Allotment Growing

Growing Spring Onions (Scallions) - How to grow Spring Onions

by John Harrison, author of Vegetable Growing Month by Month

Spring onions tend to be treated as an afterthought by most gardening books yet they are a popular crop and very useful, possibly because they are really easy to grow. Salad onions, also properly called scallions are not just easily grown, they can provide a useful substitute for bulb onions if stocks are low as you await the new crop.

Feeding Spring Onions

They like a rich well drained soil but being a useful crop to fill into gaps in the summer, they tend to get what they are given. It’s a good idea to give some general purpose fertiliser a week before and rake the soil into a fine tilth before sowing them.

Cultivating Spring Onions

Conventionally spring onions are grown in rows 6" (15cm) apart but they can more easily just be thinly scattered in a patch and either raked in or covered with half an inch (1.5cm) of fine soil.

They do not need a great depth of soil and a winter crop can be grown in the greenhouse in an ordinary seed tray filled with compost. Salad onions are ideal for container growing and even if you have a vegetable patch or an allotment, growing some salad crops by the back door where they'll be handy is always a good idea.

Successionally sow each week or two from early March for a continuous supply throughout the summer.

Spring Onion Problems

There are few problems with spring onions as long as the soil can provide enough nutrition. Because they grow fairly fast they outpace most diseases but they do like a rich soil to provide the fuel for that growth.

Favourite Spring Onion Varieties

White Lisbon is the best known variety but there are quite a few varieties, including Japanese varieties like Ishikuro available. For a normal spring onion, I've not found any other variety that has much advantage to recommend it or justify additional expense as White Lisbon tends to be a very cheap and widely available seed. Don't forget to look for White Lisbon Winter Hardy, which has won the coveted RHS Award of Garden Merit for the over winter sowing.

Just as with bulb onions, a red onion is available as well, North Holland Blood Red. This has the benefit that you can sow a patch, removing as required and any left will just bulb up. I really like the flavour and when it has bulbed up it is great sliced in a salad or just on a cheese sandwich.

You can check out the full range of spring onions in the allotment shop - Spring Onions

Growing Onions & Shallots

• Growing Onions & Shallots Overview
• Growing Onions from Seed
• Growing Onions from Sets
• Growing Shallots
• Growing Spring Onions or Scallions
• Onion Pests and Problems
• Onion Recipes