As we prepare to move, we are doing many “lasts.” I feel this most strongly in the garden, where I complete the last harvests and the last plantings. The last summer garden planting happened last summer. I knew I would not plant tomatoes and beans this year. The date for the last cool-weather planting has been a bit nebulous because we weren’t sure exactly when we would move.
The last onion and garlic planting happened in the fall, and I completed the last onion harvest on a hot, dry day: something that has been elusive this spring.
Onions are easy to grow but they take many months to reach maturity if you start them from seed. Sometime last July, nearly a year before I took them out of the ground, I started the tiny black seeds in a flat of soil.
I sprinkle them thinly on moist potting soil and cover them with about 1/8″ of soil. I water them gently, and set them in the shade to germinate. In July, when I normally start my onion seeds, the temperature is too hot outdoors for speedy germination, so I might set them indoors until they sprout. Then I move them outdoors, ideally into a spot that receives morning sun and afternoon shade, and I keep them watered.
After I took this photograph, I gave the seedlings a haircut. The black seed shells stay on the tips of the plants and cause them to lean over. Cutting them allows the plants to put energy into growing the root system and to develop sturdier stems.
I have also started onion plants indoors under grow lights and I have started them outdoors under shade cloth, depending on the weather and on how much time I have to tend to them.
I start my onions from seed because I want to grow storage onions, not the sweet “Vidalia” type (I’m not calling them Vidalia onions, because that’s against the law unless you live in a certain geographical area in Georgia. “Vidalia” or “sweet” onions are large slicing onions. Walla Walla or Texas Sweet are another name for them.
Stores sell them individually, usually, as toppings for hamburgers or for people to eat raw. Sometimes you also see bags of them. The bags of onions you buy to dice and saute to make your spaghetti sauce are most likely storage onions. The sweet onions will keep only a few months, but the storage onions will last for many months if properly cured and stored.
I don’t like raw onions, but I do need the flavor of the onions in many of the foods I cook. I use several onions a week in cooking. This article from Bonnie Plants gives more details about selecting onion plants.
I began writing this article back in May, and then we moved. My onions are now cured and the supply is greatly diminished. Now that I have more time to write since my life has settled some, I am reminded that it is time to start seeds for onions if you live in the South, or in any place around the country where you don’t get extremely cold winters. I can only really offer advice on specific planting times for the South. I will have to go through my seeds, jumbled in a box in the freezer during the move, and figure out if I need to order more seeds.
This chart from Johnny Seeds gives details about which onion seed is correct for your climate and purposes. After you choose a variety from the chart, go to this page from Johnny’s for details on planting your chosen variety. As I visit Johnny’s to research links for this article, I see that they list a variety for the South that is new this year.
Check back with me for more details about High Point Farm.