Spring onion red seeds Pack of 50 seeds

Spring onion add interest to many dishes. The white bulbs have a delicate oniony flavour while the long hollow leaves can be thinly sliced to add texture and colour.

The benefit to growing your own spring onions from seed is that you can try varieties not readily available in the supermarket. Choose from solid all-rounders or those best suited to pickling or growing over the winter

Spring onion will grow in any good fertile soil provided it’s well drained. Prepare the ground in advance by getting your soil down to a fine tilth and adding a granular general purpose fertiliser about a week before you expect to sow.

Make drills 1.5cm (0.5″) deep and 15cm (6″) apart and sow thinly. You won’t need to thin your spring onions because you’ll be pulling them and adding them to your salads in just a few weeks.

Spring onion rot in waterlogged soil, so do plant them in well-drained ground, and be careful not to over-water. It’s also crucial to keep weeds away because like all onions, spring onions hate competition. It’s also advisable to protect the young seedlings from birds, by covering them with horticultural fleece.

You can also sow spring onions into containers or pots on the windowsill. Just add compost to within about 3 cm (1″) from the top of the container before lightly scattering seed over the surface and covering with 1.5cm (0.5″) of compost. Water sparingly to keep the soil moist and you’ll soon have a tasty crop to enjoy.

Small bulbs are ideal for salads and stir-fries, but some varieties develop into larger, normal-sized onions if you leave them long enough.