Most Gardeners Want BIG Onions, But Don't Do THIS! 

I grew your utah yellow and your walla walla from seed...and I am having a HUGE crop OF LARGE onions..tytyty

I am a second year gardener. Last year my onion growing bombed so I studied up. This year they are growing great and just pruned them, gave them some fish fertilizer and they started to bulb!🎉

These are the videos I like. More leaves more rings. Dont worry about photosynthesis. Focus on growing more leaves & set the stage for that with pruning. A focus on a specific plant & covering as much useful info as possible in one video.

I trim my onions. I dehydrate it for onion powder. Great flavor.

BRB going to mow my onions 😎

This is blowing my mind! Treat them like leafy greens, not roots 🤯

I didn't even think of treating onions like leafy greens even though that totally makes sense. Thanks for the tip!

Well, I know what I’m doing today!! THANK YOU!

Is it too late? The summer solstices was 2 weeks ago?

Chapters would really help in your videos! I always appreciate the depth to which you explain things and the context you provide, and I seek your channel above all others, but sometimes it is challenging to find a quick answer!

Heading out to chop off all my onions at 7inches or so. Thank you Luke!!

I’ve taken your advice at the start of the year and you’re exactly right. Zero water damage and zero pest damage thank you.

I'm pruning onions this year. Its for the first time and based on your videos - and I'm very happy with the results.

We've already had the summer solstice, Luke. Lol

It's called topping your onions. Don't top your onions If it is going to rain in the next few days. Only top your onions when it's going to be nice for 5 days straight. This will give the onion top time to close up and not get water inside of the leaves. Don't throw away the tops of your onions! Take them inside and wash them, dry them and turn on your oven to the lowest setting it will go. Use the largest cookie sheet you can possibly find or have on hand and place parchment paper on top of the cookie sheet. Place your onion tops on the cookie sheet and spread them out thinly. Let them bake for an hour or two and flip them over. Once both sides are dried, You can put this in a blender and blend it up into green onion powder to put on the shelf and use in any of your dishes that requires onion flavoring. You can even break them up into pieces and put them in a mason jar to use later in many of your dishes. ABSOLUTELY NO WASTE!❤ ❤❤😊 Last year I grew onions the size of softballs or even bigger! Your onions need to be fed every two weeks! Onions are very heavy feeders.

We live in the Rio grande valley in Texas. We are 15 miles from the Mexican border. The 1015 onions are from here. They are the best onions to make the onion blooms you see in festivals, carnivals, rodeos and more. At the end of harvest season ,some farmers allow people to go and pick what was left behind.👍

I've been waiting for permission to prune my first crop of onions. Thank you

Oh no they cry😢,weeping,😅 Thanks for the tips. I'm learning so much from your videos. Sunflowers just bloomed even though I lost a few to pest.

I havent watched to video yet bc im at work. But I would so much rather have more small onions than less big ones that add up to the same amount because i don't like having half vegetables sitting in the fridge that i feel pressured to use within a certain amount of time.

I did this...cuz you said! It worked!!!! Thanks Luke!!

I started onions from seeds for the first time this year thanks to your encouragement and I can 100% confirm after YEARS of sets, that seeds grow faster and bigger bulbs! Thanks you so much for helping me 'master' onions in a SINGLE season

Thank you, Luke. 😊

I didn't realize what a hot button topic topping onions is. I decided to take the leap and try topping for the first time this season. Wish me luck!

I did not know this about pruning onions “I am going to do this “ I am from the uk watch you all the time, thank you for sharing ❤

Great video! I will trim my onions tomorrow.

There are many contrasting practices on YT regarding growing onions. Some same trim, others say don't trim. I've done both and haven't had any success with either. Next year I'll do a side by side comparison 🧅

I have learned so much from this one video! Thank you!

You are so right, the wind does this for me. After a good wind they look like they have been beaten up. Then away they go.

Thank you for this. The light cycle makes sense. Never would have thought to cut the leaves

Thanks for the advice we did prune our onions but now will go get some fertilized

I did this! Thanks to you, my onions did much better and bigger this year growing from seed and keeping tops pruned ❤

I learn so much from you, Luke!

