Growing Giant Onions

 December's earthy excitement is in growing the Giant Onions (see photo below) for the Giant Onion Contest at our Fall Fair each year. Luckily most of the work is done for you as you can pick up your giant onion sprouts from DIGS, already sown and grown indoors under lights, and then all you have to do is care for the wee sprouts and plant them in the ground when it's warm enough (in March) and then grow them as large as you possibly can and win the prize at the fall fair (as Jim often does; do you want to beat Jim?)  :>) Photo shows what he's capable of.

Here are Jim Harris's words of advice on this topic.

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Fall Fair Bulletin #3

How To Grow Giant Onions 

by Jim Harris 2024

 Onions are a long season crop and must be started early in the darkest and coldest part of the year. To that end I will plant the giant onion seed in mid-December. The particular seed I'm using is from a single giant onion I grew two years ago.

 I will grow the seedlings through January and February and you will be able to pick up some giant onion seedlings in March, when they should be planted outdoors. The reason I'm speaking about this now is that what you can be doing right now is preparing a garden bed for these future transplanted onions. Be prepared for the year ahead.

 Firstly, find a sunny spot, spread manure or leaves or peat on top, sprinkle with dolomite lime and a measured amount of high phosphorus fertilizer (high middle number of the three numbers on the bag; a good example is "Superphosphate") and dig it all in.

When planting out the seedlings, I like to put a tomato cage over the plants to support the leaves and to top mulch the onion bed. 

You must water regularly and use a high Nitrogen fertilizer (a high first number of the three on the bag) until June 21st. Then you can switch and fertilize with a low Nitrogen fertilizer. You should end up with both a Fall Fair entry (largest onion) and also a great ingredient for making French onion soup next fall. 

Good luck!

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For those wanting to learn more about perfecting your onion growing know-how here are some visuals:

How to grow giant onions:

Part 2: caring for seedlings (video):

Part 3: Onion harvesting, curing and storing (video):

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Happy growing,

Jen for DIGS