Onions in the Garden

Probably the easiest and most utilized crop any gardener can incorporate into their vegetable garden are onions.  Think about it, how many recipes do you use call for onions? I find that most call for them, and I'll add onion to any recipe that doesn't already include it (red bell pepper too, but we'll save that for another post). I usually add onions to my garden in November or December at the very latest. Onions are usually grown from sets or bulbs, these are seeds that are partially grown out. I try to find them locally, mostly because it is cheaper and easier than ordering online and getting them shipped. I have been told that growing onions from seed are not very difficult, just time consuming. Since the sets are so easy to find and grow, I haven't really found the urge to start them from seed. There is so much work that already needs to be done, I generally seek ways to make gardening easier, not more complicated. This year I purchased onion bulbs in early November. To clarify, bulbs are semi grown onion starts with no foliage growth out of the top. These are easy to find in seed stores early in Fall. Most people are tempted to find the largest bulb with the assumption that these are further along in the maturation process. However, I find that the smaller ones usually 'plump' out better in the spring. In December I was also able to find onion sets, these are small bulbs with growth sprouting from the bulb. I find that the sets produce a fully bulbed onion in the spring more reliably than the bulbs, so I generally either wait for these to be available or plant out both. And I only purchase short day onion varieties, the long day varieties will never bulb out in Florida. The Granex is usually the most readily available, which is a versatile, well flavored yellow onion.

You can't rush onions, they are not going to be ready until Spring, no matter what you do. So if you insist on trying to rush them with fertilization, you will end up with incredibly healthy green growth above ground, and but no bulbing to the onion. Since it is going to be a good number of months maturing, I like to plant onion sets and/or bulbs in areas where they will not be in the way of both winter and spring crops. I also like to grow a lot of onions, but I don't want to take up all my regular vegetable garden space with them. So if I decide to plant them in the vegetable garden I space them out so that I can interplant other crops between them. Otherwise I plant them in the bed areas around the garden that I ulitize for flowers and anything else that I'd like to grow out under irrigation.

 Onions coming up in some space between my peach tree and grape vines.

Onion sets in the garden next to the Spinach Mustard (which I am especially proud of).

As far as nutritional needs for onions, you have to try pretty hard to mess them up. The first year I grew onions I fertilized the hell out of them which gave me decent sized bulbs but thick necks and crazy vegetative growth.  Thus I learned, onions do not need or appreciate a lot of nitrogen. Since then, I have been more conservative with my approach to fertilization. Now I stick to bone meal and Epsom salts for supplementation. They really do not need much more.