Onions, Shallots, Garlic, Leeks – Finding Your Ideal Allium Varieties

Onions, Shallots, Garlic, Leeks – This Primer will help you choose the right variety for your region, which is crucial for big onions bulbs.

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If you have looked over seed catalogs, no doubt you’ll have found a huge selection of onions, with all sorts of attributes. Long day, short-day, bunching onions, storage onions, sweet, yellow, Spanish, and so on. And that can make it hard to choose the right ones for your garden and for your needs. Here is a primer to selecting onions that will be perfect for you.

Making sense of the Allium Offerings

So first, here is a list of attributes and types you will likely come accross and then we’ll discuss them in more detail further on:

Does The Onion Family Leave You Confused?

Do you think this is confusing? I know it was for me when I first started growing my own onions. And as if that’s not enough, each type above has many varieties and sub types, and some of the ones listed could be bunched in with others. Some are region-specific and although you can plant the seeds in your garden, you can’t call them by their original name, because it is tied with the conditions of the region in which they are grown.

So let’s begin to try and make sense of these attributes:

We’ll Begin With Bulbing Onions (Allium Cepa) 

Onions are a staple in every household and most of us use them in our daily cooking. Many of us go to the store to pick from a few varieties: red, yellow, white, sweet, or green onions. However in all the world there are hundreds of varieties. And if you want to grow your own from seed, this can make choosing difficult. I’ll try to break it down for you here and I’ll provide links to a few varieties as well.

The Importance Of Day-length

About Onion Bulbs

When the onion produces sugars through photosynthesis in the green portion of its leaves, this plant food gets stored in the lower fleshy portion of the onion leaves, where they grow out of a short stem or disk. This part then starts to swell into a tunicated bulb as the nutrients accumulate. There it will serve as an energy source for when the plant enters its second year, to produce a flower stalk and seeds. That uses up the storage of nutrients, the bulb will shrivel up and the onion has fulfilled its natural purpose to produce offspring. And this biennial onion will die.

So the bulb is actually a part of the onion leaves.

How Day-length Relates To The Production Of Onion Bulbs

Onion bulbing is triggered by day length. In the North your days are longer suring the summer than in the South. Onions are sensitive to that and bulbing for the different varieties is directly related to day-length. If a certain amount of daylight hours are reached, it triggers the signal for the onion to start storing up nutrients and to get prepared for its reproductive stage.

Certain onions will bulb with shorter day-length, while long-day onions need more hours of sunlight during the day to get the signal that it’s time to start accumulating those nutrients and thus they will start to bulb up. If onions are not grown in the right environment, they will not respond correctly and fail to store nutrients. You’ll end up with no bulbs or small bulbs. 

So based on the area you live in, you’ll need to choose from either long-day, short-day or day-neutral (intermediate-day) onion varieties. This is only a consideration for bulbing type onions as well as shallots. Short-day onions are typically planted in the fall in milder Southern climates for biggest bulbs.

Growing the “wrong day-length” onions is sometimes used to advantage by northern growers who are looking to grow the little pearl onions. By planting short day onions in the spring, they will get small bulbs by fall that will make great little pickling onions. But if you’re looking to get nice large bulbs for culinary use and to store for winter, you’ll need to stick with the varieties that are meant to do best in your region.

Check The Latitude Recordings For Finding The Best Onion For Your Area

Basically, if you live north of latitudes 35˚- 37˚N you’ll be choosing long-day varieties. South of this line, choose a short-day type. If you’re near either side of the line, you can use either varieties. Or intermediate-day (day-neutral) varieties.

The most reliable ways to pick your day length is by learning your latitude and comparing it with the plant descriptions in the seed catalogs. All the more because some long-day types don’t work in the lower long-day latitudes, being better suited to much farther northern regions above 43˚, such as the Red Wing Onion. So it’s important to pay attention to this if you want to grow your onions to their full potential.

Intermediate-day or day-neutral onion varieties will work just about anywhere except in the far south, such as Southern Florida or Texas or the far north. But they are best for the middle States.

