WHAT ONION IS SWEET ( Facts about sweet onions)

What onion is sweet?, many people, including gardeners, chefs etc do ask this question frequently, and some people doesn’t even know that there exist sweet onion. Sweet onions as the name suggests are those types of onion that has sweet taste.

What onion is Sweet?. Vidalia and Walla Walla are the two most common sweet onions, other varieties are Maui sweet and Texas sweet.

WHAT COLOR ONION IS SWEETER

Your next question might be, what color of onion is the sweet onion or is sweeter than the other?.

White onion is the sweetest of the sweet onions. This onion is more sweeter and a bit more milde in taste than yellow onion although both the white and the yellow onion are considered the sweet onions.

These two onions are commonly known as sweet onion because they lack sharp, astringent taste of other onions and really do taste sweet, but nevertheless, there are other varieties of sweet onion.

Alro read: complete onion cultivation guide

This type of onion can serve in many recipes, especially using it in salad etc

SWEET ONION SEASON

Different varieties of sweet onion have their various different seasons, because they do not grow or are available all year round, here are their various seasons:

Maui Onions, May through December

Texas Sweets, March through June

Vidalia Sweets, April through June

Walla Walla Sweets, June through August

GROWING SWEET ONION IN A CONTAINER

Now that we have known what sweet onions are and the colors, the next question is, “how do we grow them”?.

Well, if you are a interested in growing this type of onion in a small scale mainly for personal use, the good news is, sweet onion could be grown indoors, in a container. How?.

To grow sweet onion indoors, get a large container or containers, depending on the quantity you intend to grow, fill the container with well drained loamy soil well mixed with fertilizer or organic manure.

Also read: how to grow cabbage at home

Make 1 or 2 inches holes in the soil and give 1 or 2 inches gap, now plant the bulbs and cover with sand, but not the leaves.

HOW MUCH SUN DO SWEET ONION NEED

Now you might have successfully planted your sweet onion, the question now is, does this type of onion require sun? and how much sun does it require. We all know that every living thing in this planet need sunlight to survive, including plants, so sweet onion absolutely require sun to grow, or at least good amount of any light suitable for crops.

Sweet onion require 12 to 14 hours of sunlight everyday in order to grow healthy.

Growing this particular type of onion in a container or indoors doesn’t mean it should be restricted from accessing the sunlight, in order to succeed in growing sweet onion in container or indoors, it should be placed where the sunlight could access it.

Also read: how to grow carrots at home

HOW OFTEN DO YOU WATER SWEET ONION

After planting, the next thing is to start watering it, till it mature and harvested, so how much water and often is sweet onion plant supposed to be watered?.

Sweet onion plant in a container or indoors requires 2.5cm of water every week.

Watering of this type of onion can vary, this is so because the rate at which those being grown on land could be water is different from the rate those grown on containers could be watered because those grown on land will always get more water from the soil and so might need less irrigation.

Also read: tips to grow pepper at home

When irrigating this type of onion, it is very important not to water the whole onion because it might cause decay, water the soil near the onions and not the plants itself.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GROW SWEET ONION

How long does sweet onions take to reach maturity stage.

Normally, sweet onions takes from 90 days to 110 days from the day it was planted to grow and reach maturity or harvest stage.

To know when the are matured enough for harvest, the leaves will change color and the bulbs will grow bigger, to harvest them is very simple, just pull them out from the container with your bare hands.

HOW TO STORE SWEET ONION

After harvesting or purchasing sweet onion from stores or markets, the need to store it might arise.

The secret of storing sweet onion is to avoid cutting or wounding it, then them with a paper or put them in a dry container and freeze them.

With this method, they could stay up to months without decaying and still retain their taste and freshness.