Growing the perfect onion in southwest Missouri!

And I should state for the record, that I’m going to try growing that perfect onion down in southwest Missouri where I'm sure it will be an interesting challenge!

Some years ago, I did a YouTube video titled ‘Onions are Easy to Grow’ in which I chronicled an attempt to grow a crop of onions from some locally purchased onion sets. In the video you can tell that many of these often-grown vegetables of the genus Allium were not very big even at maturity. And, while I didn’t complain, I wondered if perhaps I could do better a few years later in 2013!

To that end, I researched the growing of onions and quickly learned that although I could grow them from seed, the long growing time (4 months or more) made raising them in a Zone 6 garden somewhat problematic. I’d have to start them indoors early on and that seems to be a lot of bother. Instead, I opted to go with a batch of partially grown yellow onion sets that would require much less time in the garden before maturing. One cravat that I came across was the admonition to select sets that were at least ½ inch across as these would be ‘less likely to bolt’! I also read that I need to select ‘short day’ onions for my location here in southwest Missouri. Apparently, onions are sensitive to the length of the day to tell them when to bulb up. Interesting, I thought.

After I settled on using locally purchased onion sets, I next wanted to pay some attention to the soil I was to grow them in. I read that a ‘loose fertile and sandy loam’ type of soil was best and that I would need to keep the area weed free for best results. I also would need to make sure that the soil around the young plants was covered with mulch to help preserve moisture. Apparently, onions also need about an inch of water per week to keep them from ‘splitting’. Another tip concerned the application of fertilizers and or nitrogen. Apparently I would want to skip these as the added nitrogen would tend to promote lush top growth at the expense of the bulbs. That’s definitely not what I wanted to do! Finally, I was advised that once the tops begin to turn yellow, that I needed to take a rake and to bend them over – this action prevents the sap from flowing to the leaves and hastens the bulbing process.

OK! With this advice in hand and a bagful of onion sets, I was ready to get out and prep an area of one raised bed that I had set aside just for this effort. It was early March and I was ready to get out there and do my thing…

Next installment – Mid March 2013

My personal plug for onions!

I’m a firm believer in growing onions and here’s why. Of all the other vegetables I work with during the regular growing season, the onion ‘set’ has them beat in a couple of ways! First, you can buy them cheaply at the store in a form that is already a growing plant! Second, once they are plopped into the ground they require very little in the way of maintenance. (I’ve harvested onions from one section of my garden that was overgrown with weeds and which received little additional water other than what fell from the sky one year and they were great)! I even did a video some years ago, ‘Onions are easy to grow’ that I think captures some of my enthusiasm for this most wonderful veggie.

Onion update

White onion sets that were purchased and planted in my raised bed #1 on March the 6^th and which started to grow by the 15^th are now really beginning to grow! I’ve been harvesting a few now an then as additives to salads but still have more than enough in the middle of May to bring to full term this summer.

Of particular note have been the cool temperatures and wet conditions that have been more the rule than not this last month or so. I remember from an article I read somewhere that onions like wet conditions for optimal growth. I’ve also experienced very few flower stalks which is a good sign that the plants are happy with their growing conditions. Note that is you do get a stalk on a plant, try and remove it promptly or simply pull and use the plant. Otherwise, bulb production will be reduced.

The thing I really like about growing onions is the fact that sets purchased in the spring are pretty darn cheap and after planting all you have to make sure is that they get enough water and other than that, they are a breeze to grow. They can be used all during the growing cycle in salads and the finished bulbs are just the right size for slicing into hamburgers!

Onions are happiest in soils that are loose, fertile and well drained. They also do best when the pH is between 6.2 and 6.8. Neither of these conditions exist in my beds! I have a high clay content soil with modest amount of humus that has been supplied from my compost pile each spring. None the less, I’ve had pretty decent results over the past few years. True, my bulbs are not the largest (see my video ‘Onions are Easy to Grow’) but they sure have come in handy during the fall and early winter months. I store them in my basement where the cool conditions help preserve them fairly well.

Onions - Not Just for Breakfast

Onions have been around for just about forever, I think. I know they are one of the oldest cultivated plants in existence. I like them for a couple of reasons; they taste good and they can hang out in the garden long after other crops have bolted or withered away. Every spring season, they are among the very first guys planted in my garden, usually in the form of onion sets. After only a few weeks, they send a set of slender green stalks that, if harvested at that point, are called green or spring onions. I love to dice these up and add them to my salads. Later in the season, assuming you have thinned them to stand a few inches apart, you may see them bulb up into regular onions that can be pulled, cured and then used throughout the fall.

Did you know that the regular consumption of onions has been shown to lower high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure? Two problems common to many of us. I’m told these beneficial effects are likely due to onions' sulfur compounds, its chromium and its vitamin B6. The studies are still on-going but early results have been very encouraging. Now if I could just figure out what to do about the bad breath!