In the south at zone 7 and above, onions are planted in the fall while it is still warm out for about 4-6 weeks to get the onions established. This way they will be ready to bulb as soon as the days grow long enough next summer.

Hybrid vs. Open Pollinated vs. Heirloom

Hybrid onions are crossed in a way where they cannot reproduce true to type. This means, if you plant a seed from a hybrid onion, you’ll get an unknown variety. If you want to keep growing that certain hybrid variety that you like, you will need to keep buying fresh seed from a grower that produces them every year.

Growing hybrids can sometimes help with disease resistance and they often have great specific benefits bred into them, but since the seed needs to be purchased every year, it is more expensive and you’re left to rely on the availability of this onion.

Open Pollinated means that the seed of an onion has the potential to reproduce, and produce onions that are true to type. That is, if they didn’t cross-pollinate with other varieties. Then you’ll get a surprise onion.

There are many open-pollinated onions that can outperform some of these hybrids too. In any case, I don’t discount hybrids, they have their place, and some are real winners, but I don’t grow them anymore, because I don’t think they are sustainable long-term. (Remind me I said this, when I grow another Sungold hybrid tomato, lol. I do make that single exception, because I love those little darling cherry tomatoes).

Consider saving your own seeds

If one of your goals is to save onion seeds so you can plant your own next year, then pick one of the open-pollinated, heirloom, landrace or heritage onions. Do be aware, though, that onions readily cross-pollinate with each other. So if you have more than one variety blooming at the same time, it could produce a different offspring.

There are methods to prevent this such as bagging the flowers with a mesh bag (party favor bag) and shaking it a few times a day when you walk by or taking the bag off for a moment and using a soft brush to move pollen from the male flowers to the females. I’ll do a post on this in the future. But I found a great post that describes bagging for you if you want to go this route. It works the same for onions.

Heirloom or heritage onions are from seeds that have been passed down from many generations of growers and some are centuries old varieties. However, getting the same heirloom variety from different sources does not mean that you’ll be getting the exact same product.

Natural gene adaption

Here is something to consider: If you grow two seeds that have been saved by two different people in their two unique locations, your two onions will have come with the same original genes, but they will be programmed differently, because they adapt to specific growing conditions. Gene adaption occurs when a species evolves to survive in specific environments. This is a survival mechanism that goes on in all living things.

And in addition, all growers don’t select for the same traits. If you select for big onions and disregard flavor, then you’ll pick the biggest onions each year to replant, and eventually they might be much bigger than the ones you started with, but they might have lost their original great taste. If your neighbor grows that same onion and selects for flavor without regard to the size, eventually his onions will have fantastic flavor, but might be small.

I like to plant only heirloom and open-pollinated varieties in my garden for the reason that the plants adapt and evolve over time. Because replanting saved seeds each year is how onions can survive and thrive through generations of human cultivation. Having an old variety means it’s resilient because it has survived centuries of adverse and varied conditions. 

When you replant your own saved seeds each year, they get programmed over time to adapt to your own growing area, and your own little micro-climate. Select your best onions each year and replant them for seed the second year, and you’ll eventually have an onion that will perform excellent in your specific conditions. Depending on what you select for (size, vigor, length of storage, dry growing conditions, or disease resistance for example), you’ll be creating your own resilient strain of that particular onion with your preferred traits. This cannot be achieved with growing hybrids. 

Onion colors:

Onions come mostly in yellow, red and white colors. Each color is available in all the different day-lengths, they can be sweet or pungent, and suitable for storage or best for immediate use. However, a few characteristics stand out in association with the onion’s color:

White Onions – Are mostly mild and sweet, they have a tender texture and are great for garnishes and fresh eating. When cooked, they loose their texture and cook into a soft creamy onion jam.

Yellow Onions – Can be sweet or pungent. They retain their texture quite well when cooked and are great to use in all kinds of cooking, caramelizing or roasting. Sweet yellow types are famous for making super delicious fried onion rings and are preferred on burgers and sandwiches.

