How to grow onions

A good day to everyone, and here's the lastest article from gardening for beginners, the blog catered towards aspiring gardeners and people who want to grow organic fruits and vegetables.

In today's article, we will cover a little bit on the uses of onions and how to grow onions.

Onions belong to the genus allium and have been cultivated for thousands of years. They can be used in many different recipes and, like many vegetables, are a rich source of vitamin C and antioxidants.

It's easy to grow onions if you start with a good bulb. You can buy these at the supermarket in large amounts for mass growing. Onions can be grown relatively near to each other, but make sure you do your research before growing other types of vegetables near them as they might not be suitable.

Select whole onions for growing that are not dented or broken. An onion with a portion chipped off will not grow. I've found that smaller species of onion tend to grow faster and are easier to cultivate than their larger counterparts. Place the onions in soil, make sure the soil is deep enough to accommodate the new onions that will bud off. Do not bury the entire onion, leave the top one-third of the onion sticking out of the soil. Water regularly but do not over-water.

In the next two weeks or so, the onion will grow roots although you will not be able to see anything happening. Do not uproot the onion once you have planted it or you will kill it. After about 10 days, you may start to see green shoots sprouting from your onion, this is spring onion and it is an indicator that you're doing good. A healthy onion plant under good conditions should have 7 to 10 such shoots sprouting.

Your onion will continue growing, be sure to water it regularly. You can harvest the shoots (spring onions) for dishes such as fried rice. It takes about 3 to 6 months for a new onion to be fully developed from the onion that you have planted, depending on the species. When you think the time is ripe, you can then uproot the onion and harvest off the new onions which would have budded from the one you planted.

Good luck in growing onions!