Allium Planting Calendar
Planting & Setup
Alliums are cool-season vegetables grown for their flavorful bulbs, stems, and leaves. This family includes garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, scallions, and chives — crops that depend on good timing, steady growth, and healthy soil to size up well. Unlike most heavy-feeding garden vegetables, alliums do best in loose, balanced soil with good drainage and moderate fertility, because too much rich compost can interfere with proper bulb development. In the Deep Roots system, alliums are grown in a carefully balanced mineral topsoil blend that supports strong roots, clean bulb formation, and excellent flavor.
| Crop Name | How To Plant | Spring Planting | Fall Planting | Germinate Indoors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Table Coming Soon | ||||
Growing Conditions
| Crop Name | Sunlight | Temperature Tolerances | Ideal Soil Temperature | Seed Depth | Days to Harvest |
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| Table Coming Soon | |||||
Chives (and Garlic Chives) are perennials and the easiest alliums to grow. Chives are popular, mild-flavored, with grass-like leaves and edible purple flowers.. They offer a delicate, onion-like flavor, milder than other Allium species
Timing: Alliums prefer cool to moderate soil temperatures. Garlic + shallots benefit from fall planting. Leeks require long indoor start time. Scallions = flexible + fast crop
Beginners: Garlic, scallions, and chives are the easiest allium choices for beginners.
Weeding and watering: Keep beds well weeded, since alliums have shallow roots and do not compete well. Before harvest stop watering about two weeks earlier for better curing and storage.
Spring top-dressing: Use small amounts of compost and worm castings as a light spring top-dressing, cover the allium planted area, not just around each seedling.
Onions, leeks, shallots: Shallots are planted as bulbs 1-3 inches deep and 4-8 inches apart. Leeks grow best from transplants set 4-6 inches deep for blanching, while scallions can be grown from seeds or by planting leftovers Short video
Garlic: Plant in mid-October and mulch with straw garlic after fall planting. Remove hardneck scapes in spring to increase bulb size. Garlic is ready to harvest in mid-summer (usually July) when the bottom 2–3 leaves turn brown, or when 50-70% of the plant has turned yellow and the leaves begin to fall over.
Green onions (scallions) are perennials. To grow green onions from the grocery store, place the white bulb ends into a small jar of water, changing it daily until roots grow, or plant them directly in soil with 2 inches spacing.
