Onions store for months if you get the harvest right, turning one planting session into a winter's worth of meals.
Onions are usually grown from ‘sets’ — small immature bulbs — rather than seed, which is far more forgiving for a first attempt. Autumn and spring planting give two different harvest windows, so growers often do both.
Sowing & growing calendar
| J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plant | Plant in March | Plant in April | Plant in October | |||||||||
| Harvest | Harvest in July | Harvest in August |
Care details
- Plant March – April
Plant spring sets into firm, raked soil.
- Harvest July – August
Lift once foliage yellows and topples; dry well before storing.
- Plant In October
Or plant autumn sets now for an earlier crop next summer.
Growing tips & common problems
- Plant sets with just the tip showing above the soil — buried too deep, they can struggle to form a bulb.
- Stop watering once bulbs have swollen and the foliage begins to topple, to help them cure for storage.
- Weed carefully by hand close to the bulbs — onions compete poorly with weeds due to their thin, upright leaves.
Grows well with
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