In raising onions in quantities the practice of late years has been to
grow the crop from seed in one season, instead of the method formerly
almost universally practiced in this section, of raising and keeping
over sets to form the next year’s crop. This latter method is now only
practiced to save labor in small gardens and to bring a few onions in
for use early in the season.
To raise a satisfactory crop the ground must be free from weed seeds;
it must be made as rich as possible and have constant cultivation from
the time the seedlings break through the ground until the bulbs begin
to ripen. The soil must be plowed, harrowed and raked, until it is in
the finest possible condition to receive the seed, and it is important
to select a plot for this purpose that has been kept free from weeds
the preceding season. Root crops are the best to precede onions, as
they not only leave the ground free from litter, but also, if they have
been properly cultivated, leave the soil in fine tilth.
In our kitchen garden I would sow the seed in drills, twelve to
fourteen inches apart, and cultivate with the wheel hoe; in field
culture, or raised more extensively in the garden, plant in rows as
closely as they can be worked with the cultivator, which, if it is
provided with very narrow-bladed teeth, can be run through any rows
where the horse can walk. For the kitchen garden, make the surface
fine with a sharp steel rake, and if no drill is at hand, take a rake
handle or blunt stick, and, drawing it along the garden line, scratch
a drill about an inch deep. Sow the seed thinly, say an inch apart,
but if there is reason to doubt the freshness of the seed, sow it
thicker, so that a good stand may be assured. When the onions are an
inch high, they should have their first working. Follow the wheel hoe
or cultivator with a narrow-bladed hoe, not wider than an inch and a
half at the cutting part of the blade; it must be sharp and lightly
handled, just loosening the ground and cutting off any stray weeds. If
there are no weeds the soil can be quickly loosened with a sharp steel
rake. They should be worked every eight or ten days from this point
until they begin to ripen; if it is neglected for longer periods than
these, the gardener will rue it in days of back-breaking labor on hands
and knees. When the young onions have made leaves two or three inches
in height, they should be thinned out to from four to six inches apart
in the rows, according to the size of the bulb made by the particular
variety planted. The seed for onions grown in this way should be sown
as early in the spring as the soil can be gotten into the proper fine
condition, so that they may make as strong a growth as possible before
the hot summer weather ripens them off. As they begin to ripen, all
those with thick necks should be pulled and used upon the table, as
they will not ripen properly, and if put away with the good bulbs will
start all to rotting. There is a theory common with old gardeners that,
by bending the tops over when they begin to ripen, the bulbs will be
increased in size and will ripen more quickly; personally, I have tried
it frequently, and have never been able to observe any difference in
those bent and the ones left to ripen in the natural way. As soon as
the bulbs are well matured, take them up at once, as a few rainy days
might start them to growing again if left in the ground; pull off
all the tops and roots which adhere to the dry bulbs and spread them
thinly on the barn floor or on the floor of a cool loft. When it
becomes too cold to let them remain longer in this position without
danger of freezing, I put them in peach baskets, the stripped sides
of which allow a free circulation of air, and store them in a cool,
well-ventilated cellar, where we try to keep the temperature just above
freezing by admitting air whenever possible, as it takes but very
little warmth to start them to growing, and then they soon become unfit
for use. If the gardener saves his own seed, the finest and best-shaped
onions should be laid aside for planting out in the spring, for this
purpose.
Where the crop is raised from sets it is not necessary, though quite
desirable, to have the soil made as fine as for the seed bed. As the
small onions are set in, planting at the proper distances apart, almost
all the cultivation can be done with the narrow onion hoe, and if it is
regularly attended to at proper intervals no hand work is necessary.
The onion is a hardy bulb, and the sets can be planted as soon in the
spring as the ground can be gotten into proper condition; this makes
an important feature in the earliness of the crop, as the sets have
several weeks the start over the onions raised from seed. For the
very earliest onions, or those used when the bulb and neck are about
of equal thickness early in the spring, and which go by the name of
scallions, the sets are planted in October and allowed to remain in the
ground all winter, so that they are ready for use almost as soon as the
spring opens, two weeks’ growth sufficing to bring them to a proper
size. Where the main garden crop of these fragrant bulbs is raised
from seed, enough sets should be planted to make an early supply for
the table; if no sets are at hand in the fall, to plant for the spring
crop of scallions, they could be grown by sowing the seed about a month
earlier than you would plant the sets for the same purpose.
In sowing seeds for sets the same directions apply as given for the
crop of bulbs, excepting that the seed is sown much more thickly, so
that the bulbs will touch each other and stand two or three wide in the
row. If they do not seem to be making the proper growth as the season
advances, they should be thinned to the proper extent to enable them
to grow to the right size, one-half inch in diameter, though my own
trouble is that they usually grow too large; to remedy this when they
are nearly the proper size I allow them to become choked with grass
and weeds, which checks their growth, but when this is done they must
be watched that this mass of stuff does not rot them off when ripe. I
think a better way would be to go along the row with a straight-edged
hoe or spade and cut off some of the roots. The main object in having
the sets of this small size is that they shall not run to seed when
planted out in the spring. Any sets which exceed three-quarters of an
inch in diameter should be used for pickling or cooking. When the sets
begin to ripen it will sometimes facilitate the process to bend all
the green tops over close to the bulbs, as it helps to dry and shrivel
the tops more quickly. When thoroughly ripe they should be gathered
at once, the tops and roots pulled off, and should be spread out and
stored for winter in the same manner described for the large onions.
Any of the sets that persist in growing and not drying properly, should
be thrown out, or they will spoil the whole crop. If a suitable cellar
or loft is not available for storing the bulbs where they will be sure
not to start into growth, they may be wintered on the barn or loft
floor, covering with hay as the cold weather advances. The hay should
be only two inches thick at first, but should be increased to one
foot in thickness as the season advances, and in the spring should be
removed by the same graded process.