the seeds i planted last year worked out fairly well. today i was out weeding and lifting up what i want to keep or use. there's plenty more tiny bulbs left in there that will keep growing for this fall and into next year.
most of what i lifted today were the red onions but the seeds i used were not entirely one variety and may have had some crosses in there too so that is one of the reasons i planted them. well, aside from the fact that the seeds were old and i wasn't even sure many of them would grow at all.
it turned out i had several thousand that survived from last year and through this spring and the dry spell we had, but they did get watered since there are other onions in that patch i have to keep going.
they were not thinned, they were weeded, whatever i have harvested now were the ones that grew best around the edges and then in the middle with competition from all the other seedlings. they also were not mulched at all last winter. the soil is mostly clay, but also fairly good in terms of nutrients. i normally put down worms and worm compost under rows of onions i plant. these two rows of seeds were not planted in that though. i save that for the big sweet onions Mom likes to cook with.
i had three seedlings from last year and that lived through the winter which were big enough to flower. of the three one of them has both seeds and tiny bulbs on top so it is a walking onion cross from somewhere. i don't grow those here but a few years ago i did have some onions that were very different like that so perhaps some of those seeds were in this batch i had too or they managed to cross. i don't have enough seeds or tops to share around yet, but i'll see if i can get an increase out of these next year because it is interesting and useful to have both seeds and small top bulbs to work with.
today was the first day in a long time that it was cool enough to work outside from the morning into the afternoon. mid-70s and a bit of a breeze. couldn't ask for a nicer day to putter around in the gardens.
songbird
songbird