Oh my onions

I've been gardening longer than I care to admit.  I wouldn't say onions are something I can't grow, they always grow, and we enjoy them. That being said I have never grown a large onion.  I watched a lady on YouTube that made me realize I haven't been doing it right.  Who knew onions were so complex.  Ok not complex, but there's more to it than plant and water, which is what I did. I learned I should start with starts not bulbs if I want large onions.  I did know not to plant to deep, but I have still been planting to deep.  Once there's several stems and they are about 8" tall trim the greens down to about 4" so the plant will will concentrate growth on the bulb instead of greens.  Several times during the season I need to push the soil away from the bulb not exposing the roots, but as much of the bulb as I can.  It's to late for this seasons onions, they are small, but eatable, but I'm excited to have new tools to try to grow giant onions next season.  

another thing to remember about onions is that they want a fair amount of nitrogen if they’re going to get big. nitrogen means growth of more leaves, and each time an onion grows another leaf, it gets another layer on the bulb.

greg mosser wrote:another thing to remember about onions is that they want a fair amount of nitrogen if they’re going to get big. nitrogen means growth of more leaves, and each time an onion grows another leaf, it gets another layer on the bulb.

I never knew about needing nitrogen for getting larger onions. I’m content with using just the leaves.

Onions are also easy to start from seed and at least for me less likely to bolt vs. starting from starts. Onions usually don't show stress from lack of water and don't do well if soil dries out. I generally try to keep a light layer of mulch around onions which is most often shredded fall leaves.

Next year I'm going to start onion seeds at the same time I start my tomatoes and peppers.  Cheaper than buying starts.  I will have to do some research to see how early I can direct seed, that would be even better.

After years of failure we finally learned to grow big onions.  The main consideration is day length of the onion for your area, here in deep south we must grow short day onions. Wala Wala just won't get larger than a golf ball .
Also here in 8b we must grow through winter
We start seeds in Aug  they go into the soil in late Oct/early Nov. Harvest in April.
As stated before, you need nitrogen untill bulbing starts in spring. Every leaf makes a layer in the onion.  Also lots of water
 Big onions are not difficult, they just have very specific requirements

Thanks Ralph. I bet I should probably start my onion seeds in August as well.  I live in N. California zone 9 b.  Glad you posted. Thanks

I've only tried growing onions once and would like to try again. I definitely didn't do it the best way, so thanks for all of the tips! So far, I've been sticking with Egyptian walking onions and chives, but I really want bigger bulbs.