100–120 days from sowing40–50 days from transplanting
Germination
7–14 days
Sowing depth
1–1.5 cm
Spacing
10–15 × 25–30 cmin the row × between rows
Plant height
30 cm
Ideal temperature
13–24 °C
Soil pH
6.0–7.0
Frost
Hardy
Sowing calendar
JanJFebFMarMAprAMayMJunJJulJAugASepSOctONovNDecD
Sow in trays
Direct sowing
Transplant
Harvest
JanJFebFMarMAprAMayMJunJJulJAugASepSOctONovNDecD
Sow in trays
Direct sowing
Transplant
Harvest
Indicative windows; adjust them to your local climate.
Suitable for pots
Frost hardy
Direct sowing
Growing guide
How to grow white lisbon onion?
A step-by-step growing guide, from sowing to harvest.
Sowing
Sow in trays or a seedbed one centimetre deep, ten to twelve weeks before transplanting, or sow direct and thin later. Germination takes ten to fourteen days. Transplant when the plant is the thickness of a pencil, trimming a third of the leaves and roots, and plant shallowly with the bulb at soil level. Planting the bulb too deep is a classic mistake and rots the neck. With direct sowing, thin early to ten or fifteen centimetres, because crowded plants give small bulbs. At about 30 centimetres tall, this variety grows well in a pot twenty centimetres deep with drainage holes.
Soil
It wants loose, free draining soil with no fresh manure, at a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. Waterlogged soil rots the bulb easily, so a raised bed is a good option on heavy ground. Three to four year rotation away from garlic, leek and chives.
Climate
It grows between 13 °C and 24 °C, and bulbing is driven by day length rather than temperature. This is the key to the whole crop: a short day variety planted in Germany never bulbs, and a long day variety planted in the Algarve bolts without swelling. Always choose varieties suited to the latitude you grow at. This is a short to intermediate day variety: in Portugal and southern Spain sow in autumn, from September to November, transplant in winter and harvest in spring, green or as a bulb. Inland in Iberia water more through the dry months. In France and Germany sow in late winter under cover, or in March outdoors, transplant in April and harvest in August. In Italy follow the Iberian calendar in the centre and south and the French one in the north.
Fertilisation
Its needs are moderate. One to two kilos of mature compost per square metre worked in before sowing covers most of the cycle. If the leaves pale, one watering with a balanced liquid organic feed halfway through is enough. Never use fresh manure, which burns roots and encourages disease.
Watering
Water regularly while the leaves are growing and stop watering once the bulbs are formed and the tops begin to fall over. Watering at the end of the cycle is the mistake that ruins storage: it gives bulbs that rot in store within weeks.
Weed control
The crop germinates slowly and is completely overrun by weeds in the first weeks, which is the number one cause of failure. Prepare the bed in advance, clear the first flush of weeds before sowing and mark the row with radish, which comes up within days and shows you where to hoe. Hoe shallowly between the rows and never pile soil over the bulb, which should sit at soil level.
Pest control
Onion fly lays at the neck and the larva burrows into the bulb: cover with fine mesh and do not leave crop debris in the bed. Leek moth mines the leaves in late summer and the same fine mesh, put on early, deals with both pests. Thrips cause silvery patches on the leaves in hot dry weather and are treated with potassium soap and occasional overhead watering. Nematodes distort the plant and call for a long rotation.
Diseases
Onion downy mildew covers the leaves with a violet felt in cool damp weather and is the main problem on the Atlantic coast. White rot attacks the base of the bulb and persists in the soil for many years. Neck rot appears in store, from badly cured bulbs. Prevention means generous spacing, watering at the base, drainage and thorough curing in the sun before storing.
Harvest
Lift when half to three quarters of the tops have fallen over and dried naturally. Lift in dry weather, leave in the sun for two or three days, then cure for two or three weeks somewhere airy and shaded with the tops still attached. This variety keeps poorly: for bulbs, leave it in the ground two or three months longer and use it in the weeks after curing. Allow about 40 to 50 days from transplanting to the first harvest of this variety, pulled green with the bulb still small. The reference colour is white, and that is what tells you it is ready.
