How to Grow Onion Sets in a Raised Bed

If you have a small garden, raised beds make a lot of sense as you can grow crops in a small space or even in a yard covered in concrete. Raised beds allow you easily to control the soil condition and weeds, and to maintain the right moisture level. Raised beds also have obvious advantages for gardeners who find bending down difficult. Onion sets are small onions raised from seed that are sold ready to plant in spring. Onion sets are well suited to raised-bed cultivation, although your bed should have at least a 2-foot depth of soil and be well drained.

Compost
Spade
Trowel
Garden netting
Liquid feed
Pesticide

Instructions

- 1
  Remove weeds from your raised bed and add a 3-inch layer of well-rotted compost to the surface. Dig the compost in thoroughly with a spade to a depth of about 12 inches. You may have to remove some soil from the bed so you can fit the compost in. Leave the bed for a couple of weeks to allow the compost to settle in. This avoids the possibility of your onion sets rotting.
- 2
  Dig holes with a trowel about 6 inches apart in rows separated by the same distance. Make each hole big enough to accommodate one onion set. Plant the onions from mid-March to mid-April, depending on when your area sees its last frost.
- 3
  Place the onions in the holes and backfill them so that the growing tip of each onion is peeking above the soil. Firm down and water the bed.
- 4
  Feed the onions with a general-purpose liquid feed while they grow. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Water them when the soil surface is dry to the touch. Stop watering and feeding when the bulbs begin to swell.
- 5
  Remove flowering shoots if they appear. Harvest the onions about two to three weeks after the leaves show signs of withering. The period from planting to harvest is about 20 weeks.

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