Growing Onions: How to Grow Onions Step by Step

Growing Onions:  Onion is an edible tuber or bulb of a plant, which we use to eat in uncooked and cooked both forms. This bulb is considered as one of the commonest vegetables and belongs to the species of genus Allium. This vegetable is so essential in non-veg cooking that sometimes, we just can’t imagine a dish without the touch of onion flavor! Besides bulbs, the stem of this plant is also used as a tasty and nutritious vegetable, which is called spring onion. The easy-to-grow quality has made this plant one of the famous winter-crops among the utmost gardeners. Let’s check out some important methods of this vegetable along with its growing procedure, below-

Growing Onions:

1. Soil:

• After deciding the type of onion that you want to cultivate, prepare the soil first.
• To arrange the best soil for growing onions fertilizer the soil deep, right where young onions are going to originate. This special type of soil fertilizing is known as ‘banding’ in the agricultural methods.
• This plant requires a very well drainage system along with plenty of sunlight.
• The pH level of your soil must keep in between 6.0 to 7.5 to get the best outcome of your crops.
• If you choose heavy clay-type soil then, mix at least 2 to 3 inches layer of compost over the top of your soil.
• Organic or time released fertilizer or phosphorous based fertilizer would be a good choice for cultivating onions in your own garden area. We will recommend you to use a combination of two time-released fertilizers to get the best growth of onions.

2. Season:

• Onions are one of the best winter-crops ever, thus, it will be better if you could begin your planting in the spring season, in between later March and early April.
• Though it demands cool climate of winter to get harvested yet, onions only start its growth in the full sunny atmosphere; thus, sow your onion plant where it could get plenty of sunrays.
• The seeds need at least 55 ̊F temperatures to germinate during the starting period and keep the temperature consistent for at least 40 ̊F throughout the whole growing season.

Video on Growing Onions

3. Planting:

• After preparing the soil and arranging the appropriate climate to cultivate onions, you can plant the seeds instantly.
• To start the planting dig some holes in the selected ground with a depth of 1 inch in a row and leave at least 4 to 6 inches gap between one hole to another.
• When your onions would start to grow, you can even escalate the gap by transplanting them far apart.
• After place, onion seeds into the holes cover them up with a 1-inch layer of potting soil or organic compost.
• After that, water the ground thoroughly to keep the soil moist for a long while.
• Now, validate comprehensively and make sure that the place is getting adequate heat to warm up the soil perfectly.
• After a certain while, you will see the seeds are germinating, and once you see the germination, all you have to do is that take appropriate care to your delicate onion plants until they reach the ideal length for harvesting.

You may also be interested in growing tomatoes and potatoes too.

How to plant onions : Onions growing guide Video

4. Care:

• Remember that the taste of your onions partially depends on your cultivating process, so take care of your onion plants very carefully!
• If you want to get sweeter onion then, water them more frequently than they want. But make sure that you are not over-watering or flooded the roots entirely in this hurry!
• Once the seeds start germinating, fertilize the soil infrequently and dig a little slight sometimes, to make the water root easier.
• Onion plants like tight and suffocated circumstance to grow, hence, pat the soil lightly whenever you dig them a little.
• This vegetable requires 8 to 10 hours of full sunlight to begin the growth, thus, try to supply some artificial heat, if you are unable to supply such plenty of sun heat!
• Time-release fertilizer always performs better to the growth of the onion bulbs, so use some recently released time base fertilizer to get the best of your crops.
• This plant needs constant nourishment, so authenticate the every single process by which the plant is getting its required nourishments.
• Give your onion plants water about 1 inch per week to keep the root moist but nor dampen.
• Try not to reduce the temperature from 20 ̊F throughout the whole cultivation.
• Mulch your plant once they get an adequate length of 6 inches and clear the weeds regularly to keep the crop healthier.
• Last but definitely not the least care is that protecting your plants from any kind of pests and diseases.

5. Pests and Diseases:

• As onions are produced from the tuber of the plant thus, they get infected by fungal and bacterial troubles easily.
• Black mold, botrytis leaf blight, downy mildew, fusarium basal plate rot, fusarium damping off, etc. are some common fungus that could infect the onion bulb easily. To get rid of these fungus type troubles you can apply several protections. Sowing diseases-free seeds, destroying all the infected crop debris, arranging good companion plants on the same ground, applying appropriate fungicide, etc. are some common tactic you can apply in such crisis.
• Leaf streak and bulb rot is one common bacterium that could harm your emerging onion hugely. This type of problem occurs when you put your onion plant in a dark, cool and humid place. So arrange adequate sunlight for your plants and seeds to get away from such ghastly troubles.
• Also, there are some typical disgusting insects there like Thrips, onion maggots, leafminers, which could hugely harm your plant along with its stem. Most of the tiny insects provide unwanted spots or cover the whole onion with fine mesh netting. You can protect your crop by cover them with fine nets or silver colored mulch, or you can even use some insecticidal soap kills over your plant and into the soil as well.

