Onions & garlic
Scallions (bunching)
Direct Apr onward; pull anytime; often overwinters.
- Outside
- Direct Apr onward
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- In dry spells; finger the top half inch
- Harvest
- 60 to 80 days, pull anytime
Care
- Water
- Shallow-rooted, so water once the top half inch of soil dries, which in a July bed runs to a good soak every 3 to 4 days when the rain misses. Ease back to every 5 to 7 days in spring and fall. No drama if you skip one; they forgive a lot.
- Sow
- Direct sow from April once the soil is workable, a quarter to half inch deep in a 2 inch band, rows a foot to 18 inches apart, sown thick. Thin the first flush to about an inch apart, then not again: pulling for dinner is all the thinning it gets. Scatter more seed into each cleared patch to keep a row going all season.
- Feed
- The light feeder of the family. A shovel of compost or castings worked in at sowing carries this quick crop start to finish; rich soil alone does fine. Skip the liquid feed and go easy on nitrogen, which just grows floppy tops at the expense of flavor.
- Ready
- Pull once they reach the thickness you want, anywhere from pencil-thin at 60 days on; there is no wrong size. Slide a trowel alongside to loosen first so the plant lifts whole instead of tearing off at the ground. A late patch left standing often overwinters into spring's first greens.
- Trouble
- White stipple-dots down a leaf, as on the leeks: allium leaf miner, netted through the April and September flights. Silver streaks and curling in hot dry spells: onion thrips, knocked back with a stiff spray of water and a straw mulch. Wilting yellow plants: onion maggot in the stem, so cover from sowing day and rotate the bed.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 2–3 gal bag.
- Water
- Water when the top half inch dries, which in a July bag can be every other day. Roughly 15 to 20 sec on the shower dial, since a small bag dries fast.
- Sow
- Sow thick and one small bag by the door runs all season; there is no thinning beyond pulling for dinner.
Scallions grow along a bed edge or a small bag by the kitchen door, seeded thick from April and pulled a few at a time from June on. Left alone at season's end, a patch often winters over and restarts itself.
Growing
Direct sow thickly from April onward along a bed edge, or in a 2 to 3 gallon bag; there is no thinning, because harvest is the thinning. Pull what dinner needs from June through October and drop a pinch of seed in each gap. In a small bag they dry fast, so water when the top feels dry, and ask for little else. A late sowing left in place usually overwinters into the earliest alliums of spring.
Varieties
Evergreen Hardy White is the overwintering champion; Nabechan is the flavor pick; plain White Lisbon does honest work.
Pests
The allium leaf miner that troubles the leeks visits scallions too; the sign is the same line of white pinpricks down a blade. Netting through the April and September flights is enough, and the miners find big allium plantings faster than a small patch anyway.
In the kitchen
The whole plant works: white ends in the pan, green tops scissored over everything. Charred whole beside anything grilled, they stop being a garnish.