onions (sets, seeds, bunching, starts, chives)

the sets and starts did get a layer of worm poo put underneath them when they were planted (they grew well, very green and healthy). the seeds and bunching onions were planted in sandier soil without any more input than what was already growing in that space being turned under the previous fall.

i'm suspecting the worm poo may have been too much N for them and will run a different experiment next year to compare the amounts used and results.

all grown in full sun. regularly watered.

Sets:

we planted three types (yellow, white and red). small bulbs, no roots or green growing yet.

my guess is that they went in too late. spacing might have been a little too close too. we had a decent crop and they grew well but they didn't get very big before they flopped over in the mid-summer. the largest was about baseball sized. many were smaller.

next year/season i hope to get them in several weeks earlier and will increase the spacing a bit.

Seeds:

yellow onion:

the onion seeds i planted last spring reached an ok size for what they were (free onions). about golf ball to a little bigger than that. most are left out there as is to winter. we'll see if any survive the winter and then grow on out. this patch is experimental. so that is why they are left this way.

i planted three times, waiting a few weeks in between each planting. i haven't even looked at them to compare (the earliest plantings are overgrown with trefoil but are coming up through it). we'll see how they compare next spring/summer after being neglected for the winter.

the same clump of onions that provided the seeds for these came up and bloomed again this season. i was rather surprised by this figuring that once the onions bloomed they were done. so again i have those types of seeds available for next year (not as many as the first time around).

next year i hope to add a few other types of onions (the white and red) to get seeds from. in a different patch than the gardens used to grow the rest out. that way they can be left alone to flower.

Bunching:

from seeds.

the bunching onions did not do particularly well here. either they went in way too late or they are finicky beyond what i can manage without a bit more attention to detail. i'm guessing that they might need a bit more even watering than what we had this season and perhaps should have been put in earlier too.

Starts:

large/huge yellow onions if grown right.

these are plants already growing in small cells.

they should have been quite a bit larger than the other onions we put in (the sets mentioned above), but i let them get overgrown by melon plants and didn't get the melon vines off the patch until it was too late. at least that is what i'm thinking. when they were growing and not smothered they were green and doing well. also they could have gone in a few weeks earlier.

Chives:

we just have too many of these to worry about them at all. other than weeding and trimming the tops after they have flowered (bees all over them) these are for sure the most carefree onion type we have. wish i could get the bunching onions to work like these...

overall, we should have harvested and cured the onions and while i tried to get this done several times meaning to do it, it actually never did get done. so we were pulling onions all summer and up until a few days ago. many of them had some rot as the soil is heavy and we had a flood and several rains. some are sprouting and regrowing now and those are what we are finding and eating the past few weeks.

still for the cost (a few $ for the few hundred sets and around $5-10 for a hundred starts) it sure was better than buying them at the store. at anywhere from 33c to $1.79/lb that's a fair chunk of change.

we eat plenty of onions so i was hoping to have more to store and or make some relishes or preserves. instead a lot of them went into salsa. not a bad thing for sure, just not quite the same as having some onions set aside for at least a part of the fall/winter.

ok, that's enough rambling on for this evening.

peace, happy gardening, etc.

songbird

Reply to
songbird
Loading thread data ...

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.