There I was in the garden section of the local big box store for the fourth time that week. I had been purchasing potted veggie plants for 22 raised beds that I maintain for a local nonprofit. I had been planting the beds piecemeal – some this day, some that. Each time I shopped, this bushel basket of onions caught my eye. It contained these groupings of slips of onionskin, some with little green shoots emerging.

Onions, huh? I’ve never planted onions.

Let’s round out these raised garden beds with something new. In my cart they went.

Planting the onions

The instructions that came with the onions were simple enough:

– Plant 1-inch deep.

– Space 4 inches apart.

– Avoid planting too deep.

– Fertilize and water.

It seemed simple enough. I found a nice sunny spot in one of the beds. Then loosened the soil, which was nicely enriched, and dug four trenches. I laid out the onion slips as directed, then went through the rows to push the soil around the base of each slip. Next, I watered in well and crossed my fingers.

I visit these gardens once a week, and the non-profit staff are charged with watering in the meantime. I checked on the gardens the following week and found that a majority of the little onion slips had produced a bit more green in the emerging leaves. So far, so good.

Fertilizing

While the directions say to fertilize, my research says to not overdo it as this will cause lots of leaves and smaller bulbs. My plan is to fertilize for just a month or two to get the onions off to a good start.

I don’t know what kind of onions these are—long day, short day, day neutral, etc. What I expect, though, is for them to start beefing up the bulb in mid summer to be harvestable by the end of summer or early fall.

Harvesting the onions

When they are nearly ready I’ll cut off water to them about two or three weeks before harvest. This will help the plant dry out a bit. Onions need to be cured for storage, so once the leaves have died back a bit, pull them up and leave them on the soil surface for about a week.

Once cured, I’ll bring them in the house and put them in a mesh bag. This helps to keep the air circulating around the bulbs and staves off mildew and disease. If I’m successful, I just may pick a different type of onion to grow next year. Red onions would be wonderful.