How to plant onions

[Gardening with Rabbits]

What is the best way to plant onions? It is taking me forever. I dig a row and then lay them on the side and kind of push the dirt up and then make sure they are straight. I have watched videos and something called a dibble stick and others had a board with pegs 5 inches apart and lay it down and has all the holes, but I kind of made a make shift one, but not really wide enough. I was going to come and rant about nobody helping me, but my best friend in Kansas just had a hail store and broke her windows in her house and her greenhouse, so I am not going to complain about anything.

 

[so lucky]

Are you talking about onion sets or plants? (bulbs or slips?) For bulbs, make a trench with the corner of your hoe and throw the bulbs in. Kick the dirt over them. Step on them with just a little weight. Water well.
For slips, lay the slips in a straight row in that trench, as well as you can, all pointing to the left. Then kick dirt over them from the right. Step on them lightly and water in. They will straighten up on their own.
These are the directions an old lady with a bad back gives you. If you are young, you may want to treat them nicer.

 

[digitS']

My months old onion plants are about the size of dog hairs . . . okay, Clifford the Big Red Dog's hairs .

I sit on a stool beside the bed holding a bunch of onions in one hand. Pulling out a single hair, umm, onion - I hold it between my index and middle finger. Then, I use those 2 fingers to scratch in the soft soil.

Scratch! The onion is left behind. I often need to nudge it a little with a knuckle. Oh! Wear surgical gloves . . . Hard on the digitS'!

 

[Smart Red]

I am with @so lucky, the better you treat them the harder they are to grow. I stick them in, cover them up and they decide to grow upright.

 

[baymule]

I plant onions for green onions, since space is an issue for me. I sit on the sidewalk, make a hole with a garden trowel and stick the onion in, mash the hole closed. I plant mine on the outside edge of the beds and use the middle for other things.

 

[seedcorn]

There is no fast easy way.

I stretch a rope (I'm notorious for crooked rows-genetic), just push starts in with finger. I have NO luck with bulbs. Starts for me.

Can plant 50 starts in fairly short time in tilled soil.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

They are plants. I guess I do a little of what each of you do, more like so lucky. I saw a garden like baymule with them all around the outside and I wish I had done that, but I planted peas on the outside. I think for me making one LONG row would be easier. I am getting everything crooked, so I am going to have my son help me tomorrow and get the rest of them in. I will do the string/rope and see if we can get the rest of them straight. I am not sure I could sit on a stool and work like DigitS with 1 hand like that, but I know what you are talking about. Thank you for the advice!

 

[Smart Red]

I just push mine in as well. My fingers protect the onion and move the soil for it. Straight rows? Since I plant in beds I don't worry about getting neat rows. I don't have to walk along them to weed.

Like DigitS, I work best with a stool. Sit, reach, plant or sit, reach, weed, or sit, reach, harvest. It's all the same to me. Prolonged bending makes me dizzy, causes my wires to zap my diaphram, and eventually hurts my back. Sitting solves everything.

 

[seedcorn]

Dad always said you got more in crooked row. Because he couldn't plant a straight row either-genetics!

 

[digitS']

A few years ago but currently, it looks about the same:

Later, in the season: