How to plant onions

The best time to plant onions is a late autumn, if possible with the moon in waning phase. By late winter and early spring, your onions should be seedlings ready for transplanting outside. If you live in an area with a particularly cold climate, wait until the frosts pass for transplanting the seedling.

In this other article you can learn more about when and how to transplant a plant.

One of the advantages of the onion is that to plant it you do not need to be a great professional. It is one of the easiest tasks, and then we are going to explain how to do it. If we go to plant seedless onionsWe will need the following materials:

• A long pot: at least it must be 15 centimeters deep.
• Onions: regardless of their size.
• Soil or substrate for pots.

Once we have the necessary materials, we proceed to plant the onions. To do so, we must do the following:

1. Place the potting soilor soil, in the pot in question.
2. Cut the base of the onion: it should be a cut of about 2 or 3 centimeters as much.
3. Plant the cuttings that we have made inside the pot and in a horizontal position.
4. Cover the planted onions with 5 centimeters of earth and water them.
5. Place the pot in a place that receives between 7 and 8 hours of sun.
6. After a month the sprouts of the onions will already have grown about a few 20 centimeters. At this point, you will need to remove the shoots. These have to be green in the upper part and whitish in the part closest to the root.
7. Replant the onion sprouts: first you will have to separate the adhering soil and avoid pulling out the roots.
8. Plant the new shoots: do it keeping a distance of 8 centimeters between each new shoot.

One of the techniques for planting onions is to do it through a seedbed or germinator, in case you decide to plant the onions from seeds. Unlike many other bulb plants and root plants, the onion does admit, and even welcomes, the transplant, so planting in a seedbed will help us ensure abundant germination.

To plant onions with seeds in a seedbed, preparing the substrate yourself, follow these steps:

1. Use substrate for seedbed: it is recommended to use peat mixed with earthworm humus, which you can also enrich with perlite and vermiculite. Here we tell you how to make earthworm humus.
2. Mix the onion seeds with coconut fiber: try not to put too many seeds, since they are very small and it is very likely that almost all of them will germinate.
3. Spread the fiber and seed mixture over the prepared substrate.
4. Water to add moisture – make sure there is adequate drainage in the seedbed, just as there should be in the pot when planting seedless onions. In little more than a week you should start to see them germinate.

If you are more curious, we recommend that you read this other article about 15 bulb plants.

As we have mentioned, onion is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. Even so, we are going to number some of the tips and basic care of the cultivation of onions so that nothing can come between you and your goal of planting onions.

soil for growing onions

The most important thing when it comes to growing onions is the soil. This plant is very demanding in terms of nutrients and, therefore, requires very rich in organic matter. It prefers soils with a loose texture, preferably sandy loam. It can develop in clay soils, although with difficulty, and very sandy soils will give rise to poorly formed bulbs, small and with a too intense flavor.

light and location

As for light, the onion appreciates and needs a great contribution of light solar, so it is recommended to plant it in an area with full sun, where it receives as much light as possible. You can take a look at this other article from EcologíaVerde where the importance of sunlight for living beings is explained.

irrigation for onions

As far as irrigation is concerned, this plant needs very little water, especially after forming the bulbs. During their growth in the seedbed, you can water them every time you notice the dry substrate, but once the bulb has formed, you have to be very careful with excess watering. If the plant gets too much moisture, the bulb will rot, so try to water as little as possible.

Stem cleaning and trimming

Finally, pay special attention to the cleaning of adventitious plants or weeds. These tend to have a great capacity to drain nutrients from the soil, and can impoverish the onions. Also, if your onions do flower, you must trim the flower stem, or the bulbs may not develop properly.

Caring for potted onions

If you are going to plant your onions in a pot, make sure that the container has drainage holes and is deep enough, as well as placing the pot in an area with as much direct sunlight as possible, as mentioned above. We recommend this post on Drainage in pots so that you have more information on the subject.

The first and most important sign to pay attention to when you can harvest your onions, you will find it in the leaves of the plant. When the vertices of the leaves begin to turn yellowbreak the stems or necks of the plant, twisting them, and leave them on the same ground, without taking them.

By doing this we cause the ripening stage of the onion itself to begin. Once this is done, use a fork or other similar tool to, being very careful not to damage the skin of the bulbs, lift the onions a little, although without digging them up. Thus, we get the bulb drying process to start.

A few days after breaking the necks of the plants and raising the bulbs, you can dig up the onions and let them dry in the sun for a few 2 weeks. It is vital that the bulbs dry completely if you want to enjoy good onions, so after these two weeks in the sun, it is recommended to collect them, tie them and leave them somewhere cool and dry for conservation and final drying.

Now all you have to do is enjoy them in your favorite sauces and dishes!

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