Red Onions – Are often milder but can also be sweet or pungent. Their color adds life and vibrancy to raw dishes and they look great in salads and for decoration. They are great for grilling, pickling and fermenting. Their vibrant color can be attributed to anthocyanin which is an antioxidant that’s so beneficial for your health.

04. Sweet onions:

Sweet onions are onions with greater sugar content and a lesser sulfur content, which makes them taste less pungent. This same property also causes them to perish sooner than their pungent cousins, the storage onions.

However some sweet onions do store well for several months, just don’t expect them to carry you through next spring and summer. Sweet onions will store from a few weeks to a three months at most, and so they are best for immediate use or to store by fermenting, freezing or drying. 

There are so many varieties, it would be impossible to list them all, but I’ll list a few common ones here. I’m planning on more detailed onion listings, so stay tuned and get notified when it is available!

Sweet Onion Varieties:

Bermuda onions are a type of sweet onion. Many are heirloom southern onions, or short-day onions, that are from Bermuda originally.

Cippolini onions are also sweet onions and originated in Italy. These are famous for making ultra-delicious caramelized roasting onions. They have a flattened shape and can be yellow, white or red. These varieties store well, for several months. They are available as long-day, short-day and intermediate options.

Walla Walla onions are sweet, mild, yellow, round globes that were imported from Corsica to Walla Walla, Washington State in the late 18 hundreds. Walla Walla onions do not store well. They are heirloom onions and I found them listed as both long day and intermediate-day onions. 

Torpedo Onions are torpedo shaped, elongated red sweet onions that are great for fresh eating. They are intermediate storage onions and will stay fresh for about 3 months after harvest. These are some of my favorites to grow and eat, they are beautiful! They are typically long-day onions but do well in the more southern intermediate states too. Most are heirloom, but some hybrids have been developed too.

Tropea Onions are available in long or round shapes and the name refers to the region of origin of these heirlooms. My favorite, Tropea lunga is an elongated onion while Tropea Rossa Tonda is the round variety. Both are red and sweet and rich in anthocyanin and purportedly higher in healing properties than other varieties. They are listed as long- and intermediate-day onions. Storage is intermediate, two or three months usually. Although some claim it is less in my experience they store alright for a couple of months.

Vidalia is the queen of sweet onions. Super sweet flavor, low sulfur, and thick flesh makes them perfect for fried onion rings and blooming onions. These onions cannot be marketed as Vidalias except if they were grown in a specif region in Georgia that has low sulfur content in the soil, and thus yields milder onions. This means that you can’t buy seed and grow Vidalias in your garden, but you can grow the seed and call them something else. There are also Vidalia-type onion seeds for sale, such as the hybrid “Granex” for southern growers, or the open pollinated white Texas Grano. These are short-day varieties. But they may not grow to be as sweet as Vidalias for you, unless your soil has a sulfur deficiency. 

Ailsa Craig is a huge, sweet, yellow globe variety that originated in Scotland. I love these long-day onions. They are also known as Kelsae Sweet Giant or Exhibition. Ailsa Craig onions are mild, sweet and crisp and can weigh up to 6 pounds and grow 8 inches in diameter. Unfortunately they don’t store well. Use them within a few weeks and preserve extras by freezing, drying or fermenting.

Spanish Onions are sweet globe onion types that can be yellow, red or white. Yellow Spanish varieties are most common and not as sweet, while the white Spanish are milder and are often used raw in sandwiches and on burgers because of their mild flavor. Spanish onions are typically long-day onions. 

Pearl onions are usually sweet onions that are pulled early so they are still small and they are then pickled or fermented. It’s best to use short day varieties if you want to plant these on purpose. However, my strategy is to plant whatever onion variety I want to grow for my main crop fairly close together and when they start to bulb up, I’ll thin them and use the little ones as pearl onions and the greens as scallions. This gives the rest room to grow large bulbs. This also gives you a better success rate per square foot, in case they don’t all make it. It’s like edible insurance. 

Storage Onions

When we refer to yellow, white or red onions we often mean storage onions. Like the kinds that come in big net bags at the grocery store and that we can keep for many months in the pantry or cellar. Below I’ll discuss some of these storage varieties.

