All About Growing Onions and Leeks. 15% off alliums!
Hi Folks,
I am moving a little slower (quite a bit slower actually) these days as I broke my ankle last week playing basketball at our local school. It seems that I am playing too hard for my age—at least according to my son— and I need to “tone it down”. Whatever the reason, I landed wrong after trying to block an opponent’s shot and broke my fibula. Ouch!
I now have ample time to read, write, and fill seed envelopes, which is okay, but I need to move! On the positive side, it wasn’t a terrible time to do this. The gardening season has barely begun, but begun it has. Now is the time to plant your onions and leeks!
If you want big onions you need to start them pretty quick— early to mid February is good, but no later than early March for the best onions. Why? Onions like a long growing season with steady moisture. They have shallow roots compared to many other garden vegetables, so they won’t do well in drought-like conditions. This also means that they won’t compete well with weeds, so you have to keep them weeded. Grass is their worst nightmare.
With steady moisture, regular weeding, adequate fertility— and an early start— you will have no problem with onions. The trick is to make sure they are a good size by summer solstice, because onions are daylight sensitive, and as soon as the days start to get shorter, onions start to bulb out, and it doesn’t matter if they are 6” tall, or 2’ tall. So this is why an early start is essential.
Here is how I grow my onions and leeks. It is not the only way, and may not even be the best way, but it is a good way and it works. Fill a garden tray with good potting soil. It can be your own mix, or something from the store as long as it is good. I believe in giving my seedlings the best start possible. Once they are in the ground they have wind, bugs, rampaging dogs, and sneaky weeds to deal with.
A tray like this can hold a couple of hundred onion seedlings until they are ready to go into the ground. I sprinkle them all over the top of the soil, trying to keep them evenly spaced about 1cm apart each way, but it’s okay if they are too close or too far apart. By the way, if this tray is too large because you only want a few onions, by all means use something smaller.
Once I have sprinkled all of the seeds about, I spread a little more mix in until the seeds are all covered. I then water them (warm water is good!), and put them in a warm place. If you have a heat mat this is perfect. If not any warm space will do.
Keep the soil moist and warm until the onions sprout, then place the tray in your sunniest window or under lights. Water as needed. When they get to about 6” tall, give them a little haircut, and use the trimmings in scrambled eggs if you like. Trim as needed, keeping them about 6-8” tall. You will notice that they will get stockier. This is good. If your onions get yellow they need food. An organic liquid fertilizer should help.
In April, when it feels like spring has begun in earnest, transplant your onions into a well-prepared bed about 6” apart, in rows 1-2’ apart. They will need to be weeded! This is your main chore. Otherwise they are usually pest-free. By July you will see bulbs developing, and by late August they will be drying down nicely.
Harvest your onions when the tops have died down. Pull them up, and lay them in the sun for a couple days to cure. This process is really to dry out the roots and let the outside wrappers dry out and “seal” the onion so that it stores well. For best storage they need cool and dry conditions. Your kitchen is a terrible place to store onions for any length of time! Don’t keep more than a weeks worth in the kitchen at any one time. Our onions live in my shop where it is cool but dry.
The variety of storage onion we grow is called Newburg and it is awesome! It is well-adapted to our latitudes and does really well, reaching a good size and reliably drying down every year. Check it out.
That’s it folks! Treat leeks the same way, except they stay in the ground until you need them. Onions and leeks are on sale right now. Save 15% on them until the end of the month.
Finally, we will be at the Port Alberni Seedy Saturday this weekend, at the Echo Center on Wallace Street, from 10-2. Drop in and say hi if you like. I’ll leave you all with this— because its the truth and I love it!
