Growing your onions should be easy for any homeowner who is fed up with perennially buying them in the market.
Joseph Male, a vegetable growing expert and best farmer of 2019, says onions are light germinators that need light loamy-sandy soils for good drainage.
This can be done directly in the garden or in old items as a way of preserving the environment.
In Uganda, onions on a large scale are grown in the districts of Kabarole, kabala, Kapchorwa, Bukwo, Kasese, Kanungu, Bulambuli, Mbale, and Rubirizi.
“You can either plant bulbs or onion seeds you bought from the market. If you use bulbs, cut off the leaves and bury the bulb in light soil, but if it is seeds, bury them too and add a light layer of soil and then mulch. This will prevent the rains from washing them away,” he says, adding that they should be grown 20cm to 30cm apart.
If grown in a container or pot, he says to make sure it is at least 30cm deep to allow the water to run down, away from the onion-fibrous root system that is uncomfortable in a waterlogged environment.
Since they take four to eight months to grow, Andrew Masinde, communication manager of the Common Grounds project says homeowners can harvest the older onion leaves for sauce spicing while they let the newer roots continue making food for the bulb.
He says they hardly need a pesticide because they naturally repel pests with their scent.
Apart from adding appetite to food, as a spice, onions also play a medicinal part in our lives most especially as a first aid for high fever and flue.
