Do Chives Need Full Sun?

Don’t confuse chives with green onions

Eventhough you can use green onions and chives interchangeably, they’re not the same. The photo below is green onions. Green onions have a delicious white bulb that tastes great in salads and potatos. They are thicker and milder in taste than chives.

There is also a large difference in size with green onions reaching 1-2 feet in length and chives only 12 inches. Although they may resemble each other in appearance and taste, chives reside in the lilly family and are classified as an herb while onions belong in the vegetable family. 

Planting Chives

Chives are perennial, so they come back every year, which makes them a great addition to any garden. They are a cool season crop, so the best time to plant is in the spring when soil temperatures reach between 60º and 70ºF. If you wish to get an early start, you may want to begin seeding them inside using a seed starter tray and then transplant them into your garden after the threat of frost. This should give you an early summer harvest. You don’t want to plant them too late. Chives don’t like heat and will go dormant, spoiling any chance of fresh chives in your soup.

What kind of soil do chives need?

Chives like spinach need full sun but can take some shade. For best results, find an area that receives six to eight hours of direct sunlight each day. Keep in mind if they don’t receive enough sunlight, you’ll end up with a plant that is droopy, and the chives will be thin. They prefer moist, well-drained soil rich in organic matter. Since the growing conditions are so similar to spinach, asparagus, and peas, you don’t want to plant them together, or they will compete for nutrients. Instead, you may wish to plant them with an herb such as basil, strawberries, carrots, or parsnips.

There are a few tricks when making your soil optimal for chives.

• coffee grounds
• eggshells

Adding a few coffee grounds to your soil while planting adds nitrogen, which keeps weeds and bacteria at bay, and adds nutrition, such as potassium and magnesium, to your chives.

Another great addition is crushed eggshells. By adding eggshells to your soil, you’re adding calcium carbonate, which strengthens cell walls. Like coffee grounds, they are rich in potassium and magnesium. Eggshells in your garden also have another superpower – they are a natural pest repellent, including snakes, roaches, ants, slugs, and snails. On the other hand, they’ll attract wildlife you may want, like squirrels and birds.

Planting Chives

If you’re planting the seeds directly into the ground, you will want to space the seeds about 2 inches apart and in full sun. Chives grow close to the surface, so you only want to go 1/4 inch deep. Using a thin layer of soil, cover the seeds. Once the seeds germinate, you can thin them out so they are spaced between 4-6 inches apart. Water your chives once a week, making sure they completely dry out between waterings. It will take around 60 days from the time you seeded them for your chives to be ready to harvest. If you transplanted them, harvest time will be around 30 days.

How to harvest chives

• Flowers spreading seeds
• Woody leaves

The best time to harvest is before or after the flowers bloom, which is late spring or early summer. Chives will take over your garden if you’re not careful – not due to spreading but because of flower seeds, so cutting before the bloom will help keep your herbs where you want them.

If you choose to harvest after the flower blooms, you should be careful of the seeds – unless you’re wanting them to spread. Don’t forget when the flowers bloom, the purple flower will not only look pretty on your plate but will add a hint of onion as well.

If you wait until after your chives bloom, the leaves tend to become hard and woody in texture. While they are still delicious in soups and stews, they may not be right for a salad.

Deadhead your blooms

If you’ve missed your window to harvest before it blooms, you can always deadhead it. Simply pinch off the flowers taking care not to disburse the seeds. This should help in any unwanted spreading of your chives.

How to maintain your chives

If you find your chives are not producing as much as they had in subsequent years, it may be time to divide them – this should happen every 3-4 years.

While there are many types of chives, they have a commonality – all chives need good drainage and direct sun.

Types of chives

• common chives
• garlic chives
• Siberian chives

Common chives are the type you probably see at your local grocery store and grow to around 10-15 inches tall. These cold-hardy herbs can produce flowers in white, pink, purple, and even red.

Garlic chives or Chinese chives don’t survive the cold quite as easily as the common chives. Like the common chives, they grow to around 10-15 inches tall and display white flowers. They differ in taste as the name implies they have a hint of garlic,

Chives do best when planted directly in the ground as long as they have sun, but if they have good drainage, you can use pots as well. You may need to water more often than once per week as you would in the ground – every 2-3 days allowing for the top to completely dry out.

Black Aphids and Chives

One of the chives’ biggest enemies is the same as roses – black aphids. They attach themselves to the leaves and, like a vampire, suck the life out of the plant. Thankfully there are several ways to get rid of them.

• Water – you can wash them off by placing the hose on with enough force for them to fall off but not injure the leaf
• Soap and water – Use a few drops of Dawn in a bucket or spray bottle. You can wipe them off or spray them.
• Vinegar – Use one part vinegar to three parts water in a spray bottle and spray the infected leaves

Chives and pests

It’s great when you can plant an herb that actually repells unwanted pests. That’s what chives do. Chives might taste good in our soup, but pests like beetles, mice, rabbits, and even mosquitos are repelled by the smell.

If that wasn’t reason enough to plant chives, they attract lots of great wildlife, like butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, and birds into your yard.

Pets and Chives

Do not feed your pets chives or allow them to chew it out of the garden. Chives are very poisonous to both dogs and cats. If you’re thinking of growing it where your dog can take a few bites, you may want to reconsider.

Health Benefits

• osteoporosis – Packed with vitamin K, which is important for bone density
• Alzheimer’s – According to webmd.com, chives contain both choline and folate, which is linked to improving memory function. Those with low levels of choline may be at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
• cancer – contains compounds believed to deter cancerous cells from growing or spreading

Conclusion

If you have a spot in your garden that has full sun, you may want to consider sowing some chives. This drought-resistant cool weather perennial will give harvests for years without much fuss. Not only will it yield great toppings, but it will deter unwanted pests like beetles and mice with its pungent smell.