maturing onions may be to deep...Zone 8b Austin, Tx

Will Maturing onions bulbs (getting fat stalks and flowering) force thier way up? Im afraid i planted them to deep this past fall. Thanks -Leo

Yes. The soil starts cracking around them as they mature and get ready for harvest. If you go to the Dixondale Farms website, they have a great growing guide you can download.

Gradually pull the dirt away from the bulb if you want them to get bigger. By the time you are ready to pull them up they should be sitting on top of the ground with just the bottom roots still in the soil.

I've raised onions for years and have mostly been satisfied with the results by digging a row and planting the bulbs or plants in it and covering them with dirt.

My daughter in law was shopping in an amish seed store recently where the owner told her that all of the people in this area--central Missouri-- plant their onions wrong.

According to him onions should sit on top of the soil with only the roots covered! I've never heard of this method but since I have plenty of onion plants I trying a small row.

Seems strange to me, anyone ever heard of growing onions this way?

I didn't intentionally grow mine this way, but I've noticed that as my onions have started bulbing, many are mostly sitting on top of the dirt. I've just left them alone mainly to see what they'd do.

Steph, I noticecd the same thing and at first was pulling soil up around the bulbs - lol. They kept working their way out of the soil so I just let them have at it.

I had one that got damaged due to high winds. I yanked it out and the bulb was about the size of a golfball. LOL I'll still use it though!

My dad was the onion raising king. He pulled dirt to his onions until they started to bulb and then gradually raked it away as the bulbs grew. At the end, they would be setting on top of the ground with just the clump of roots in the soil.

I start mine out in the soil, but they eventually end up sitting on top of the ground as they bulb.

I've not figured out how to sit an onion set ON the soil without it falling over LOL

Can't be done, HoneybeeNC.

The plants are hard to set on top of the soil but the bulbs work great which I'm experimenting with, each day I check them and upright any that have fallen over.

In the past the onions seem to want to grow on top of the soil despite my efforts to keep them covered.

They're in an enriched raised bed and I can give them all of the water they need. Will be interesting to see what they will do.

I checked the garden last evening, and the "Candy Red" onions are starting to bulb.

Mine fall over because they're reaching for the sun. :( I'm constantly trying to prop them up.

stephanietx - soon after setting my onions, I had a problem with the neighbor's cat walking on, and flatteniing them, so I cut down all the asparagus fronds and laid them on the onions - problem solved.

If you have some small dried brush/twigs, etc., maybe they would work to keep your onions upright.

Once my on sets were well established, I removed the fronds.