When and how to plant onions in the spring for bulbs

Planting onions Planting a bulb in the spring will help you get excellent onions for the following season. Generally, the onion propagation process repeats itself, and if you plant a bulb three years in a row, you'll grow onion sets.

When to plant onions for bulbs

It's impossible to give specific dates here. Everything will depend on the weather and the region where the dacha is located. Generally speaking, late April or early May are good dates. How can you tell when planting is ready? The soil should already be warmed to 12 degrees Celsius or higher.

Advice! Never plant onions in unheated soil. This will result in too many shoots forming, which will reduce the quality of the harvest.

Be sure to plant onions before the end of spring. Delaying this process will result in a small harvest. Planting late will result in slow growth, as the soil has much less moisture in the summer than in the spring.

What does the lunar calendar show?

You can determine the exact dates for spring onion planting according to the lunar calendar by checking out our dedicated article. There, we examined the lunar phases for a specific month in detail, day by day. However, regardless of the month, you can determine the exact planting date yourself if you understand the basic principles.

In particular, since planting the head indicates a harvest from the underground part of the plant, it's best to plant during the waning phases of the moon. At this time, the plant's sap is concentrated in the roots. Please note that any planting is prohibited during the New Moon and Full Moon. This will result in a poor-quality harvest, especially in small quantities.

About caring for onions:

• It requires plenty of sunlight. So, choose a sunny area of ​​your dacha that's not shaded by trees or bushes;
• Onions grow well in loamy soils. It's best if the soil is rich in organic matter. An acidic environment is absolutely unsuitable. If you have acidic soil, you'll need to add lime before planting.
• For the first month and a half, you only need to water the onions once a week;
• Once the bulbs begin to ripen, water them only in extreme heat and drought. The plant will signal that it's lacking moisture: the tips will become curled and white;
• If the feathers are light green, this indicates the onion is receiving too much moisture. In this case, watering should be reduced;
• The onions will grow well. in the ground where tomatoes or cabbage, peas and other legumes used to grow;
• You shouldn’t plant onions in soil where onions or garlic, cucumbers or carrots also grew last year;
• When planting onions in spring for bulbs, you decide the month based on the information above. However, you should plant them so that there is a 10 cm gap between rows.
• The seed onions should be planted no deeper than 4 cm into the ground;
• As for the main stages of care, everything is elementary and simple: watering, loosening and weeding;

Fertilize and harvest

We discussed planting onions from sets in the spring. Do you need to fertilize this crop? Of course, you do. Fertilizing should be done in three stages. First, before the bulbs are planted. Then, the soil is fertilized when the tops are 10 cm above the soil. Then, the third stage of fertilization begins when the onions are the size of a walnut.

As for harvesting, you should finish by mid-August. If your region is very warm, you can even harvest the entire crop by the beginning of the last month of summer. A telltale sign that it's time to begin harvesting is when the stems are light.

How to select planting material

The onion sets will need to be sorted in the spring. They should be divided into three parts and planted in that order so that the shoots emerge gradually. Poor seedlings will need to be dried for an additional three days at 30 degrees Celsius. If the sets aren't warmed, the plants will quickly sprout, and this is certainly not necessary when planting for bulbs. You know Fertile zodiac signs for sowing in 2015?

This is how to plant onions for bulbs in the spring. It's important to do everything on time: don't rush or be late. This will ensure a good onion harvest, as caring for them is simple and easy.