Plant · P-743

Onion

Allium cepa

Onion grows a single bulb of concentric fleshy layers on top of a cluster of hollow, tube-shaped leaves, and both the bulb and the green tops are eaten raw or cooked around the world. It lives more than one year in the ground but is almost always dug up at the end of its first season, once the tops fall over and dry down on their own. It needs a full day of sun and loose, sandy to loamy soil, growing one to one and a half feet tall and six inches to a foot wide - heavy clay is not reported as tolerated by either source. Soil chemistry runs neutral to alkaline, and water needs are reported anywhere from dry to consistently moist depending on the source, though good drainage is agreed on throughout. It shrugs off deer, rabbits, and the growth-inhibiting chemical that black walnut roots release into the soil.