Italian Red Onion 1000 Seeds

The Italian Red Onion is a classic sweet red variety celebrated for its mild, gentle flavour and striking colour. Its glossy ruby-to-deep-purple skin wraps crisp flesh patterned with concentric pink and white rings, making it the onion of choice for eating raw — sliced thin over salads, sandwiches and grilled dishes where a sharp, biting onion would overpower. Sweeter and less pungent than common storage onions, it adds colour and a soft oniony note without harshness, and its handsome bulbs are as decorative as they are delicious.

Planting

Onion is a cool-season crop, so in Egypt the practical method is to raise it through the mild winter. Sow seed in a nursery in autumn, from mid-September to mid-October, then transplant the seedlings once they are pencil-thick — roughly 30 to 35 days after sowing, around mid-November. Because Egypt sits at a low latitude, choose short-day types that bulb at only about 11 to 12 hours of daylight; long-day temperate onions would grow leaves but never form bulbs here. Sow seed about 1.3 cm deep (0.6 to 1.3 cm when direct-sowing outdoors, or about 1.9 cm deep when starting indoors). The best soil temperature for germination is 15 to 25 C, and seedlings usually emerge in about 2 to 3 weeks. Give onions full sun for best growth. Set transplants about 5 cm deep, spacing plants 7.6 to 10 cm apart in rows 20 to 46 cm apart; wider in-row spacing of up to about 15 cm gives larger bulbs, while closer spacing yields smaller ones.

Fertilizing

Onions do best in soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0 and plenty of organic matter. Work fertilizer into the top 15 cm of soil, and apply phosphorus and potassium according to a soil test before planting. Side-dress with nitrogen as the plants grow through the cool winter, but stop feeding nitrogen once bulbing begins — excess nitrogen delays bulb maturity and gives softer bulbs. A rich, well-drained bed feeds steady leafy growth in winter and sets the crop up to swell into firm, well-shaped bulbs.

Care

Keep the soil consistently moist near field capacity, giving about 2.5 cm of water per week and wetting down to roughly 30 cm; the total seasonal water need is about 350 to 550 mm. Onions are most sensitive to water shortage at transplanting and during bulb enlargement, about 60 days after transplanting, so do not let them dry out then. Once the bulbs reach full size and the tops begin to fall, stop watering. Thin direct-sown onions to 7.6 to 10 cm apart before the plants crowd or begin to bulb. Watch for onion thrips and onion maggot, and for diseases such as neck rot, basal rot, pink root, downy mildew, purple blotch and white rot; avoiding excess nitrogen and rotating crops helps keep disease down. Onions are sensitive to salty soil, a concern in parts of the Delta, so use good-quality irrigation water and well-drained beds. Bulbs develop through the cool winter and enlarge as days lengthen in late winter and early spring; harvest from roughly March to May, when about half the tops have fallen over and dried, the necks soften, and papery outer skins have formed.