Storage onions are those that can last for several months or more, preferably almost till next year’s onions are ready for harvest. This makes them valuable to grow for homesteaders and those who rely on their pantry contents to get them through winter. It means that we need to harvest them correctly and include a curing period to prepare them for storage. I’ve got all that covered in my post about growing onions from seed.

I did not find a large selection of storage onions for the South. But there are a few. However, read also about Potato onions further down in this post, that can be grown into zone 9, which could be a great substitute for you Southerners. If your climate is mild, you might be able to grow some kinds of onions for harvest year round. Most are somewhat frost hardy.

Here is a storage tip: If you are storing your onions, keep in mind that smaller onions generally store better than larger ones. So store the smaller ones at the bottom and the larger ones on top and so you’ll be using the larger ones first.

Yellow Storage Onion Varieties:

New York Early is a popular open pollinated variety, New York Early is dependable and stores into spring. A northern long-day onion.

Patterson is a hybrid variety and a very popular storage onion with many great properties. It has a great reputation for excellent storability. Patterson is a Northern long-day onion.

Newburg is a fantastic open-pollinated variety that outperforms many hybrids. If you like to grow onions to save seeds, consider this Newburg onion from Adaptive Seeds. It is a long-day storage onion.

Rijnsburg 5 is a great option for an open-pollinated long-storage type. I’m planning to grow it again this year. It’s well known in Europe, but here in the US I found the Rijnsburg 5 onion only at Uprising Seeds. This is a very productive large round globe type onion with bronze wrappers, and excellent flavor. It is a long-day onion.

Talon is a hybrid variety. Fedco seed company praises the Talon onion as disease resistant onions with very strong, healthy roots and leaves. These are northern long-day onions.

Yellow Sweet Spanish is a classic, heritage, intermediate storage onion. I love planting Yellow Sweet Spanish. They are open-pollinated, long-day onions. I always plant more than one variety of onion, and these are always on the roster, no matter what other varieties I try. A good old stand-by.  

Stuttgarter Riesen, a famous German heirloom onion, is most often offered as sets. With its great flavor, large bulbs and long storage potential this long-day onion is an all-around solid choice. I like to grow Stuttgarter Riesen from seed in my garden.

White Storage Onions:

White Spanish Onions are often called for in Mexican cooking. These Heirloom White Spanish are large, popular long-day onions that store for several months.

White Creole – Here is an open pollinated storage onion for the South! A short-day variety, White Creole has a great pungent flavor.

Pink Storage Onions:

Rose de Roscoff Keravel – Here is an old French heritage onion that has been grown since the 17th century. This is a long-day and long-storage variety. And it comes with a long list of praises from Adaptive seeds, who are selling these Rose de Roscoff Keravel onions. 

Red Storage Onions:

Red Creole – Here is one storage onion that works for Southern short-day growers. It’s hard to find onions for the south that store well. Most are sweet onions for immediate use, but this Red Creole onion promises great storage potential and it’s open-pollinated.

Red Long of Tropea – This one is not technically a storage onion, but I have stored mine for many months and Sow True Seeds reports that they have stored theirs for up to 6 months. I’m listing it here, because it’s an intermediate-day onion that can be grown even in many southern states. It’s listed for 35-48° N latitudes. Long of Tropea is an Italian heirloom onion.

Rossa di Toscana – An Italian heirloom onion, this red onion is an intermediate storage onion through February. It is great for braiding. Rossa di Toscana is a long-day variety.

Rossa di Milano – This has been one of my favorite reds for many years. The Rossa di Milano is a delicious Italian red heirloom onion that stores very well into May. Long-day variety.

Red Bull – This hybrid is a super dark red storage onion that’s a long-day variety for Northern growers where Red Bull onions require a long growing season!

Red Wing – A hybrid onion with very long storage potential. This Red wing onion needs a long growing season and it is a great long-day onion for far northern growers. Best in 43–65° latitudes. 

Maria Nagy’s Transylvanian Red – A landrace onion Maria Nagy’s Transylvanian Red has been added to the slow food ark of taste. It stores into spring. I like to grow this long-day onion that originates from Ukraine.

