Onions are by far the most frequently used vegetable in our household. They add flavor and can transform a bland dish as nobody’s business. This year, I plan to more than triple our allium harvest. Bulbing onions, leeks, salad onions, spring onions, garlic, chives.
I’m not exclusively in either camp onion seedlings or camp onion sets. This weekend I started 8 varieties from seed, but I’m also waiting for an onion set order to be planted directly outside as soon as the soil warms up a bit more.
The great thing about onion seedlings is that they have very strong and wiry roots – almost indestructible – and they transplant extremely well.
That’s why I’m able to massively oversow in my 20×20 cm plug tray. And this space-efficient head-start on the growing season is green gold!
Spring and salad onions – and leeks
Red Toga – fast-growing salad onion with a tiny bulb at the base. Suitable for high-density planting at only 2 cm on center spacing.
Long Red Florence – fast-growing Italian torpedo-shaped red onions . Can get up to 10 cm long.
White Lisbon – mild green salad onion. Suitable for high-density planting at only 2 cm on center spacing.
Evergreen – salad leek with hollow tube-leaves (size in between spring onion and a small leek). Incredible fast-growing and cold-tolerant.
Zermatt – early to mid-season Swiss giant leek. Harvested from 6 weeks as baby leek with a milder taste than spring onions. Or left to grow for a full-size harvest since it stores well too.
Bulbing onions
Noordhollandse Strogele – yellow bulbing onion.
Noordhollandse Bloedrode – red bulbing onion. Stores well.
De Barletta – small white pickling onion. It can also be grown to salad onions if given space.
