Val Bourne on how to grow this healthy vegetable

I’m already thinking about next year when it comes to vegetable growing.

I’ve ordered a new red onion set called ‘Marshall’s Red Fen’ because it did extremely well in the recent RHS trial — winning an Award of Garden Merit or AGM. Marshall’s, a Cambridgeshire-based vegetable specialist, offer plain well-filled packets at competitive prices. Some of their varieties are tried and tested customer favourites.

However, they also offer exclusives and the Marshall’s Red Fen Onion is only available from them. They also offer generous reductions for allotment societies. (www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/ 0844 557 6700) Red onions are more difficult to grow than golden-skinned varieties because they need more warmth. As a result I plant red onion sets two or three weeks later than the others, spacing them nine inches apart to give them the very best chance.

Even then my onions are nowhere near as successful as those grown in warmer places. I saw some whoppers in Beer in Devon this summer and they almost made me howl with envy.

Marshall’s are only selling heat-treated sets of Marshall’s Red Fen. Heat treating discourages bolting. Packets will not be available until mid-March and they will cost more. A hundred sets will set you back £4.95. However home-grown onions have a better texture than shop-bought ones. They cook easily without any hint of toughness and few things look as handsome as plump patch of onions.

Onions are good for you too. I ate onions every day in my early 20s and rarely succumbed to a cold. They have antibacterial qualities and have been proved to be effective against infections including salmonella and E. coli. They prevent colds, coughs, and asthma and the American settlers ate them as a medicine.

In Chinese medicine onions are used to treat angina and eating them has been proved to lower cholesterol.

They also contain fructooligosaccharides that stimulate the growth of healthy bifidobacteria and suppress the growth of potentially harmful bacteria in the colon. In addition, eating onions can reduce the risk of tumours developing in the colon.

We’ve been eating them for a long time. Traces of onion bulbs have been found by archaeologists on Early Bronze Age settlements in Palestine dating from 7,000 years ago.

It’s thought they spread along the ancient trade routes (going east to India from China) and then west to the Mediterranean. The Ancient Egyptians ate them and when Rameses IV died onions were placed in his eye sockets to ensure eternal life.

The Ancient Romans and Greeks, including Theophrastus (332 BC) and Pliny the Elder (79AD), wrote about the round bulbs with enthusiasm. Some were white, others golden or red and these would have come from different regions of the world. The Romans brought these valuable medicinal plants to the British Isles to ward off the inevitable chills and by The Middle Ages onions were a British staple.

Despite their ancient history the onion (Allium cepa) has never been found in the wild.

Five closely-related wild species are found in mountainous areas of Asia that include the Tien Shan, Russia, China and Tibet.

These species follow the same growth cycle. The bulbs lie dormant in winter. As the snow melts the bulbs break into growth and get plenty of water. They plump up and then bake under summer sun. The leaves yellow and then the bulbs become dormant once again.

The lessons are clear for the gardener. Water your onions, shallots and garlic early in the season so that the bulbs fatten up. Then pray for a warm summer to ripen your bulbs.

Once withering begins, loosen the bulbs with a fork, harvest a couple of weeks later and then dry.

Onions should be ready to lift 20 weeks after planting. It would be wonderful if you could order the right weather when you do your seed order.