Planting Onions

stella1751 · Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:21 pm

My neighbor, the one on the other side, built a raised bed this summer. This morning I have an email from him that reads as follows: "do you know were i could find some onion seeds for the small green ones like you use in salad's my mom had some but i cant find them and was going to plant them next year."

I am embarrassed to admit it, but I still don't know anything about onions. Can anyone help me answer his question? Remembering that we live in some pretty cold country, best varieties for the north would be welcome, too.

soil · Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:03 pm

if hes talking about green onions tell him to go buy a packet of bunching onions and let them do the multiplying. or regular onions and plant very thick, then thin them out over winter and spring so eventually they all have space to mature for bigger onions.

my 2 cents

gumbo2176 · Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:16 pm

What soil said. I can purchase packets of green onion seed or anytime I have need to buy green onions in the market, I'll cut the root end about 1 1/2inch up from the bottom and stand them upright in just a bit of water in a small glass. They will send out roots and start all over again. After about 4 days, I'll simply pop them into a pot on my back porch and let nature do the rest.

To harvest them for a good while, simply cut some of the green stems and let the roots in the ground for additional harvest.

DeborahL · Mon Oct 31, 2011 7:30 pm

OK, I feel dumb. I didn't know you could regrow green onions. I'm definitely going to do this from now on.

digitS' · Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:02 pm

It is a cool idea Gumbo has to cut the scallions from the supermarket or, do the cut-and-come-again from your own onions. The latter would probably work better in a long-season area. Sorry to say,

I haven't tried either way.

soil wrote:if hes talking about green onions tell him to go buy a packet of bunching onions and let them do the multiplying. or regular onions and plant very thick, then thin them out over winter and spring so eventually they all have space to mature for bigger onions.

my 2 cents

There's the idea, a sweet onion like Walla Walla makes a very nice green onion while still immature.

I have grown "bunching onions" for many years: starting off with Evergreen, and then trying Nebuka and He-shi-ko. Actually, I think the 1st 2 names might be used by the seed companies for the same variety (or, the same class of onions).

I've had Tokyo Long White in my garden the last few years. You have to be willing to peel away the outer leaves when they become coarse on these bunching onions but they can be used right thru the season - once they've made some growth.

More refined are Four Seasons and Gallop. These compare well with any green onion you could buy in the soopermarket. I think Stokes Seed Company may have all of these varieties.

The problem I've had with the refined ones is that germination seems poor by comparison. With the others, it seems like every seed comes up! Of course, with all the thinning that is required - one may not want every seed to come up.

Then, there are sets . . .

So, there are lots of choices. If I was to only buy seed for 1 variety, I think it would be a good sweet onion and just go from harvesting the immature onions for salads to having nice bulbs for later in the season

.

Steve

PunkRotten · Tue Nov 01, 2011 2:51 am

DeborahL wrote:OK, I feel dumb. I didn't know you could regrow green onions. I'm definitely going to do this from now on.

I only knew about this technique cause I read it somewhere. But I was thinking you had to harvest the whole green onion. But after reading I only clipped the upper green foliage and it would grow back.

DeborahL · Tue Nov 01, 2011 3:01 pm

I don't think green onions bulb. Just think, fresh green onion for free anytime !
So good on cottage cheese, in potato salad, chili, whatever.

jal_ut · Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:05 pm

Any of the onion varieties will make green onions when planted from seed. The bunching types never bulb. If you plant the bulbing types from seed then thin them and use the thinnings for green onions, the ones left will bulb when the days are long enough for them to bulb.

I plant several rows of onion seed just for the green onions. I have a 5 gallon bucket of small bulbs from those that didn't get used as green.

stella1751 · Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:36 am

Thanks, everyone, for the great advice! I copied and pasted it all in an email to him. I really should grow onions one day and probably will, once I expand my garden enough to fit everything else in

gumbo2176 · Thu Nov 03, 2011 6:22 am

stella1751 wrote:Thanks, everyone, for the great advice! I copied and pasted it all in an email to him. I really should grow onions one day and probably will, once I expand my garden enough to fit everything else in

That's the good thing about onions. I grew a good crop that I put in the garden in early March between my tomato plants. I space my tomato plants a good 3 ft. apart to help lessen the chances of plant fungal diseases due to our humidity and often frequent rains.

I picked over 150 yellow and about 75 red onions when they matured. This season I have them planted in a 4'x12'x1' deep raised bed along with some nice garlic.

PunkRotten · Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:38 pm

Yeah since green onions need little space I plant them in all the nooks and crannies of my garden. I even have some in pots with other stuff.

stella1751 · Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:24 pm

That's not a bad idea! I always have tomatoes, and there is always a little extra room. I will buy some onion sets next spring and give it a try. I didn't know how much I would enjoy growing garlic until I gave it a try. Onions could be my new garlic

gumbo2176 · Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:01 pm

stella1751 wrote:That's not a bad idea! I always have tomatoes, and there is always a little extra room. I will buy some onion sets next spring and give it a try. I didn't know how much I would enjoy growing garlic until I gave it a try. Onions could be my new garlic

The good thing about onions is they harvest pretty quick when compared to garlic. Garlic takes at least 7 months, sometimes longer.

jal_ut · Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:17 pm

Hmmmm, just thinking out loud. I plant garlic in late October and harvest about mid August here. Close to ten months. I don't suppose it does much growing under the snow though.

gumbo2176 · Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:37 pm

jal_ut wrote:Hmmmm, just thinking out loud. I plant garlic in late October and harvest about mid August here. Close to ten months. I don't suppose it does much growing under the snow though.

Yep, my garlic doesn't stop growing like yours does, hence the earlier harvest. I won't go into how much different our winters are-----you already know this.