Spring Onions

Many people overlook spring onions in favour of other crops, but spring onions are a great food as they are readily and easily grown and have some good health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and prevent a number of cancers, and they are good for the digestion system; they can be grown in most types of ground, they can be grown indoors and outdoors, and they can be grown directly in the ground or in containers with nothing more than a little care and attention, they are prolific croppers and can be overwintered for a next season, early crop.

Spring onions are what I call space fillers which means they can be grown between rows of other vegetables, under trees and bushes, in flower beds, and in small or large containers for the full spectrum of growing for most people. Soil needs to be well tilled to a fine soil, reasonably well drained and they need to be kept moist to prevent them bolting, you can plant them and harvest them in 6 - 8 weeks depending upon the variety which means you can stagger their planting for a prolific crop for little work, and there are plenty of Heirloom varieties readily available.

Planting them is easy, you dibber a hole to a depth of 1/2" deep, place seeds in the hole and cover them, you space your holes 6" apart and thats it, you do need to keep the ground moist to prevent them bolting, but do not plant them in wet ground, then leave until harvesting.

Container growing is easy, you place your seeds into your container and cover them with 1/2" of soil and water them in, you need to keep the container moist and in 6-8 weeks you harvest them.

You can stagger plant spring onions to give you a long season crop, scrape a trench out and place seeds in them, cover and water, wait for a week and scrape another trench out and plant your next row and cover, and repeat until your container is fill and you get a prolonged crop from just a single container.

You can overwinter spring onions by planting them late in the season and leaving them through the winter and when the weather picks up they begin to grow and you get an early crop.

.

I like there versatility ALAB, I cook with them and they add a nice subtle flavour to many dishes, and you can grow them all year round of you have a heated greenhouse, which as you know, I have.