Shallots (allium cepa var. aggregatum and cvs.)

Shallots are in the allium family and are very similar to onions. However they have a milder and more delicate flavor that also reminds me of its cousin the garlic. The bulbs are divided with individual skins like garlic and each section has very narrow, tight rings like onions but they are typically drier and much narrower than those of onions, which are all great storage properties. The skins are copper and pink and the flesh white with a purplish tinge. 

I have to tell you here though that the opinions on the storability of scallions vary. And since I don’t have too much experience with scallion storability since I never grew a whole lot of them and used them pretty much right away. So keep an eye on them if you are storing them and if they want to turn on you, I’d just chop them and freeze them. However, most sources attribute great storability to shallots. It probably depends on the variety too.

Most shallots are for long-day growing areas. In the south, try growing potato onions (multiplier onions) in place of shallots. They store very well.

Some shallots are more garlic-like, others more onion-like. They originally descended from Asia. Here are a few:

Shallot Varieties

Zébrune Shallot-Onion – This is a combination of onion and shallot and is one shallot that I’m trying this year. They are advertised as having a sweet, delicate, mild flavor and that they store well. The origin of the Zébrune Shallot-Onion is France. This is a heirloom long-day variety.

Ed’s Red Shallot – This one is an old favorite open-pollinated long-day variety. Ed’s Red Shallot has superior taste, is full flavored, sweet and meaty. It’s one I’ve grown for years. They have great storability.

Glacier Rose Shallot – Glacier Rose is another open-pollinated long-day variety with great flavor, that stores well.

Garlic

Check out my guide for Growing Garlic where you’ll find lots of specific information regarding garlic, and complete instructions on how to grow big, healthy garlic bulbs. 

To give a quick overview, Garlic are flat leaved bulbing plants that divide into multiple, individually wrapped sections when mature. The most distinct type-division in garlic is between hard neck and soft neck types. Most Northern growers will want to choose hard neck garlic while Southern growers do best with soft-neck varieties. 

There is a lot of overlap though, and many Northerners are successfully growing soft-neck types that they plant in the spring. Hard-neck varieties are best planted in fall and well mulched will overwinter in most regions to emerge first thing in the spring.

For storage, in my experience, hard-necks outlast soft-necks. Hard neck garlic easily store right up to the time I harvest the next year’s crop. All my soft neck garlic usually starts to turn ugly by early spring. I grow almost exclusively long-neck varieties but I throw a few soft necks in the ground too, just because I like variety and I like a pretty garlic braid. 

Scallions, Perennial, Green Onions, Spring Onions, Bunching, Welch, Japanese Onions

This was for me one of the most confusing subjects about onions, until I recognized that there are two distinct classes that classify one type as biennial and the other as perennial. Knowing their characteristic growth habit made it easier to understand what each is, what seed to get, and how to grow them. 

Spring onions and green onions are essentially the same thing. They are in the allium cepa family and are biennial plants, meant to send up flower shoots in the second year to produce seed and be done. Bunching onions, on the other hand, are perennials in the allium fistulosa family. But all of them are used interchangeably for their green tops. When you look for Scallion seed, they can show up in both categories. They usually refer to a perennial bunching onion though, so this is where I’ll include them.

Green Onions And Spring Onions

Spring onions and Green onions are in the biennial family Allium cepa. These are regular onions that are prematurely harvested whole, mostly for their green tips, or clipped from immature onions to use as green onions. They are sometimes grown for their bulbs and clipped during the growing season. Other times they are just grown for their green leaves with a small swelling, however, if they were left to grow, they would eventually form bulbs. 

So in essence, spring onions or green onions are not really a variety, they are just a specific use for regular bulbing onion varieties. 

Spring onions can be grown in space saving clusters if bulbs are not desired, or they can be thinned and a few left behind to form bulbs eventually. They can be clipped throughout the season for a continuous harvest of green onion leaves, which regrow after each clipping. If you are growing these just for the greens, you can ignore the day-length and grow them very close together or in pots.

