Do You Grow Onions?

If you enjoy onions for their culinary versatility, that's reason enough to grow your own. Here are some more reasons to grow onion plants.

Why You Should Grow Onions

Embrace variety. You can choose from a range of varieties you won't find in most grocery stores. (You might be surprised to learn there are more than just "yellow", "red", "white", "sweet", and "Vidalia" onions out there!)
Take control. You'll be in charge of what goes into your onions as they grow in your garden, from start to finish. You'll even find that homegrown onions are more flavorful and of a better quality when harvested at their peak.
Small-scale, big yield. You can grow enough onions to use and even store for later in a fairly small amount of garden space. This means you still have enough room to grow onions as well as the other fruits, vegetables, and herbs you love.
Nearly instant gratification! You'll go from onion plant to onion harvest in a few short months — usually within 90-110 days (depending on the variety you plant).
Satisfaction. Take pride in harvesting, curing, and eating onions right out of your own garden. There's nothing quite so rewarding as savoring, sharing, and showing off the "fruits" of your labor!

How to Plant Onion Plants

Possibly the best reason to grow your own onions is that it's easy! Start with onion plants that are ideal for your location: Long Day onions for the North, Short Day onions for those in the South, and Intermediate Day onions for the rest of us in the middle.

When you order your onion plants from Stark Bro's, you'll receive a bundle of onion plants complete with green tops and bare roots — not sets, which are more like dried onion bulbs. Choose a spot that has full sun (at least 6-8 hours during the growing season) and has well-drained, nutrient-rich soil in which to plant your new onions. This can be in your garden or in raised beds if your native soil isn't ideal for onion plants. Wherever you plant, be sure to keep the planting site free of weeds so your onion plants don't have to compete for nutrients.

Plant as early as 4-6 weeks before the last spring frost date in your area. Plant each onion plant, root-end down, so that the bulb is 1-2 inches below the soil surface, and space each onion plant 4-inches apart from the next.