How to grow red onions: The most used spice in our daily life probably is the onions. They must be needed in various kinds of cooking. There are so many recipes of onions you can see on the internet and you can try to make them. They make our dishes delicious and tasty. Onions especially Red onions (Allium cepa) has purple or red scales covering white or red inner skins. They are normally biennials plants. Gardeners usually like to plant onion sets or onion bulbs. Because sets or bulbs become mature more quickly than seed.
How to grow red onions from bulbs
Red onions planting method and caring are as same as other onions. They can be grown at any time starting from spring to early fall. In this article, we will learn how to plant red onions step by step.
Soil Preparation
Onions like to grow in well-drained soil that contains rich organic matter and don’t get dried quickly. They require 6-8 hours of open sunlight daily.
Prepare the garden bed for planting by adding and mixing 1-2 inches of compost layer into the upper 4-6 inch of soil. Compost contains nutrients that are enough for growing onion and thus it can fulfill the lack of fertilizer. Extra compost assists to enhance moisture retention in sandy soil. Make 4-6 inches long raised bed that helps to improve the drainage system.
Planting Process
- Create holes in the soil bed about 2 inches deep by side after side.
- Now place the onion bulb in the hole and make sure the root end of the onion is facing down. The root end has a brown circle and looks flat.
- After that cover the bulb properly with soil.
- Plant others bulb in the same procedure including 4-inch distance from each other if you want to plant multiple bulbs.
- Water the bed until the soil is entirely soaked.
- Water the bed in every 5-7 days in the first month. After the first-month onions usually don’t require so much water. You can depend on rainwater. But if the weather is dry, water the onions every week. Water them until the soil gets moist but don’t get soaked.
- Eliminate weeds from your red onion bed immediately when you see them.
Care for Red Onion
- Treat your onions as a leaf crop but not a root crop.
- If available, fertilize them every few weeks with urea/nitrogen to get bigger bulbs. Stop fertilizing when the onions lift up the soil away and the bulb formation process has begun. Never put the soil back near the onions. Bulbs need to rise up above the soil.
- Normally, onion plants do not require constant watering if mulch is adopted. Nearly one inch of water every few weeks (including rainwater) is good to go. If you prefer sweeter onions than water them more.
- Onion normally looks healthy even if they become bone dry. So be careful to water during drought climate.
Harvesting Onions
You need to harvest your red onions when the leaf turns yellow. Use the back of a rake to pull them over horizontally. After a day or later, when the tops turn brown, pull out the bulb on a sunny day. Let them dry in the sun. Now store them in a dry, cool place. Or hang them in an airy place. These dried bulbs will remain fresh for about 4 months up to 1 year.
Follow the above process as given. Take proper care of them regularly. If any diseases or pests attack causes then identify them and use chemical pesticides. You can consult with your neighbor onion gardener or garden consultant. Now you have a fresh onion to make your dishes more delicious.
Happy Reading!
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