Yippee! I'm a pruner! I've always done this because the onion tops get long and top heavy, so I cut them halfway down (not even knowing it's the right thing to do - lol)

I was wondering why my onions were so tiny!!! Thanks for the tip. I will definitely be trimming my onion leaves.

I am growing onions for the first time this summer, they were starters, but...I give them hair cuts and feedings, they have abt 10-12 leaves and are impressive for my first try :) Thank you for your videos!

This video was posted on July 3rd. We're past the summer solstice here in the northern hemisphere. Were these tips to be performed say in May? Would be helpful if you did clarify. Also, on a previous video, I think from last year, you did talk about pruning the leaves to keep them from bending so they keep growing, can this also be done now, 2 weeks after the solstice? Thanks.

Once the temp cools, I will trim them. 105 is not fun for me to garden

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. My onions from seed have always been small. Trying your tips this year. :)

A very knowledgeable dude in a gardening Facebook group in my area posted about his onions. He does not trim once the onions are in the ground or when they start bulbing and to lay off the nitrogen when they start bulbing. Trim in the early growing stages, march through may. I planted them out in mid/late may I have some monster ones out there now.

Now, if I could just get mine to stand up straight from the get go this information will be helpful next year!

Who knew! On my way now to give my tiny little onions some nitrogen!! And you could not be more right about growing from seed - I planted seeds and sets this year and the onions from seed are twice as big and have way more leaves than the ones from sets. Thank you for this info! Of all the gardening videos I have watched about onions I have never heard this and my onions continue to be quite small year after year.

I actually did this to my onions today :). SO glad I did this!

Thanks Luke. Now long day makes more sense. Never much success with onions. This year tried again. Started with 2 yr old MIG seed eventhough I heard to use fresh seed evey year. Germination was great! Just starting to see bulbs. Time to pile on the nitrogen. THIS IS THE YEAR!

I am trimming my " onion leaves", and hitting onions with fish N; I did hit onions with Mega-Crop, but the onions are still not very big. I didn't realize the summer solstice was June 20 it was not on my mind this season. Thank you for the info. Luke. next season I will grow bigger onions!

Perfect timing Luck. Was just out looking at my onions, and seeing that they are getting pretty tall. So, out to trim them back later today. Thanks again.

I have never been able to get seeds to grow so I usually use starts but this year I did sets for a change just to see what happened. I'm not dissatisfied with the end results but I'm definitely going back to starts next season because they're all just kind of... medium sized.

Great video! I’m trimming onion leaves tomorrow!!

I need to take classes from this guy. I live about an hours drive south of him and my garden is pathetic compared to his.

I knew about trimming when just sprouting, and then no longer pruning. I take it the reverse order works just as well and are mutually exclusive, or I'll look that up in case I'm wrong. I'll be trimming tomorrow regardless. :)

Thank you for the tip, just topped my onions, and picked a couple

Thank you for this, Luke!

One of my favorite parts about growing onions is having the tops to cut off and use as the onions grow underneath. I can't help myself but cut some of those greens a couple times a week to put in my rice and salads 😅💯 I do the same with the garlic greens too 😅😊

this video shows a posting date of July 3. This is several days after the summer solstice of June 23. Therefore, do not trim onion leaves or fertilize now? If so, I wish this video would have been posted early in June.

Thank you so much for doing this video. I've heard people say not to prune the leaves and to do as you say. It makes so much sense now as to what happened to mine. They were too top heavy. I will make sure I do this next year.

We prune ours every year. We also take the cut greens, dehydrate them and make green onion powder.

I love your videos! So helpful! I was able to transplant onion seedlings into my garden for the first time ever this year, and they're off!

Gonna do it tomorrow!

So helpful! Just wish I had learned a couple months ago lol.

It might have been better to release this video *before* the summer solstice rather than after, hahaha. I'll go ahead and trim the leaves in hopes of preventing the onions flopping. However, it may not matter because we are getting high heat in a day and I'll have to be putting up the shade cloth so the onions will sense less light anyway in addition to the shorter days due to the calendar.

I end up trimming my onions, two or three times during the season. I use some of the cut tops in recipes but most, because of the volume of them, I spread around my squash plants. Hoping that the smell from them will help to dissuade squash vine bore. I can’t prove one way or the other that it works, but I figure it can’t hurt.

If starts were planted in April, when is a good time to harvest them? Some of the onion leaves are thicker and bent already I never knew to trim them.

