Onions and how on earth can I grow them!

dipat2005

This year again I tried bunching onions and shallots. I planted them near each other and to tell you the truth I have no idea if they are in amongst the greens or not.

I need to get out tomorrow and get the greens picked. Last year I planted onions and nothing happened.

Do I need to prepare the soil differently

VermontCathy

Onions have shallow root systems that don't go very deep or spread very far, so it's a good idea to enrich the soil as much as possible. Lots of compost, perhaps compost tea, seaweed, and so forth.

Soft, loamy soil is also important. Onions will struggle to form bulbs in hard clay. Add peat moss or other loose organic material.

Shallots, potato onions, and bunching onions or scallions are much easier to grow than commercial bulbing onions.

Be careful not to plant onions too deep. For fall planting where the onions will winter under leaf mulch and snow, I put them about an inch below the surface. For spring planting, plant much shallower, with the upper part of the bulb sticking out above the soil.

Don't plant shallots or potato onions too close. They need to send up multiple stalks to multiply. Scallions or bunching onions can be planted closer.

dipat2005

@VermontCathy thank you. I haven't decided to plant these yet but now I have a lot of great information.

VermontCathy

For those of us in temperature to cool climes, it's a good time to plant fall onions. I planted my potato onions and shallots a few days ago, and will plant the walking onions soon.

dipat2005

@VermontCathy I plan to do just that-plant my onions and shallots this week. Thanks for the help.

VermontCathy

Good luck, @dipat2005!

dipat2005

Today is the day I hope to plant the bunching onions. I finally broke down and watched a video on how to plant them and realized I have been doing it all wrong.

I added more soil and hope it works out well.

VermontCathy

@dipat2005 Could you tell us what you were doing wrong? We can all learn from mistakes.

I think an animal dug up some of my onions this weekend. A few of them were disturbed. Most animals won't eat onion bulbs, so I stuck them back in the ground again. (This year the primary onion bed is outside the deer fence.)

dipat2005

@VermontCathy I was digging a row and planting the seeds and covering them with 1/4 inch of dirt like the packets says to do. The video I watched said to dig a hole about 1 inch deep and add 12 seeds (the seeds are quite small) and cover and water.

The rain started here yesterday and I didn't get them planted Saturday like I expected. The package also talks about planting where there is no frost in the fall. Now I am wondering if I should wait until spring because frost will likely come in October. Yet, they will be planted deeper than 1/4 inch.

Any ideas?