Even though they bring tears into your eyes, it’s difficult to imagine not having onions in the kitchen. These cool-season vegetables can be grown reliably in virtually any climate. As they develop, the plants generate a tuft of leaves above ground for a bulb develops underground. A bulbless onion can nevertheless be harvested because of its greens, however, if your goal is a harvest of fully developed onions, then you will need to be certain you have the suitable selection and proper growing conditions.
Wrong Conditions
To form a sponge, the underground part of the onion plant needs ample space in loose dirt. Planting in heavy clay soil or planting your onions also closely makes it difficult for the lights to develop. Before planting, amend your soil to loosen it or plant your own onions in raised beds. Onion plants should have at least three to four inches of space between them to prevent crowding. Onions also require full sun. Planted in partial shade or full shade, the plants won’t be able to produce the energy that they need to divert energy to arc creation.
Wrong Variety
Onions grown because of their bulbs are available in three varieties: short-day, intermediate-day and long-day. To form a sponge, onion plants must obtain a certain amount of daylight. Gardeners from the south, where day length doesn’t change much during the year, should plant short-day varieties. Gardeners from the north, where summer days are long, should plant long-day varieties. Gardeners close to the 37th parallel, roughly the horizontal center of the United States from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., will want to plant intermediate-day varieties. These varieties have also different planting times; if implanted at the wrong time of year, they won’t form bulbs. Short-day varieties are planted in late fall to early winter, while intermediate-day and short-day varieties are planted in early spring.
Poor Nutrition
For a onion plant to be healthy enough to form a sponge, it needs a lot of nutrients in its early growth stages. When there’s too much nitrogen, your onion crops will put on lush above-ground growth, but may also neglect to produce bulbs. Select a balanced fertilizer and apply it one month after planting and then once more four weeks later. For the plant to access the nutrients from the fertilizer, the pH of your onion bed’s dirt should be between 6.2 and 6.8. Higher or lower pH levels make it difficult for the roots to take up the nutrients. Onions also require routine water for healthy growth and bulb formation.
Pests and Disorders
Weeds can rob your onions of the nutrients and water that they want. If the competition gets too heavy, your onions won’t form bulbs. When weeding, pull gently to avoid disturbing the superficial roots of the onion plants. Onions aren’t affected by many pests or diseases. The two major issues are a variety of forms of rot and root maggots that can destroy the bulbs that are developing. These issues can be solved by planting onions in loose, well-drained dirt in sunny locations and by not planting onions in the exact same bed two years in a row.