Growing Sweet Onions
Slow and unhurried, but a homegrown sweet onion barely resembles the ones from the store.
How to Grow Sweet Onions
Planting
Best from transplants or sets in late winter, onions form bulbs based on day length, and our zone wants short-day or intermediate-day varieties, not the long-day types sold in northern catalogs.
Watering & feeding
Regular watering until the tops start to yellow and flop, then ease off, that flopping is the plant telling you it’s done bulbing.
Harvest
Pull once most of the tops have fallen over on their own, then cure them somewhere warm and airy for a couple of weeks before storing.
Grows Well With
Plant onions near carrots and beets, the onion scent helps confuse pests that go after root crops. See all our companion planting pairs →
When to Plant
Set out transplants January through February for a summer harvest. This is one of the earliest things to go in the ground each year. See the full planting calendar →
Buy the Seeds We Use
From the Seed Center
Shop Sweet Onions Seeds
$1.25
From the Kitchen: Recipes Using Sweet Onions
Looking for recipe ideas? Browse the full Recipe Book.