We want to plant onions?
Question:We are brand new gardeners and have a little garden plot. We would like to grow onions, but we are clueless. Do you buy onion plants (like tomatos)?
Answers:
When planting onions, make your rows into long continuous hills about 6-9 inches high, then plant the onion plants(my preference) about 1 inch in the ground. Keep weeds out of the plants and water occasionally. When they begin to make heads, remove dirt from around the bulb. This will allow the bulb to grow much larger. On my plants the only thing that is in the ground is the roots, the head of the onion is literally on top of the ground.
Usually you buy onion "sets" which are in essence onion "seeds." Any garden center would have them. You can usually also buy onion sets already started (like tomatoes) but it is usually limited in the varieties.
You can buy either seeds or sets; I recommend the latter, so you don't have to thin them out, plus they already have a head start.
You'll want to plant them about six inches apart, so they have enough room to expand as they grow, and leave enough room in between the rows to hoe out weeds that might impede their growth.
Onions---like all root crops--- do best in nice, loose non-compacted soil. Good luck; it's always nice to see new people trying their hand at gardening!
you can buy "baby" onions two ways. One is a small bulb like onion and the other is an onion plant. Either grows onions to maturity well, it's just a prefrence. You can get the little bulbs thru catalogs and in garden stores, but the little plants are usually found in greenhouses and garden centers that sell vegetable plants.
Go to Home Depot or a local garden center and ask for onion sets. They are the bulb of the onion. Be careful most onions come back each year and they will multiply.
When you buy onion sets these are what they refer to as spring onions. These you do not want to grow real big as they can become very hot. If you want large onions you will want to buy onion plants, such as walla-walla, vidalia, or spanish. The spanish are the ones you see in the grocers in a 3# netted bag. Hope this helps. You really do not want to do the onion seeds. Also when you plant them you want to leave a little bit of the onion bulb above ground and if you want them larger you may need to pull some dirt away from them as they grow.
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