Why it’s Worth Growing Spring Onions in your Veg Plot

Posted on 07. May, 2011 by Tracey in Veg Plot

I have grown to love the versatility of spring onions bought from the supermarket, they can be added to almost any dish, salad or jacket potato to add crunch or bite. So you ask if I already buy them from the supermarket for 80 pence per bunch, why start growing my own spring onions from seed at home?

Here’s Why I Grow My Own Spring Onions

I know where my spring onions come from and how they have been grown (i.e back garden veg plot and organic)
There’s many different varieties and colours available to grow your own
It takes time to grow spring onions but it’s worth it
They are easy to sow and it’s easy to forget about them for a nice surprise later
They don’t need a lot of love and attention, just water now and again
They will grow in almost any soil
They don’t take up much space. Lettuce, radish and carrot can be sown close to them
They store for longer than the supermarket ones
Their flavour is more intense than the supermarket ones
They are a delight to see in the veg plot with their black seeds perched on top of thin blades of grass
If you grow the pickling onions (Paris Silverskin type), you’ll be able to pickle your own onions for Christmas
They can be grown all year round, there are even winter varieties to sow in July

Tips for Growing Spring Onions

Spring Onion Purplette

Get Them in Early!
By early I mean April or May or if you’ve missed the boat, then sow winter varieties in July or August for Winter Spring Onions. They do take quite a few months to grow and to fatten up their onion bulb below ground but they taste lovely.

Don’t mistake them for weeds ie. couch grass.
If you sow in rows, you’ll be able to catch most of them to keep them. But they do look like blades of grass, so be warned!

The Best Varieties of Spring Onion

Spring or Bunching Onions

Feast from Real Seed Catalogue – For long white stems
Purplette from MoreVeg.co.uk – For Red Skinned bulbs
Guardsman F1 from MoreVeg.co.uk – For a vigorous and good crop with AGM Merit.

For Pickling

Paris Silverskin from MoreVeg.co.uk – Classic pickling variety
Early Paris White from Real Seeds Catalogue – Sow Late Spring or in August

2 Responses to “Why it’s Worth Growing Spring Onions in your Veg Plot”

Janet/Plantaliscious

14. May, 2011

I’m a first time allotment grower, but spring onions are one of the things I am trying to grow, since we love them so much. Thanks for the warning that they look like couch grass, I’ll have to tell FIL, we have a LOT of couch grass up at the plot and the chances are high that one or other of us would have yanked out our first crop by mistake…
Tracey

14. May, 2011

Spring Onions do look like blades of grass however when you look really closely they tend to look like chives but thinner and some ‘blades’ may have the characteristic black seed case still hooked onto the top of them which will give it away that they are spring onions and not grass. When I’m weeding out the grass, I don’t tend to look that closely!

All I can say is its a good job grass doesn’t grow in rows, because thats the only time I can tell what they are from a distance.