Vegetables - Spring Onions

Spring onions are sown March-April. They are sown in a row. The seeds are small and black. They aren't transplanted, so they need to be sown thinly. I do more than one sowing, as germination can be poor, sometimes. This depends on the wetness and warmth of the soil, including the weather after you've sown them! So unless you're a weather prophet, it's best to do a couple of sowings, and hopefully one or more will be the right conditions.

Ordinary onions can also be sown from seed, but I couldn't get them to grow well, so grow them from sets (small bulbs). Spring onions are fine, though.

Spring onions can be eaten as soon as they appear. You can thin them by removing alternate seedlings to eat.

You harvest spring onions by just pulling them up, then cutting off the roots. The rest is edible. You can chop the leaves to act like chives, perhaps to flavour a salad. The bulb can just be eaten raw. Chinese cooking uses spring onions rather than normal onions in stir fries, I believe, although I tend to just use ordinary onions. Spring onion leaves have a mild flavour, and the bulbs aren't as strong as normal onions, so if you're not careful, you'll lose the flavour.

Seeds

Germinating

Seedlings

Getting bigger

Planted too close together!

Click on photos for large version.