I was also wondering about trimming leaves so long after the solstice. Some of my onion leaves are quite long and wide. Some have broken or bent --I live in a windy area! If it would be wise to trim them at this point, I will do so immediately!

What few onions I have, flopped over a long time ago, and they weren’t even that big. 😢 I think I have 2 that are worthy of cutting down, but the bulb ones were doing better than the starts. I’d die as a homesteader if my life depended on it. The bugs, raccoons, squirrels and deer would live long and prosper with my garden! The more I try, the harder it gets.

Great information! Question, since we are past the summer solstice for 2024, am I correct to assume trimming the onion leaves this year wouldn’t have the same benefit? I will for sure make a note for doing this with next years crop? My onion leaves today are very large and long so if I trimmed them now is the flavor the same as when they’re a little smaller in size?

Another perfectly timed reminder, Luke! Thanks!

Is that a cabbage? How did you grow it so big! Wow

So.... this is my first year growing onions, and I did prune the leaves. However, I posted on one of my FB gardening groups how I grew my onions, and a couple of them were bulbing, but most were not, and my question was whether or not I should now treat the entire bed as bulbing, and stop the nitrogen. Every single person that responded said not to trim them after the seedling stage. So now I'm confused.

Thank you

Luke, I'm assuming the pearl onions would still be treated as you would the big onions, even though it is past the solstice? Thanks for the heads up on treating onions like greens instead of roots. No wonder mine have never done well 😂.

Did you plant these onion later in the season? They look like they are far from being ready I’m seeing others posting onion harvest videos? Thanks

As always, Thank You once again for valuable info I will certainly apply!

I'm going to try again

Great information! Thank you for explaining it logically!

Great information. Thank you Luke!

I have to do this today, thank you for your help and it’s great timing! Much appreciated

This is SO interesting. Will definitely try your advice. How do you determine the timing of pruning onions? 💚

Well since we are past the summer solstice, I guess it is too late to add more blood meal but I might trim the leaves. I did add bone meal a few weeks ago, hope it does something 😮

When I cut my tops off I dehydrate them and make delicious onion powder.

Great informative video Luke! Saving it for the future.

I can do this thank you for the information. I did not know the difference between bulbs and seeds next year. I am planning seeds thank you thank you so much. Your information is so valuable to me.

Thank you!! 🎉

I guess I'll be pruning some onions today!

Do you stop pruning and fertilizing when the bulbs have developed?

awesome thank you for the tips God bless

Okay , I am onboard and will dry the leaves for onion powder

Sets are really good for interplanting for pest control and to let go to flower in order to attract good bugs and save seeds, if you know the variety.

Wow, cool! As usual, I now really want to grow something I don't have and don't have room for 😂 I'd prefer a bunch of tiny onions that can be harvested over time since I'm cooking for 1 person.

Super valuable information. Thank you.🎉🎉🎉

Thanks for the great advice. First time growing onions and was wondering if I should cut them or not. Will do this weekend.

Being a bulb as well, would this pruining tip also possibly apply to garlic?

Thank you for this valuable information!!!

It seems to me after reading the comments and the timing of this video, he should do another video explaining everything from planting the seeds to actually harvesting.

This may be a super silly question… And I have not gotten completely to the end of the video yet, but does this apply for all onions, such a chives? And thank you very much for.ALL of the amazing videos if I haven’t said it before!

Should you trim/prune leeks in this way also?

Love the video, thank you for sharing! What do you think of using rice hulls as a replacement for perlite in potting soil?

I already have the onion sets growing- didn’t know that bonus information. I will grow seeds next year. Can I still prune them as you said for the seed grown ones?

I can do this!!Thanks Luke.

I've been feeding my garden with Neptune's harvest tomato and veg, Including the onions. Is it okay to use this on the onions and if it is how often should I use it? When do you suppose my onions will be ready? I'm in zone 8B near Portland Oregon

So question. If you have a two year onion which is flowering, can you use the same pruning and fertilizing for a bigger bulb or will it just keep growing a flower?

Always pruned my onions even during the seedling growth! 🇨🇦🙋🏼‍♀️By the way,,,how do you get such gorgeous cabbage…do you have the cabbage moth there? I covered mine as soon as I put them out and still had the cabbage worm!😡