Spring onion varieties for fresh, regular harvests

A few spring onions can lift a salad, soup or stir-fry. Growing your own lets you choose the stem, colour and picking season that suit the way you cook.

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Four varieties, four good reasons

These four varieties work in modest spaces. Some are bulb-forming onions harvested young; others are non-bulbing types that can stay in the garden longer.

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A quick, familiar salad onion

White Lisbon

Latin name: Allium cepa

Slender white stems · green leaves

Choose White Lisbon for the familiar spring onion you can slice into salads or scatter over a finished dish. It is a useful first crop because small sowings fit into spare rows and containers. Repeat sowings spread the harvest instead of giving you one large batch. A September sowing can also provide an earlier crop the following spring.

Where it grows

Position: Outdoors in sun
Conditions: Fertile, well-drained soil; keep seedlings moist and weed-free.
Containers: Pots or window boxes with drainage; sow thinly

Size and effort

Height & spread: Up to 30cm tall × 5cm wide
Difficulty: Easy · small, repeated sowings

When

Sow: Outdoors: March-August in small batches; September for overwintering.
Plant: Usually direct-sown in the final position; no separate planting-out stage.
Harvest: April-October, depending on sowing; spring after overwintering

Pests & diseases

Watch for onion fly and thrips. Downy mildew and allium white rot can affect crops.

Bear in mind

Allow roughly eight weeks in good growing weather; autumn sowings take much longer.

View seeds at Thompson & Morgan

Long stems for stir-fries

Ishikura

Latin name: Allium fistulosum

Upright, non-bulbing Japanese onion

Choose Ishikura when you want more white stem for stir-fries and noodle dishes. This Japanese onion stays slender without forming a rounded storage bulb. You can pull it young or leave selected plants to thicken into something closer to a small leek. That flexibility suits a kitchen garden where you prefer to pick according to what you are cooking.

Where it grows

Position: Outdoors in sun
Conditions: Fertile, well-drained soil; keep seedlings moist and weed-free.
Containers: Pots or window boxes with drainage; sow thinly

Size and effort

Height & spread: Up to 30cm tall × 23cm wide as an established plant
Difficulty: Easy · small, repeated sowings

When

Sow: Outdoors: March-July; spring sowings can also start in modules.
Plant: Direct sow, or transplant spring modules once rooted and hardened off.
Harvest: June-October; established plants may crop longer with protection

Pests & diseases

Watch for onion fly and thrips. Downy mildew and allium white rot can affect crops.

Bear in mind

Leave extra room for plants kept to mature; closely sown salad crops are harvested young.

View seeds at Thompson & Morgan

A hardy crop for a longer season

Performer

Latin name: Allium fistulosum

Perennial bunching onion · no bulb

Choose Performer if extending the spring onion season matters more than adding another colour. Its mild stems and upright green leaves are useful for salads and finely chopped garnishes. This hardy, non-bulbing onion can stand beyond the main summer season when conditions allow. Successive sowings give you more flexibility, although winter growth will be much slower than in spring.

Where it grows

Position: Outdoors in sun
Conditions: Fertile, well-drained soil; keep seedlings moist and weed-free.
Containers: Pots or window boxes with drainage; sow thinly

Size and effort

Height & spread: Up to 30cm tall × 23cm wide as an established plant
Difficulty: Easy · small, repeated sowings

When

Sow: Outdoors: March-September; use late sowings for overwintering.
Plant: Direct sow, or transplant rooted modules after hardening off in spring.
Harvest: Mainly April-October; overwintered crops extend the season

Pests & diseases

Watch for onion fly and thrips. Downy mildew and allium white rot can affect crops.

Bear in mind

Hardiness does not guarantee winter harvests; avoid waterlogged soil and allow for slow growth.

View seeds at Thompson & Morgan

Colour in fresh salads

Apache

Latin name: Allium cepa

Purple-red bases · crisp green leaves

Choose Apache when you would like a little more colour in the salad bowl. Its purple-red outer layers contrast with the pale inner stem and green leaves. The flavour is mild and the texture crisp, making it useful sliced raw alongside other summer vegetables. Grow a short row beside a white variety if you enjoy mixing colours at harvest.

Where it grows

Position: Outdoors in sun
Conditions: Fertile, well-drained soil; keep seedlings moist and weed-free.
Containers: Pots or window boxes with drainage; sow thinly

Size and effort

Height & spread: Up to 30cm tall × 5cm wide
Difficulty: Easy · small, repeated sowings

When

Sow: Outdoors: March-July, in small batches.
Plant: Usually direct-sown in the final position; no separate planting-out stage.
Harvest: June-October, depending on sowing

Pests & diseases

Watch for onion fly and thrips. Downy mildew and allium white rot can affect crops.

Bear in mind

Peeling removes some colour; harvest while young for slender salad onions.

View seeds at Thompson & Morgan

Sizes are approximate mature dimensions, not planting distances. Difficulty is our practical guide to the care involved, not an official rating. “Easy” still means regular watering and feeding.

Compare at a glance

For a quick salad crop, sow thinly and harvest young. Give Ishikura and Performer more room if you intend to keep them as established plants.

Spring onions compared by best use, growing place and mature size
Variety	Choose it for	Growing place	Height & spread
White Lisbon	A quick, familiar salad onion	Outdoors in sun	Up to 30cm tall × 5cm wide
Ishikura	Long stems for stir-fries	Outdoors in sun	Up to 30cm tall × 23cm wide as an established plant
Performer	A hardy crop for a longer season	Outdoors in sun	Up to 30cm tall × 23cm wide as an established plant
Apache	Colour in fresh salads	Outdoors in sun	Up to 30cm tall × 5cm wide

Swipe the comparison sideways to see all four columns.

A note on UK timing

Sow small batches through the variety’s stated season. Most spring onions are sown where they will grow, so there is no separate planting-out date. If starting in modules, transplant once the roots hold the compost together and the plants are hardened off.

White Lisbon can be ready in about eight weeks in good growing weather. This is not a winter timetable: late sowings grow slowly and are usually kept for spring. April harvests generally come from plants established the previous season.

The mature spread describes an established plant, especially for perennial bunching onions. It is not the spacing needed for a closely sown row that will be pulled young. Follow the seed packet for your intended harvest size.

Keeping spring onions healthy

Onion fly and thrips can damage alliums; inspect stems and leaves and use insect mesh where flies are a recurring problem. Keep the crop weed-free and avoid waterlogged compost.

White rot is a persistent soil disease. If it has affected an allium bed, grow in containers of fresh compost rather than moving onions around the same affected soil. Remove diseased plants and avoid transferring contaminated soil on tools.

Make it work for your plot

Use your growing space and local weather to plan the next step, from sowing to planting out.

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