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How to Grow Onions in your Vegetable Garden

Allium cepa

Derrick wrote: "Thank you for the reply on the letter I sent to you on Feb the 8th on prayer plants this was very useful.I am writing today to see if you can direct me to a type of onion said to be a Chinese type that you set in the fall and harvest in late spring or early summer. Have you heard of such a type or where you can get it . Thanks "
Charlie the Garden Gnome I was unable to find any onions originating from China, sorry!
The Egyptian walking onion is ready in 250 days if it is fall planted, or 90 days if it is spring planted.
The catawissa onion takes 250 days if fall planted, 125 days when spring planted.
The yellow potato onion is for fall planting only, and takes 250 days.
The Japanese bunching onion is a hardy, green onion available from Seeds-R-Us.
Onions (Allium cepa) grow best in a loose, well-drained fertile soil with plenty of organic matter. Heavier soils such as clay and silt loams often prevent the full development of the bulb. They grow best when the soil pH is between 6.2 and 6.8. The roots often don't extend more than 6-8inches, so fertilizer (5-10-10) should be applied close to the plant.
If an onion gets too many hours of daylight, it will begin to bulb before it is very big; if it gets too few hours, it might never even produce a bulb, so planting times may be critical... plant early! The soil should remain reasonably moist, so mulching is advisable.


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