6. Harvest:

• When you would see that the base soil of your plant starts to crack, know that the harvesting time arrives.
• During this time, you will find the top of stems turn into the golden yellow shade.
• At this moment, bend the completely so then, they can put down flat on the land and keep them laying this way for the next 24 hours.
• After that, you will find that the plants turn into a pale brown shade, then, immediately pull the onions out of the soil and cut off the shoots at 1 to 1.5 inch top the bulb.
• Now, let them dry for 2 to 3 days under sun heat and finally move them to a dry space for storing.

Love harvesting greens try growing broccoli, asparagus and brussel sprouts.

7. Storage:

• Onions could be stored for a very long period if you can keep them in some dark and cool place with the minimum temperature of 65-70 ̊F.
• Take some brown paper bags, pinch some whole on it and place a few fresh onions into the bags. Now seal the open part with paper clips and keep the bag in a cool climate in your room.
• Never keep any potatoes near your onion, if you want to keep your crop fresh for a long while and try to avoid any type of plastic bags too, to perverse onions for the future use.
• One more thing we should mention here and that is not to refrigerate your onion crop for a single moment ever if you want to get the original taste of this tasty beneficial vegetable.

How to Store Half Onion:

Sometimes, we need to use only a part or half of an onion for a salad or other fewer dish and face difficulties to store that rest part for the next use; as a half onion could originate some harmful bacteria on its trimmed surface! Thus, it is necessary to know that how to store that dived part in a healthy way to use it for the next time. So, whenever you face a problem like that, wrap the piece with a thin piece of plastic and store it in your refrigerator. It could stay fresh for more than a week in this way!

How to Regrow Onion:

• To re-grow take a fully ripen onion and cut it off from the bottom with its entire roots with a sharp knife.
• Now, keep the bottom part in a partially shaded area for a couple of days to dry it out.
• Make sure that the place has a well-ventilated dilemma, as it will help to calloused enough in your re-grow process.
• Now arrange a container and fill it up with 2/3 of the way full with fertilized potting soil.
• Push the soil a bit in the middle and set the dried onion bottom at that place.
• Then, cover it up with 1 to 2 inches of organic compost layer and water thoroughly.
• Once you see some leaves are coming out of the soil, be sure that root must have developed from the beneath.
• Now, take out the plant from the pot and depart from the old onion scales.
• Finally, replant them in a pre-prepared growing bed and take proper care to get a handful of healthy crops.

Video on growing onions in pots and barrels

Growing Onions in Pots:

• If you desire to grow onion plant in a pot along, take some medium sized, large mouthed garden containers first, which must have a very good drainage system at the bottom.
• A 5-gallon bucket or clay made tub would be the perfect choice for such purpose.
• Now, after filling up the tub with organically fertilized soil, make 2 or 3 holes with the depth of 2 inches. Remember that you can plant 3 to 4 onion seeds in a container only if you choose a 5-gallon bucket for sowing, otherwise, you must sow one seed in every single garden pot.
• Then, cover the seeds with a thin layer of compost and water thoroughly.
• Next step is to place the container in a sunny place, so then the seeds could get at least 7 to 8 hours of sunlight to germinate. Use fluorescent bulbs or LED lights to near your plant tubs, if they couldn’t get sufficient heat to warm up naturally.
• When you are growing onion into a garden container, it needs at least 2 to 3 inches of water on a weekly basis, so watering regularly is an essential method to cultivate this veggie at home.
• Now, all you just have to do is that take proper care of your seeds and sprouted plant to get through the harvest level easily.

Also read how to grow garlic and how to grow, harvest and pickle cucumbers.

How to get rid of Onion Breath:

Onion tastes great even when it is in the uncooked condition, but the only drawback part is that it causes a bad or stinky breath in our mouth while we eat fresh uncooked onion pieces in our food. To get homespun remedy, apply this few trick that we mentioned below-

• Take 1 cup of water, add 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice into it and use the mixture as the mouthwash to get rid of the bad stink of onion.
• If you are eating onion slices in your salad, then eat a piece of cucumber with every single slice of onion, and you will never get bothered by the unwanted stink of onions again!
• Mustard sauce is another working method to get remedy from onion breath. You just need to take one sip of mustard sauce and swish it around your mouth for 1 minute and then wash it off.
• Milk also works tremendously against onion breath, take one glass of full-fat milk after eating an uncooked onion, and it will surely take the bad breath away from your mouth.
• One cup of green tea or a piece of cardamom also works magnificently to get rid of the bad onion breath from your mouth.

Calories and Nutrition Value of Onion:

Onion not only tastes amazing, but it also contains several healthy nutrition facts in its every bit. Onion is rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, zinc, copper, magnesium, selenium, fluoride, dietary fiber and protein content. These nutrition facts work for several healthy benefits and keep the condition of our numerous organs really good.

Onion holds 40 calories in its every 100grams fresh bulb along with 6.8 grams of sugar content.