Plant Your Onions Now
I like to plant onions in early April. But if you have not ordered your onion plants yet, there is still time.
Forget about those onion sets that only produce green onions, or scallions. Grow some real bulbing onions like Copra, Candy, Big Day, Super Star and Sweet Spanish. If you want to grow onions this summer, make certain that you order long-day or intermediate onions. Do not order short-day onions because they will produce only green onions during summer’s long days.
Onion plants are sold in bunches of about 77 plants.
Onions grow best in soil rich in organic matter with a pH between 6.2 and 6.8. If you have not had your soil tested in the past three years, now is the time to have it done.
Prepare the planting beds by first spreading an inch-thick layer of compost over the area and tilling it in. Avoid stepping on the prepared soil; it needs to be nice and loose so the small onion plants can be pressed in easily.
To maximize production, I plant in beds about 2 feet wide the length of the garden. The average spacing for most onions is four by four inches. To facilitate planting, I have built myself a dibble board. The board is two feet long and four inches wide. Into it I drilled pegs cut from a broom handle and glued to quarter-inch dowels.
Press the dibble board into the loose soil and insert an onion plant into each hole. The planting holes are evenly spaced so the onions can easily be cultivated with an onion hoe’s narrow blade.
After planting, place a shower head at the end of the hose and water the bed thoroughly so that loose soil is washed into each planting hole.
To minimize weeding, I apply Preen three to four weeks after planting. Irrigate the Preen into the soil immediately after applying it. Top-dress the onion beds in early June.
As soon as the onion tops start turning brown, in mid to late August, knock the tails to the ground with the back of a rake. You’ll minimize neck rot without having to apply fungicide.
Eat at once or, for storage, leave in the ground until the tails wilt and dry. Then harvest, braid and hang out of sunlight in open air.
Ask Dr. Gouin your questions at [email protected]. Please include your name and address.