Green onions can be grown from food scraps. Cut the root bottom off before chopping the onion, place it into soil either in a pot or your garden.

Lilia is a beautiful onion variety that makes burgundy spring onions when immature.

Perennial Bunching Onions, Welch Onions, Japanese Onions, Evergreen Onions, Scallions

Bunching onions (allium fistulosum) are red or white perennial onions of Asian origin and are usually grown in clusters. They are also called Welch onions (not referring to the country of Wales, but an old-fashioned english word for foreigner). Another name is Japanese bunching onions, Evergreens or Scallions. They can be grown year-round. They have a mild flavor and are great for mixing into dips, salads or stir-fries. 

These onions can be divided for propagation as the cluster grows or the seeds can be collected. They are a great addition to any perennial or forest garden. 

Here are a few other varieties you can try Warrior, or White Nebuka (also known as Evergreen Hardy).

Walking Onions, Egyptian Onions, Traveller Onions, Tree Onions, Potato Onions

These are all considered perennial onions, let’s check them out:

Egyptian, Walking, Traveller, Tree Onions

I love growing Egyptian Onions (Allium x proliferum) These are also referred to as Walking Onions or Traveller Onions. They are a cross between an Allium cepa and an Allium fistulosa. It is thought that they originated in Pakistan and came to us via Egypt, thus their name. These onions have a shallot type bulb in the ground that sends up a flower stalk which will grow small bulbils. These will bend the stalk to the ground and bury themselves to each make another onion not far from their parent.

Walking onions can be a great asset for repelling rodents, such as voles, if you plant them around your fruit trees as a companion plant. Rodents do not like the scent of onions and this might prevent them from chewing on your tree roots. 

Once your patch is well established, you can just pull out a few and cook the bulb as you would any other onions. The stem is also edible like a scallion and the little bulbils are intensely flavored and can be used in any dish for a burst of onion flavor. You can also replant them in other parts of your garden. They store well, and you can replant the rest. 

Potato Onions, Multiplier Onions

Potato onions (Allium cepa var. aggregatum) are not related to potatoes as the name might suggest. Instead I imagine that they have this designation because they form clusters like potatoes or maybe because they are harvested like potatoes. Use the big ones and save the small ones for seed to replant.

They can also be likened to garlic by their growth habit of forming multiple, individually wrapped sections. Their scientific name is the same as that of a shallot.

Potato onions store exceptionally well, so they would make a great storage onion for Southern growers, who don’t have a good selection of regular storage onions to choose from. They can be grown to Southern zone 9.

Potato onions are fascinating to me, but they are getting very rare and I think it’s important to keep them in our food chain. So I encourage you to plant some and keep them going for our next generations. Kelly Winterton takes potato onions serious and selects for superior crops. He has a website that is mostly dedicated to potato onions if you like to learn more.

I got my first potato onions this year from an Etsy seller, we’ll see how they do. But they are also available at Sow True Seed. You can also try to locate seed. They will not grow true to type, but you might end up with an especially awesome variety this way!

Ramps

Ramps (Allium tricoccum) are a wild growing delicate perennial allium that is also referred to as wild garlic, ramps, ramson, wild leek, spring onion, or wood leek. These can be found in deciduous forests all over the Middle to Eastern United States, down to South Carolina. They are mostly found near birch, sugar maple and poplar trees, but can also grow near beech, linden, hickory and oak.

Ramps can have a strong taste that reminds of onion and garlic. If you want to grow them in your own garden, you’ll want to find a shady spot that gets some sun early in spring. A food forest would be a great environment for this wild vegetable. You can get seeds at Fedco.

Chives

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) are perennial members of the Amaryllidaceae family. They can be grown in clusters and will self seed readily. They can also be divided to start new patches once established. Chives are not only great for use in cooking, they are also really great companion plants for trees because they repel rodents and attract pollinators when they bloom. 

Chives can be harvested by trimming the tops when you need some. If they send up flowerstalks, you can harvest those flower buds as well to toss into a salad or soup. I think chives make really pretty landscaping plants too. I love chopped chives mixed into my homemade Chevre or Clabber cheese and use it as a spread on crackers or bread. 

