Received this link and had to share it.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?
It like 'Having your Cake and eating it to' ^^_^^
Onions without seeds or sets
Rentman - the link just took me to the Facebook log-in page - ?
It's about all you can expect from a game site.
Sorry...Sorry Not finnished my first cup of coffee
try this...
http://www.sustainlane.com/reviews/how-to-grow-onions-from-discarded-onion-bottoms/BLKONWB8S8HI7FSDI2U328QNVSJ4
okay, that works better...
I've read before that you can do that with leeks, never really thought about onions working too. Seems like you could harvest a bunch of green onions from your initial spring planting, then replant the root ends and get your crop of bulbs (and then I guess you could use those to plant a bunch more and have another harvest of green onions). I think that might work even in my planting zone -- it sounds like it would be worth a try!
Sandy
I desperately want to grow FULL SIZE BULBS. Would I get bulbs at any point with this process? If I let them keep growing would they make a big bulb?
Linda
Hi Linda -- can't say for sure since I haven't tried it before, but it seems to me they would if planted at the right time (which I'm pretty sure is a lot different for you than for me!), and, I guess, if they were the right kind of onion -- southern type for you, northern type for me.
Sandy
Thanks, Sandy!
I actually have onion seeds I've never managed to plant. They were ordered this year, so I know they're still ok. I have Granex and Candy, both recommended for the short-day South. I think my planting time for seeds is somewhere around Oct., but I'll double-check this.
Linda
Up north, we use long day varieties. I'm starting from seed this year instead of the bulb sets. If you start them indoors now (February) and transplant them, you'll get a nice, mature onion. I'm looking forward to it.
Dee
Dee, you're absolutely right, this is the time for us northerners to start the onions. I've grown them from seed for the last 2 or 3 years and have been very happy with the results. I admit I still hedge my bet with some onion sets as well, but love being able to pick and choose the varieties that you can get seed for. Candy is a neutral day-length onion and has done well for me and should do well for Linda, too. Last summer I would have had a really great onion crop if my stupid cats hadn't dug half of them up (and rolled on half of the other half) -- this year everything is getting covered with Reemay until it's big enough to fend for itself!
:-)
Sandy
Sandy, how long did you let the Candies grow afte germination before you planted them out? I'm getting as 5-month total growing timeframe for onions from seed to maturity. Is this accurate? And what are your avg temps at harvest time?
Thx.
Linda
Linda - 5 months could be right for a particular variety. I plant seeds in October and most times they are not ready to harvest until April if that helps...
Hi Linda, Kelly, Dee... -- I haven't quite got my timing down yet for the onions, last year I started my seeds March 4th and planted the plants on June 6th (because it took them that long to be a reasonable size). We had a really cold summer last year so it worked out okay, but I should really be putting my onions out in May; I often plant sets in the middle of April. So, this year I started the seeds this past weekend, but probably should have done them even sooner! Unfortunately I can't find any note about when I actually pulled the onions up, but I'm pretty sure it was mid August; but, again, we had a really late year last year, we may have had 2 nights all summer when the nighttime temp was over 75! Anyway, the March to mid August would be 5 months, so sounds about right to me.
We got plants from Dixondale & planted them Mid April. We ended up with this.
Thanks for the great info. I'll start planning my onion seed now, indoors, and transplant in late May. Dee
CountryGardens--Wow! What a great crop of onions!
Wow, just what I was going to say! What variety are those, Countrygardens?
That was only part of them.
Big Daddy, Red Zepplin, Super Star, Red Candy Apple & Walla-Walla were our varieties.
Super Star were used for early onions. Started pulling them when they were about ½" in diameter. People love them that way. Re Candy Apple wee super god red onions. Largest onion was a Big Daddy that went 2¼ lbs.
This is our onion field. It was hand weeded shortly after this picture was taken. This was July 29.
You come from a family of overachievers??!!! ^^_^^
We have a market garden, so lots of hired help.
I'm strictly confined 2 container and bucket growing, xcept for my 2 very small raised beds. Can I grow onions in a container?
I don't see why not my friend! I think they would probably do quite well in a container - just make sure you space them properly so you get good size onions...
