Tips from Gardeners on Spring Onions  (Allium Cepa)

Do you like a crisp spring onion. White Lisbon is a variety grown from seed that will grow quickly and produce some nice strongly flavoured salad onions.
If you can find a variety White Spanish try that for a milder flavour.

• Sow seed from early March if you can give them some protection.  ( Thompson & Morgan sell various varities of Spring Onion and other vegetable seeds)
• Alternatively over winter an October sowing for onions from April.
• Try sowing direct into a grow bag. Warm the bag in the house for a couple of days or in a heated greenhouse.
• Pull young onions alternately to leave space for others to grow
• All early onions pulled this way can be used as salad onions
• Fertilise with a light sprinkling of sodium nitrate in wet weather to help them bulk up
• Spring onions grown from seed are possible throughout the year  by sowing every 4 weeks from early spring to autumn.
• Keep the ground free from weeds. All onions dislike the competition from weeds and other plants.

Know your onions

Bunching Onions are a trendy name for Spring onions. Varieties include Ciboule, Performer and Ishikura.

Spring onions (Allium Cepa) are part of the Allium family that includes:

Garlic

Chives

LeeksPot Leeks & Blanching Leeks

Shallots and Pickling Onions

Welsh onions and Japanese Onions

Ornamental Alliums