Q&A for How to Grow Onions

You should keep the onion and leaves intact, and plant the bulb so that the top third is poking out of the ground.

You could plant radishes as a trap crop to lure the maggots away from your onions.

Yes! Remove the outer part of large onion, which you can use in cooking if still in good condition. Plant the smaller onion bulbs that are attached to the greens at the bottommost part of the green. New, full-size onions will grow from the bottom bulb.

Onion plants should be placed in one-inch deep holes in the ground and covered lightly with soil.

Yes you can. Follow the instructions for growing it.

It is bolting, aka producing seeds. As the flowers start to turn brown, you should notice black ovals inside them. Cut the flower off with about two inches of green. Put in a gallon bag upside down and shake it until all the seeds have fallen. Then take a look at the "Growing from Seed" section.

It depends on the variety of onion, but most take about 5 months from planting to harvesting.

Until we know how big the pot is, we can't accurately answer your question. The rule of thumb is to keep onions spaced at least 4 inches apart so the plant has plenty of room to grow.

When they are transplanted or growing where they will stay, plant them 12 to 18 inches apart and make the rows 12 to 18 inches apart as well. Onions feed heavily and need the nutrients in the ground around them to produce good size onions.

Give it plenty of nitrogen, which is the cause of healthy leaf growth so if you give your onions some nitrogen like cow, sheep, or chicken manure, it will encourage leaf growth.

It is neither -- it's a bulbous callous formed by the process of photosynthesis in the onion's genus plant with only three chromosomes.

Yes, but it would be great if you mixed in some red soil to make the best mixture.

In my experience, onion seeds germinate at a much lower rate the second year after harvest than the first year after harvest. It is best to collect seeds every year for planting the next year.

in mid to late summer once the onion tops are browning and falling over, there may be a few still be green and growing. In order to get all the onions ready to harvest at once, gardeners may knock down these still green ones. (Maybe that is what you remember mom doing?) Then later you pull them up and let them dry for a couple days, then cut off the tops and put them somewhere cool for storage.

You should cover them to keep pests from them.

Yes. You can use them the same as you would a scallion. Just chop them up and put them in anything. Depending on the onion, they may be a little stronger than a scallion.

If you're using onion seeds, the recommended depth is about an inch into the soil. For a full onion that began sprouting leaves in your cabinet, bury it nearly up to those leaves, leaving some of the onion bulb showing.

Loosen the soil around the onions when they are ready to harvest and are fully matured.

Make sure that the onion plants are getting enough nitrogen and sunlight, water and the like. These are all factors to consider to consider in this situation.

Yes, rabbits like onions.

Add phosphorus to the soil. The middle number on fertilizer is for fruit production, the first number is for the green on top, and the last number is for the roots. You're wanting to grow the bulbs, so keep the middle number high.

Yes, you can transplant onions.

If you want the bulb, then remove the flower, since it takes nutrients from the bulb. But the flowers are also edible and the bulb is still there, just smaller.

The bulb won't get big if it flowers, but the flowers are still edible. It may even be good if you are growing lots of them. Just take the seeds and grow them.