Now that you have learned how to plant onions you can see what other vegetables are enhanced by onion neighbors, how to harvest and store your onions, the varieties of onions, and what to do about pests that might attack your onions.
Onions are great companions to several other plants. That means they enhance the growth of these other plants or the other plants enhance the growth of the onion or they keep pests that would normally attack these plants away. Plant onions with beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, cucumber, lettuce, peppers, squash, strawberries and tomato. Keep them away from bush and pole beans and peas.
Harvesting and Storing
Pull green onions when the tops get to be about 6 inches tall. The flavor will be stronger the taller the top grows so if you want mild flavored green onions you might want to pull them when they get 4 or 5 inches tall. Anything over 6 inches is usually a very strong flavored onion. If you are growing bulb onions you should allow the plants to mature and the tops to fall over naturally. Once the top foliage has fallen over and starts to yellow pull the onion. It is best to pull in the morning. Move the whole plant to a shady area and let them sit there and dry. You may want to place them on a rack of some sort so the air circulation gets all around the bulb to dry it (pallets are great for this). You can gather the tops and rubber band them together tightly and hang.
Don’t dry in the garden as the sun may sunburn the bulb. It will take 2 to 3 weeks for the bulbs to dry and cure. After they dry cut the tops 1 or 2 inches high and store under cool, dry conditions. Make sure to check them on occasion to make sure they are not starting to rot, but if you have a root cellar you can expect to keep your onions until late winter. Wrap onions separately in foil and they can keep well for a few months or place onions in a mesh bag or nylon stocking and tie a knot in the top. Put a plastic twisty tie between the onions to make a bumpy sack and hang in a cool, dry area. They will last for quite some time. The trick is not to let them touch each other.
Varieties
There are some specialty varieties like Texas Sweet or Vidalias but they can only be grown in certain areas. There is something about the soil that makes them the way they are and if you don’t live there don’t even try to grow them. If you buy your sets from a local nursery they will know what grows best in your area.
Some of the better varieties for the back yard garden are:
- Green Onions – White Portugal, Tokyo Long White, White Spark, Ebenezer, Yellow Globe
- For Bulb Onions try – Ebenezer, Yellow Globe, Elite, Stuttgarter
If you want a sweet onion you will need to purchase plants or transplants (not sets) because they take a longer time to mature. Try White or Yellow Sweet Spanish or Bermuda and plant just like you do the others but use transplants instead of sets.
Disease and Pests
There are two major diseases that can affect onions. If the leaves turn pale green then yellow you could have blight. If purple blotches and lesions appear on the leaves you have purple blotch. Wet weather, heavy dew and fog can cause these diseases. To prevent them only plant in well drained soil and run rows in same direction as prevailing winds. A multipurpose fungicide should help if your plants are affected. It can be sprayed on a 7 to 10 day schedule. Follow the directions to the letter.
Onion thrip is a pest that feeds on the onion by rasping the surface of the leaves and sucking the juices. They are hard to see but are usually on the undersides of the leaves making the leaves turn silvery. This insect is light brown and about 1 mm long. An insecticidal soap usually gets rid of them. Make sure not to apply this soap within seven days of harvest.
Cutworms can also devastate an onion crop. They will chew off a plant to ground level. Cutworms are a caterpillar that are bright to mottled green, brown, or gray. They appear when the soil is damp. You can cut a cardboard collar and put around the transplants or plants just below ground level. Take a toilet paper roll or paper towel roll and cut them in about 2 inch lengths. Place it over the plant and bury some of the bottom in the soil. The cutworm won’t be able to get to the plant through the cardboard.
Onions are used in just about every recipe except those for desserts. They are very versatile and you can’t get along without them.
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