I made a big pot of chicken soup this week…chicken, potatoes, carrots, greens. I couldn’t 
figure out why it tasted so bad until I woke up in the middle of the night with…”I forgot the onions!”
Gads! Fortunately I didn’t end up with a week’s worth of bad soup. A quick sauté of sweet onion adding made all the difference.
I still can’t believe I did that.
Photo Credit: shone75pa
If you’re going to start from seed, it’s time to buy onion seeds.
There does seem to be some disagreement about whether starting onion seeds inside makes sense. Some gardeners are getting ready to do that now while others opt for buying onion sets later in the season.
Either way, it’s time to decide.
- Here’s a time table for starting seeds indoors. Plant Onions
- Good article on growing onions. Plant Onions
- Some thoughts on composting onions. I’ve never sprouted any onions in my compost…squash yes but not onions. Just in case you’re interested, I’ve got some rotating compost bins at http://www.rotatingcompostbin.org Plant Onions
- Not too early to think about how you’ll store your onion crop. Plant Onions
- Since onions whether seeds or sets, do best when they’re started inside, thought this might help. Plant Onions
- A bit off topic but had to share the size of this mushroom. Plant Onions
Growing onions in the garden doesn’t just mean for cooking though I do love to cook with onion and garlic for that matter. At least the smell of onions doesn’t seep out of your skin like garlic does. But I digress…
One of the things that got me interested in growing onions in the first place were the green onions that come up in my flower garden every spring. They’re in bloom right now and have been for several weeks with a beautiful purple ball of fluff. They’ll be gone soon but I got some pictures because I think they’re really beautiful and I’m happy to have them as ornamental flowers.
I don’t know if these were originally cultivated or whether they were wild onion plants to start. They’ve been in my garden ever since I moved in and look like they’ve been here a while.
Well, it’s clear to me that I came way too late to the onion growing season.
I simply don’t have the space or the light needed to start a lot of my vegetables indoors so I plant seeds outside on May 15. Unfortunately onions whether you’re planting from seeds, sets or plants they need to be in the ground early…very early. Turns out onions can survive down to 20º so they really can be planted earlier than most veggies.
As I’ve continued my research it’s also becoming clear that harvesting sets for next season doesn’t really make any sense, but harvesting seeds might. Seems that sets don’t keep well or for that long so I’d probably be wasting a whole lot of effort. Easier just to harvest the seeds and start early next year.
We are now past mid May heading for the first of June. The only real option at this point is to plant green or bunching onions. I already have some of those blooming in my flower garden. Though they smell and look great, they have little flavor (because of the blooms???).
So I’m going for the green bunching onions this year.
- A list for eating pesticide free food. Glad to see onions on the list…I love onions. Plant Onions
- This farm isn’t too far from me. Maybe it’s not too late for onions. Plant Onions
- Yum…getting hungry and the garden’s just planted. Plant Onions
- Let’s get those kids gardening early!!! Plant Onions
- Since these products aren’t screaming organic which I prefer, I’ll assume they’re not, but he is absolutely right about the soil. For any bulb or root vegetable the soil needs to be loose (crooked carrots anyone?), and what your soil needs will depend on where you live. I do like the idea of planting onions close to get a good harvest of spring onions and mature onions…great conservation of space. Plant Onions
- Oh my! It’s so much fun and last summer I ate out of my garden for the whole summer and even into the fall. The only vegetable I bought were onions which is why I’m trying to grow them now. Given I spent considerably less than $50, I’d say it was a bargain and everything tasted so much better. Plant Onions
I’ve decided this late in the season (May in New England) I have 2 choices. One is to plant green onions and the other is to plant onion seeds to grow sets for next year.
I’m not positive I’ll get bulbs from these seeds. The seeds do say start indoors and everything else I’ve read suggests starting these indoors during the winter and early spring.
But what I’m also being told is that no matter what the seeds I’ll still have green onions all summer. Since the rest of my garden’s in, I think I’ll give it all a try.
So I’m going to be planting onion seeds for both the green onions and the sweet yellow onions. I’ll keep you posted.
Here are some of my favorite resources for how to plant onions.
University of Illinois Extension
University of Minnesota Extension
Yes, I do like those university extensions. Just be aware that they are talking mostly about their own regions and yours may be different.
Given that it’s the middle of May here in Southern New England, it’s pretty clear I should have planted the onion seeds inside many months ago if I wanted to grow onions of any size this season.
It appears, however, that growing onions from seeds is still possible even this late in the onion growing season.
There seem to be 2 viable options at this point.
1. Plant onion seeds to have green onions all summer long.
2. Plant onion seeds to grow onion sets for next year’s planting.
My vegetable garden will be getting planted this weekend so I’m thinking I’ll do both…have some lovely green onions for summer cooking and harvest onion sets for next year.
Of course, now that I know I will even get the onion sets in earlier than May.