Guide to growing quality spring onions

Kindly share a guide to spring onion farming. How long does the crop take to mature and what artificial fertiliser should I use for planting and top dressing? David

Dear David
Spring onions are also known as salad onions or green and bunching onions.
They are very easy to grow for household use as well as for commercial purposes. They do not form bulbs and are grown for their stems.
Propagation is by use of seeds, which can be raised in a nursery bed first or directly planted in the main field.
Varieties: Spring green bunching, White Lisbon, American Flag and Italian Giant.
Propagation and planting: The crop is propagated sexually by use of seeds.
There seeds are used, they may be established directly in the main field or started in a nursery and later transplanted when they are pencil thick to the main field at a spacing of 30cm x 10cm.
When done directly, thinning has to be done when the plant establishes. Transplanting eliminates the need for thinning but the method is very tedious.
Fertilisers: Around 20 tonnes/ha of well-decomposed organic manure is needed before planting and some 200kg/ha of DAP at transplanting.
This is very important because onions are very sensitive to phosphorus deficiency.
You will also need 300kg/ha of CAN when plants start growing after transplanting to encourage early vegetative growth, which may be applied in two splits.
Weeding: Should be done regularly to remove weeds within and between rows.
Harvesting: Spring onions are ready for harvesting 60-70 days after sowing the seeds. Days to harvesting will depend on the variety planted. The leaves should be tall, green and succulent during harvesting.