Is now a good time to plant onions and garlic?
As a general rule, garlic is planted in the autumn and onions are planted in the spring.
Garlic is usually planted this time of year since it's extremely hardy and rarely is it harmed by even our worst winters. It also requires a minimum of one to two months of temperatures below 5°C (and preferably below zero) in order to properly form bulbs. That's why garlic planted in the spring often forms a bulb with a single large clove instead multiple individual cloves - great if you want to make garlic bread for forty of your closest friends, but not so great if you were hoping to use your mature bulbs as a seed crop for the following year.
There’s nothing preventing you from planting your garlic as soon as the ground becomes workable next spring. If we experience a long period of abysmal weather stretching into June, you could luck out, ending up with perfectly developed bulbs without the hassle of planting in fall.
Onions are usually, though not always, planted in the spring. They are not as hardy as garlic, so if you plant them now and we get plunged into a deep freeze this winter or, worse, the temperatures rollercoaster between periods of extreme cold and milder weather, then your onions could easily be wiped out.
Additionally, onions are susceptible to onion maggots, which thrive in cools soils, so the longer your onions remain growing in the less-than-warm ground, the greater the chances they’ll attract some unwanted friends. The best way to avoid a run-in with onion maggots is to wait until the soil warms up in May before putting your onions in the ground.
(Onion maggots rarely bother garlic.)
However, some gardeners plant onions in the autumn regardless of the risks. If we get a mild winter with heavy snow cover, those onions will not only survive, but you'll be harvesting green onions well before more cautious gardeners have put their onion sets in the ground next spring.
Even if we don't have a mild winter, you can cover your onions with straw, increasing the chances they’ll make it through the winter. Better yet, you can plant them under plastic and be surprised by just how much of the winter you'll be able to get fresh green onions from your garden. Assuming, of course, that you’re up for braving the cold to harvest them. Admittedly, that’s where things tend to break down in my household.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
