There are two growing methods to utilize when in your garden: conventional and organic (or a combination of both). This blog post is focused on presenting the organic growing methods for onions. If you are interested in growing conventionally, see several of our other posts on conventional growing methods.

Growing onions organically is not difficult if you just apply the Dixondale Farms growing practices and apply organic fertilizers in the same ratio.

Fertilizing

We recommend using a pre-plant fertilizer such as our All Natural Weed and Feed 3-5-3 at planting. Most organic pre-plant fertilizers such as Bone Meal don’t have any Potassium. This will apply a 3-5-3 fertilizer along with an organic herbicide that will help your plants get off to a weed-free start with enough Phosphorous and Potassium to establish a good root system.

Omega Grow

After the plants get established in roughly three weeks after planting, apply our organic Omega Grow 5-1-1 at a rate of 1 Tbsp per gallon of water and drench the solution close to the plants. You can also apply Blood meal (12-0-0) at a rate of 1 cup per 10 feet of row. Onions are big Nitrogen users so continue applying every 2-3 weeks during the growing season until the onions start to bulb.

Weeding

Onions do not like competition from weeds. Keep your crop well weeded and the soil loose by cultivating them often. Using a mulch of leaves or straw will help control weeds and preserve moisture. Once the onions start to bulb push the mulch back so the bulbs will cure properly.

Using a tool like the Wheel Hoe will keep your patch cultivated and weed-free.

Insects

Onion thrips are the most common pest that attack the foliage of the onions. Applying Neem Oil every two weeks will keep the thrip population down.

onion-thrips
Onion Thrips

Diseases

Almost all onion diseases are caused by leaf wetness. We highly advise against overhead watering. Use a drip system or run the water down furrows. Almost all areas of the country will have enough leaf wetness to cause disease pressure. Apply our Biosafe Disease Control every 10 days to prevent spores from being created on the leaves. Neem Oil also acts as a fungicide since it coats the leaves. Reapply after every rain event. This will keep the disease from moving down into the interior of the bulb when the onion matures.

Above are some of the key points to consider when following an organic method for onion growing. As always, contact Customer Service for all your growing questions.