How to Plant Onions

The onion is one of those essential tubers in the kitchen. You can also grow it yourself if you have land, a pot or a planter. Surely you are thinking that you can also buy it at any greengrocer or supermarket. It is true, but it does not taste the same as if they are bought directly from the farmer or grown by one. The difference is in its taste. In addition, it is the healthiest way of consuming food. Do you want to try having your own onions?

You can get the plant in two ways: starting from the plants themselves from seedbeds or from the seeds. The first and easiest is to go to the greenhouse that is closest to home or that you already know. There you can buy the onion plant already a little grown up with its green leaves showing. But you can also buy the seeds and grow the plant yourself in a home nursery. Although this process will require a little more time.

What do you need to plant onions?

• Onions to plant.
• Scissors.
• Land to plant them or pot.
• Earth (if we use a pot).
• Hoe.
• For the seeds:
• One or more onions.
• Basin with water.
• Rag.
• Box with earth.
• Rake.

Instructions for planting onions

1. Give a cut to the middle of the stems of the plants you have bought, so that the new shoots come out with more strength and more vitality.
2. Once cut they are ready to plant in the ground in a garden or we can also plant them in a pot.
3. If you are going to plant the onions in a field, first you will have to remove all the weeds, as well as the stones.
4. You will have to remove the earth with a hoe so that the ground is oxygenated, creating furrows.
5. Depending on the land we have, we will make more or less furrows.
6. Once the grooves are prepared, we will make holes on each side of the groove. To make the hole we can use our own index finger or a stick. There are specific tools such as a small shovel like those used in gardening, but the hole will be too big and we will have to work harder to cover it. So we recommend a stick or similar, if you do not want to use your hand.
7. Next place the plant.
8. You will cover the remaining hole and bury the white part of the onion, leaving the green leafy parts on the surface. Cover it well.
9. The next step will be to compact the earth around it, that is, crush the earth well. We do this with the aim of keeping the onion plant upright and thus able to take root well.
10. We will place the next plant about 15 or 20 cm away or if you do it by eye, try to have a distance of a span.
11. Once the onions have been planted, they will be watered and if it is winter for another 15 days, it will not be necessary to water again. But keep in mind that it is a time when the rains are more frequent. If it rains we will have to wait until the land is drier. (Too much water could rot the plant).
12. When they have to be picked up, they will be pulled out by hand if the ground is soft.
13. How to get seeds:
    • If what we want is to get seeds. You need an onion. It is usually planted by the end of December when there is a waning moon. Each onion you plant can give you about 1,000 seeds. So with one you plant to start is enough. If you plant several, remember that they have a distance of about 30 centimeters from each other.
    • Normally, eight or ten points or shoots with their corresponding heads come out of each onion.
    • Wait until the seed head is black, which will be around the month of July.
    • Then it is dried until it becomes crispy in the sun.
    • Undo the seeds and you will see that there are grains that are black. Those don’t work. To separate them, put the seed in a basin with water. The seeds that work will sink and the chaff that doesn’t work will float.
    • Beat with your hand a little so that the seeds go to the bottom.
    • Remove the straw.
    • Remove the water.
    • Let the seeds dry on a cloth. In a couple of hours in the sun they are dry.
    • Prepare a box or some sticks with ropes in the same land to know where you have sown the seed. To proportionately distribute the seeds.
    • If they have been thrown on the ground, it is recommended once planted to gently remove with a rake so that it is not too deep and without stepping on it.

Tips for planting onions

• Remember that before planting onions you have to remove all the weeds, since otherwise they will not let them grow. These weeds are strong competitors and would eventually prevent the onions’ fragile roots from taking the nourishment they need from the soil. And eventually they would dry up.
• The pots that have a depth of about 20 cm and a good volume of soil.
• Onion requires loose, healthy and deep soils. Hence, it is convenient to remove all the herbs, stones and oxygenate the land.
•  There is no problem if you plant the onions close together. But, keep in mind that it is in this space that they will develop, so the more space, the more likely they will become large. Although it is not convenient for them to be too far apart in order to take more advantage of the land. Hence, those 15 or 20 centimeters that we indicated in the instructions are recommended, so that the onions have a certain size.
• If you do not want to measure each time, you can help yourself with the distance between the index finger and the thumb for the separation between the plants.
• If they are planted together they will develop lengthwise instead of widthwise, so they will have to be eaten young.
• Onions are normally harvested when the leaves begin to dry. If they are planted in December until June-July they cannot be harvested.
• The onion is a plant that resists low temperatures well, so it can be planted in winter.