I had good luck with containers last year and trying again this year. I haven't figured out how best to feed them. Everything I read says they need a lot when they start bulbing. They have to grow shallow so I can't just keep adding soil, can't dig it in because there's no room to work. I think I'll use something like Miracle Grow and just pour it on every couple weeks. Last year they were planted way too deep and got only half sized. I kept mixing fertilizer in some soil and adding to the top. This time I want some real big ones.
Ya'll, go lookie what's going on with my bell peppers!
We were discussing the merits of whether or not to pot bell pepper seedlings deeply, like tomatoes. Farmerdill pointed out that bells don't grow add'l roots along the stem like tomatoes do, but that he usually pots deeply (at least to the cotyledons) and, while it doesnt necessarily help, it doesn't hurt either.
Well, go look see what I did!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1076908/
Speaking of onions was it you Sequee that had a picture of huge onions you had grown a couple of years back.They were huge.Deanna
Have you sent those pics in to Dixondale? They're always wanting pics of success stories.
Twiggybuds, what size container do you use? I've got a couple 18 gallon Rubbermaid tubs available, but since we can go more shallow on the onion depth, I'm thinking more along the lines of those underbed containers or something with about 6-8" depth.
What say you!
Linda
I think 8" would work fine. I grew them last year in 7 gallon squat pots which are about 14" diameter and 11 1/2" deep. This year I've got them in 3 gallon nursery pots because I want to save my bigger ones for tomatoes. I tried to space them about 4" apart.
Kewl!
How to Grow Onions from Discarded Onion Bottoms
http://www.sustainlane.com/reviews/how-to-grow-onions-from-discarded-onion-bottoms/BLKONWB8S8HI7FSDI2U328QNVSJ4
I read the info on this link. Now for a couple of questions: Would the offspring be considered "clones?" Would hybrids come true to the parent?
I just throw them in the compost pile and they grow, not intentionally on my part. LOL
Linda your peppers look great, I did the same thing with mine, not growing as many as you but still, and placed them deep because they were getting a little leggy for my taste and they are doing great.
This is a good forum, I am very interested in this onion growing method, it would definetely save a lot of money. I am sure you could use this with green onions, in fact I have seen in you tube how you can just cut the green part of the green onions and leave the bulb in the ground and it will produce another green shoot at least once more.
I also was told by my mother in law that the way they grew potatoes when she was little (she grew up on a dairy farm) was just to place the peel of the potatoeswith the eyes attached to them in the ground and just eat the inside of the potatoe, so my point is, if you can do it with potaotes it might also work with onions, no?
I haven't looked at the links but here's my take on it. Onions are bulbs just like true lillies. I have multiplied lillies by the method known as "scaling" and this onion thing is a variation on the same thing.
The bulb stores energy so you need a piece of bulb attached to a piece of the basal plate which is that solid part at the bottom where the roots meet the scales (rings). Just a tiny piece of basal plate will do.
So theoretically, you should be able to cut off the bottom of an onion and divide the basal plate like cutting a pizza with a sharp knife. I think I'd barely cover them. The trick is to avoid rot long enough for them to sprout. In the case of lillies, I'd put them in a ziplock with damp peat and keep them in the refrigerator for weeks until I saw roots. Then I'd pot them up with their noses right at the surface and they'd put out green shoots.
I think this might be a good experiment for us in warm climates to do over the summer so we'd have plants in September or October. The babies would be clones. The hybrids I got from Dixondale are not long keepers so maybe this would get a lot more mileage out of them. I think seeds are easier and more reliable but these would be free and add to your skills.
I agree, I would not mind trying this method and seeing if it worked, just for the fun of it, the worst case scenario is if the onion pieces don't root we can always go and purchase some from dixondale or even Lowes as I did.
Just so happens that after Rentman posted that link I FOUND the bottom part of an onion in my fridge in a baggie, thanks 2 de DH! The Exact same piece like he video! Well I didn't want it ending up in his scrambled eggs, so I rescued I to a tidy hideaway. Don't you know herb onions sprouted smack dab in the middle?! Well I planted it out today in a container made for one! I'll keep ya'll posted. It's outside now.