Leeks

Winding down! Here we have, last but for certain not least, the Leeks (Allium porrum). This is such an important and versatile vegetable. I love to grow a lot of them. Many varieties are winter hardy, look for mid and late season varieties. They can often overwinter into Spring if you’re in a zone 7 or warmer. I used to harvest them all Winter in the Pacific Northwest.

Early season leeks are normally planted in Spring to harvest in the fall. Leeks can also be direct seeded in the fall to harvest next summer in zone 7 or warmer. Add a few inches of hay or straw mulch before the first hard frost to protect them. In cooler zones they are best started in late winter to transplant in early spring.

Leeks barely blink at frost, hail and storms and if they freeze solid, you can harvest and use them right away. Otherwise, just harvest them as you need them. Leeks don’t store well, but they can be chopped and frozen for long term storage. 

Leeks have flat leaves and a long “stem”, that can be blanched with mulch or soil to stay tender and white. Growing leeks makes a prudent use of space. You get quite a bit of food from its small footprint in your garden. It is sweet and mild flavored.

Most people use the white part of the leaves, but the green parts are great too. I save the tougher parts of the leaves in a baggy and toss it in the freezer. I’ll use those when I make a vegetable stock or a bone broth. 

Summary

Wow, this turned out a lot longer than I had intended. This happens to me all the time. I don’t think about how complex many subjects are until I dive in and then I can’t stop writing. And there is so much more to say about each of these wonderful alliums. 

So I’ll be adding more posts in the future to pay some of these awesome vegetables more individual attention. For now you can read my posts about how to grow Garlic and how to grow Onions. And do sign up to receive notification of new content. 

As you can see, there are so many options for getting more onions and other alliums into your diet and lots of reasons why you should. They take up less space than many other vegetables and can easily be grown in-between or as a border in your garden beds. Or grow them in pots. It’s great to have a pot full of scallions on your window sill for a continous supply of fresh greens to sprinkle on your foods.

I hope that I could make a little sense of the complex allium family for you and that you found this article helpful. If so, I’d appreciate a like and would love to hear your comments below! And do ask if you have any questions about choosing onion varieties!

More information about gardening

How To Grow Big Onions – A complete tutorial on growing onions from seed to storage.

Grow mushrooms at home in your garden – This is one of the most rewarding experiences in wood chip gardening. Grow your own mushrooms intentionally. It’s easy and they taste so delicious!

How To Get Bigger Garlic – What to do to get big and healthy garlic bulbs. When and how to plant and harvest.

Grow your own peppers from seeds – Your complete guide to growing peppers. From selecting seeds to planting, growing, companion planting, and harvesting. Find out the benefits of growing your own peppers and how to preserve them.

Make mulch from wood chips for your garden – Read about the many ways that wood chips can help you with your garden and your food forest.

How to prepare my soil to plant fruit trees – How to prepare your planting hole, what to put in it and how to give your tree the best odds for growing up strong and healthy.

How to make 18-day compost – The best compost for your garden beds in less than 3 weeks.

Fermented Onions – Keep some onions ready to use on Sandwiches or to put on your salads. Zesty or plain, onions are so tasty when fermented!

Fermented Garlic – Lacto-fermented garlic paste is kind of a special food. It’s the ultimate convenience food and health supplement. But besides that, it gets better as it ages. Just like a fine wine.

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Links For Items To Help You Grow Your Own Vegetables

Large 4ft long wire shelf with wheels
4-ft LED shop lights
Table mount grow lights
Heating pads with thermostat
Emergency blankets
Fish emulsion
EM-1
Jadam
Dibber
Hori hori knife
Cobra head cultivator
Gorilla garden cart with removable sides

Non-GMO Seed Companies

I’m listing a few of my favorite non-GMO seed companies below where you can find the onion varieties mentioned in my post and many others.

MI Gardener
Baker Creek Seeds
Adaptive Seeds
True Leaf Seeds
Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Fedco Seeds
Sow True Seeds
Uprising Seeds
High Mowing Seeds
Onion Seeds at Amazon