this fall my friend has many “spring” onions.
So whether you plant sets or transplants – make sure they’re not too deep. One inch is a good depth.
Using SETS? The small ones make the bigger onions.
If you plant from sets and want big onions, use the smallest sets. (About the size of a marble.) Larger sets will make only green onions.
Sort your sets and plant the larger ones separate from the smaller ones. Then you’ll know which ones won’t make large onions. Thus, you can use the green onions while you are waiting for the others.
One last thing:
An onion transplant is an onion plant between 8 to 10 weeks old which has not gone through the bulbing process.
Overall, transplanted onions grow bigger and store longer than those grown from sets. If you have enough onion savvy — grow your own transplants. If not, some garden centers sell them.
If you’ve had trouble with growing onions, one or more of these four points might well make all the difference in your crop.
My garden in May. Rows of onions are towards the back and to the right.
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OK, so sets are the little bulbs without a green stem and transplants are the green stem without a bulb?
I’m so glad to know about the depth.
I never thought about it in those terms, Beppy; but yes, the sets are little bulbs with no stem and transplants have a green stem with no bulb.
Sets are produced by sowing seed thickly, which results in stunted plants that produce very small bulbs. The bulbs (sets) are set out the following year to produce either spring onions or large onions.
To get transplants, one sows seed the same year the onions will be replanted. The seed germinates and is allowed to grow about 8 to 10 weeks. It is then dug up and can be planted again to be harvested as either spring onions or fully mature onions.
Depth does make a big difference. I think a lot of people make the mistake of planting too deeply and never know why they’re not getting onions.
Best,
Theresa
hecent sizeello can i say that i have been trying to grow. d onions for 3 years now my latest problem is support.im trying some kelsay.and they are flopping over.
thanks for any help…yours derek leeds,,,,,,
Derek, I can’t understand all of your comment.
If your problem is that your onions are flopping over — the tops of onions fall over when they have grown as much as they are going to grow.
Hope this helps.
Theresa
My onions develop very loose layers so that only the center is usable. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Hi Rosalie,
You didn’t supply very much information so I can’t really give much of an answer.
Do you plant sets or transplants? When do you plant? Where are you located? Are you planting the proper day length onions for your area? How long have you had this problem? Is your soil good? What percentage of your onions are like this?
Sometimes when onions get “loose” layers they are going to seed. But usually the center would be a hard core at that stage.
A few onions sometimes develop a loose outer layer and the inside is good. I use those for spring onions.
Theresa
Hi Theresa, Just checking in about my onions. Planted them right when you suggested in March. How big should the bulb be now (beginning May)? We gently probed around the base of our onions (from Dixondale) today but none of our transplants have anything more than a shallot-sized bulb right now. Tops look green and healthy though. We graded them by size, and checked each size, all were similar. Are we still on track?
You’re still on track. Mine are the same. The onion won’t start growing larger until a certain amount of daylight hours triggers bulbing. Right now you want to have the tops grow and for them to get as many leaves (the top) as possible before bulbing starts. The more leaves — the bigger the onion will be.
Keep me posted Sandra.
Thanks Theresa, the leaves are green and lovely. Thanks for the reassurance.
My pleasure Sandra!
I started onion seeds last year, trans planted them 3″ depth and 1′ apart. I now have hard stalks with seed pods. Is there anything I could do to salvage these onions?
Hi O’Hara,
How wonderful that you started your own seed, but how unfortunate that you didn’t realize you were planting too deep. Never plant onions more than one inch deep. Space two inches apart if you are going to thin as spring onions, and 4 to 6 inches apart for bigger onions. I plant mine about 3 or 4 inches apart and thin to eat spring onions in early spring and summer.
Rather than to repeat what I have already written, please go to Categories to your left on the screen and select onions (under Vegetables). When you do more than a dozen posts on onions will come up for you to select from. Read those whenever you can and you will find out more about how to plant.
Onions bolting to seed can be caused by many things. Again, it’s great you are starting your own seed, you just need to do a little reading to find out more about the proper way to plant.
Also, O’Hara — a suggestion: Continue starting from seed, but just so you won’t be disappointed and also so you can learn more — order a few transplants next spring and see how they perform next to yours from seed. You’ll learn a lot from the experiment and coupled with what I have written on onions — I think you’ll do fine.
Let me know.
Theresa