Spring onions or salad onions add a great bite to a green salad but they are also good for stir-fries or in sandwiches. Emma Rawlings offers some top tips on growing this popular crop.
Getting started
Spring onions can be sown straight into the ground. About a week beforesowing take time to prepare thesoil really well by digging over andsprinkling over some fertiliser such asGrowmore or chicken manure pelletsor 6X. Rake the soil over to create a finecrumbly surface.
Make seed drills (shallow grooves) in linesabout 1.5cm (in) deep and the rows about15cm (6in) apart. Sow about 2.5cm (1in) apartin the row and as they grow, thin out to about 5cm (2in) apart.
Alternatively, sow into cell trays using good sowing or multi-purpose compost. Sow two to four seeds per cell.
When the seedlings are a few inches high they an be transplanted on to plot. You can plant the g of seedlings together or separate.The beauty of having some sown this way is you can dot clumps of spring onions in gaps or between brassica plants.
This is called inter-cropping.The spring onions will be harvested long before the brassicas have made a lot of leaf.
4 ESSENTIALS FOR GREAT SPRING ONIONS
■ Salad onions can be harvested evenat ‘grass-like’ stage. Treat as you would chives and chop into small pieces and add to salads or a cooking pot.
■ Grow salad onions in troughs ofmulti-purpose compost. This is a great idea if you have struggled to grow them in the open ground.
■ Grow them in containers closely sown. As they grow, thin them out and eat the thinnings. Eventually allow some of them to reach maturity and bulb up.
■ In winter sow a few in a pot and placon a warm, sunny windowsill for winter pickings. Harvest when just grass-like.
Watch out for…
Fortunately, salad onions are quick growing and don’t tend to suffer from many pests or diseases. If your soil has onion white rot this can in theory affect spring onions. The soil-borne fungus will show up as yellowing leaves and a white fluffy fungus may be seen at the base of the bulb. If this is a problem simply grow in containers in multipurpose compost.