Spring Onion

Pests & beneficial insects

🐛 Prone to: Thrips

Thrips

Thysanoptera

Silvery streaking with black specks — the specks are how you tell them from mites.

, Cutworms

Cutworms

Noctuidae

A seedling lying beside its own stump in the morning, cut clean through at soil level.

.

Attract Minute pirate bugs

Minute pirate bugs

Anthocoridae

Two to three millimetres, and both stages hunt — thrips and spider mites, thirty a day.

, Hoverflies

Hoverflies

Syrphidae

The adults only drink nectar. It is the larvae that eat the aphids.

, Lacewings

Lacewings

Chrysopidae

Golden-eyed adults that mostly drink; larvae that hunt like small alligators.

, Ground beetles

Ground beetles

Carabidae

Night-active ground hunters, taking slugs, cutworms and leatherjackets at soil level.

to keep them in check — plant African MarigoldGood, French MarigoldGood and YarrowGood nearby.

Growing from seed

Start Spring Onion indoors about 8 weeks before your last frost, keeping seeds in cooler soil (around 10–18 °C). Seeds usually come up in around 10 days. Move seedlings out once the danger of frost has passed, in full sun, spaced about 5 cm apart. Expect to harvest in roughly 60 days.

Keep track of the seeds you own.

Companion Planting

• 
  Comfrey
  

  ComfreyGreat pair

  • ❧Comfrey attracts Ground beetles, which prey on the Cutworms that attack Spring Onion
  • ❧Comfrey roots deep while Spring Onion feeds near the surface — no competition
  • ❧Spring Onion acts as living mulch, keeping soil moist and weeds down around Comfrey
• 
  round leaf lavender
  

  round leaf lavenderGreat pair

  • ❧round leaf lavender attracts Hoverflies, which prey on the Thrips that attack Spring Onion
  • ❧round leaf lavender roots deep while Spring Onion feeds near the surface — no competition
  • ❧Spring Onion acts as living mulch, keeping soil moist and weeds down around round leaf lavender
• 
  Spanish lavender
  

  Spanish lavenderGreat pair

  • ❧Spanish lavender attracts Hoverflies, which prey on the Thrips that attack Spring Onion
  • ❧Spanish lavender roots deep while Spring Onion feeds near the surface — no competition
  • ❧Spring Onion acts as living mulch, keeping soil moist and weeds down around Spanish lavender

How to grow Spring Onion

1. Sow8 weeks before frost
2. Germinates10 days
3. Space5 cm apart
4. GrowFull sun
5. Harvest~60 days

Water: Medium · Height: 40 cm · Soil: Well-draining, fertile, pH 6.0–7.0