With increasing onion prices, several people stopped or reduced their onion use.

If you have some space in your balcony, you can grow onions at your home garden.

Onions need a cool and pleasant climate. Humidity and rain are not suitable for the crop. Hence, the best time to grow onions is from November to February.

You can grow onions even in a container, but the soil should be fertile and porous.

There are different methods to grow onions. 

The first and foremost method to grow onions is in your backyard.

For this you need onion seeds, tray, grow bags, fertilizer, cow dung and water. You can buy onion seeds from a nursery or online.

Following steps are involved in this method of growing onions:

• You need to prepare the seeds first for which they have to be soaked for a day. After that, drain and keep them open for a couple of days. Then, sow the seeds in the soil in a tray.

• The seeds will sprout in about 6 weeks of time. Before that, keep the soil ready for the seeds. Whether it is your backyard, balcony or a grow bag, keep the place ready to sow the saplings. Fertilizers are essential to nourish the plant. While farmers use cow dung, urea, ‘Rajphos’ and potash, you can use organic fertilizers to stay away from harmful chemicals.
• Monitor the saplings on the tray and water them regularly to keep the soil moist so that they can grow. Plant the saplings after they sprout in the fixed place for them.
• Make sure to sow them in rows with space of at least 15 cm between each onion.
• The tops of the plants are visible above the soil so that you can know when the crop is ready. It will take four to five months. You can pull them out from the soil after the leaves begin to shrink.
• Keep your harvest for three days with the leaves. Cut off the leaves by one centimetre from the bulbs and dry them under slight sunlight.

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