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Alliums
Onion & Garlic
Long-season crops that mostly just need to be left alone once planted.
Get your planting dates
This guide covers how to grow, harvest and keep onion & garlic, deliberately without sowing dates,
because the right date depends entirely on your climate zone. GardenBuddy's planting calendar
covers all seven Australian climate zones and will tell you exactly when to sow where you live.
Growing
Full sun, well-drained soil, and consistent light watering while bulbs form, then dry conditions as they mature. Both are heavy feeders early, lighter later.
Common problems
- Bolting to flower if the plant experiences a cold snap during a warm period
- Onion thrips in dry conditions
- Rust on garlic leaves in humid weather
Harvest
Onion: once tops yellow and fall over, stop watering and let the neck dry before pulling. Garlic: once the lower leaves brown, usually 5-6 green leaves remain, dig rather than pull to avoid bruising.
Preserving this crop
Best suited to:
Root Cellaring & Long StorageDrying & DehydratingFermenting
Seed saving
Difficulty: Hard for onion, easy for garlic. Garlic is propagated from cloves, save your biggest, healthiest cloves as next season's planting stock. Onion is biennial, insect-pollinated and crosses readily, an advanced project.