7 pointers for growing and harvesting onions in your veggie garden

There are many kinds of onions you can grow in your own backyard. Here are seven pointers for planting and harvesting onions in your vegetable garden.

Familiar bulb onions may be white, yellow or red and range from the size of tiny pearls to that of softballs. Then there are bunching onions, often called scallions or green onions, which are easy and productive.

When growing onions for big bulbs, be sure to choose a variety that matures in keeping with your climate.

• In the north, choose long-day varieties, because onions form bulbs in response to day length.
• Short-day varieties are better for southern areas.

Bunching onions make great row markers. Simply stick a scallion in the ground to mark where you left off seeding lettuce or another direct-seeded crop.

Onion sets (young bulbs grown the previous year) are convenient, fast growing and quick to mature. But only a limited number of cultivars — many with a pungent taste — are available as sets. Good sweet onions are grown from seed, but because onion seedlings grow slowly, it's best to buy them in bundles instead of growing them yourself.

Although onion seedlings tolerate cold weather well, exposure to spring freezes sometimes encourages them to develop flowering stalks at the expense of big bulbs.

• Set out sets or seedlings no more than a month before your last spring frost date.

• Fertilize onions with high-nitrogen fertilizer such as fish emulsion early in the season, because big plants grow big bulbs.
• Bulbs ripen better under dry, less fertile conditions, so cut back on food and water in midsummer.

• Loosen the soil around onions with a hoe as soon as they begin to swell.
• Or keep them mulched with a fine-textured material, such as grass clippings, spread around the plants in thin layers.

1. When the tops begin to turn yellow, bend the leaves over with the back of a rake; this will divert the plant's energy to the bulbs instead of the stems.
2. A few days later, after the tops have turned brown, lift the bulbs with a fork.
3. Lay them out to dry in a warm, shady spot protected from rain.

• To cure onions, drape the tops over the edges of a large pail or hang them on a clothesline and fasten them in place with clothespins.
• When the skins feel dry and papery, cut the onions from the stems and store them in a cool, dry place.