Spring Onions also known as salad onion are another sweet vegetable of the onion family.
The plant gives long, slender green tops and the small white bulbs which are edible.
Below are the common Spring Onion varieties in Uganda
White Lisbon – it’s an early maturing variety and is more tolerable to dry conditions.
Pompeii – it’s the succulent type with a stiff rounded stock.
Apache – this is the red variety of spring onions and has a crisp texture.
The herbaceous vegetable thrives best on well draining, humus_rich soils, with a soil Ph range of 6-7. You can always add lime if your soil is too acidic or sulphur compounds when it’s too alkaline.
Propagating spring onions can be efficiently done using seeds. The seeds shall be able to emerge in about 7 to 10 days
Spring onions can be sown directly to where they are to be grown prepare the ground in advance to create a fine till, you can do this by digging and then rake.
Go ahead to make holes 0f about 1.5 – 2 cm deep, and 15 cm apart as the seeds are too small and cannot afford deeper sowing.
After thinly digging holes, sow your seeds. Alternatively you can sow into containers by just adding a mixture of compost and soil to a bucket with draining holes.
You can also lightly scatter the seeds over the surface and then cover with the soil mixture.
All the steps above should be followed with watering to facilitate seed germination, keep the soils moist but never water logged and try to keep the plants weed free.
Watch out for small sucking insects like thrips.
