Harvesting Spring Onions

• Harvest throughout the season when they reach approximately 6 inches
• More mature ones will be stronger with bigger bulbs
• Can be eaten cooked or raw

Types of Spring Onions 

Before learning when to plant spring onions, it’s important to choose the right variety. You can grow spring onions from either seeds bought online or from nurseries, or you can buy saplings from a local store.

Choosing Your Spring Onion Variety

While many of us think spring onions come in one variety, there are actually multiple variants that are suited for the UK climate and soil. Here are some options to choose from:

• Apache: They have a mild flavour and are fast-growing with purple bulbs and dark green leaves.
• Guardsman: They are fast-growing with tall leaves.
• Photon: This variety produces a large yield and has long, white stems.
• Feast: They are tolerant to summer heat and mildew and have successive yields.
• White Lisbon: They grow quickly and offer successive sowing and overwintering, making them favourite among growers.
• Elody: Best suited for year-long harvesting, they are hardy and mild-tasting variants.
• Ishikura: Known as Welsh onion, they have long white stalks and a mild flavour.

When to Plant Spring Onions

You can start sowing spring onion seeds in early spring indoors or sow directly outdoors from March to April. You can dedicate rows for your spring onions; however, being quite small plants, they can be grown with other compatible plants, as long as they have enough space, light and are kept weed-free. 

Tips for Sowing & Growing Spring Onions

• It is best to hand-weed around growing spring onions and water regularly during dry spells.
• Sow thinly and often for a continuous crop throughout the summer; you can thin them out if necessary once the seedlings appear.
• For early or late sowings, choose a more hardy variety, and you can sow them indoors.Alternatively, late sowings will grow slowly, survive through the winter, and be ready to harvest the following spring.
• Harden off the spring onion saplings if planting them during early to mid-spring.
• Spring onions are fairly quick to grow and are mostly trouble-free, but they do grow best in rich, well-drained soil.
• Spring onions can be sown outdoors after March, when the soil isn’t frozen. You can dig a 1-1.5-inch deep hole before placing the plant and covering the hole with soil. Water it generously. 
• You can also grow spring onions in containers measuring 30cm deep. Use peat-free compost and soil mixture, and keep the container in a warm and sunny spot. 

How to Harvest Spring Onions

When to pick spring onions depends on when you’ve planted them. These crops usually take about two months from the time of planting. Spring onions will be ready to harvest when they are approximately 6 inches tall. If they are left longer for the bulb to grow larger, the taste will be stronger.

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