growing onion bulbs

I need help on preventing onion sets from bolting and getting large and round. Mine have a tendancy to stay the size when I planted them.

I'm confused - why would you not want your onions to get large and round?

What kind of onions are you growing? I'm in zone 7b and day-length-neutral varieties (also called Intermediate Day) are the ones recommended for growing here. I grow "Candy Red", "Candy White" and this year am trying "Super Star"

When are you planting them? That's the key down here. I plant mine on Valentine's Day in order to keep them from bolting and to make sure they reach maturity.

Hmmm. Good point stephanietx. I plant them late February to mid March. Seeds around early to mid February. I want them bigger for slicing. Otherwise, I could just eat the bulbs as they are when I buy them. I don't want punies. If I cut the flowers off as soon as I see them start to grow, would that help? If I kept them in the ground all year would they grow more? Mine always bolt around June.
Honeybee- I can see why you would be confused. I meant I want them to get like that. Ha ha ha ha. Sorry about that. If I planted in the fall, would that help? The onion sets I buy, never grow.

If you're growing from seed, I think that it's a 2 year process. I usually get sets and plant them, though. Maybe Farmerdill will be along to help.

weedsfree - you might want to try some bulb fertilizer if you use chemical fertilizers. If you use organic fertilizers, try bone meal.

Personally, I use seabird guano added to my regular organic fertilizer.

I did seeds in January ( I think) since it was a warm winter. I planted sets in February and March and planted them in straight half finished compost. Would I still need to add fertilizers?

weedsfree - I've read conflicting reports regarding whether or not compost is a complete fertilizer, so you will need to come to your own conclusion on this point.

Personally, I like to add organic fertilizer to the planting hole whenever I put a new plant in the garden so I know it will get off to a good start. I then add fertilizer during the growing season as needed.

Young plants are very susceptible to being eaten by "bad bugs." Once they are larger, they are able to withstand bug attacks better, which is why I like them to get growing quickly in the beginning.

You might want to side-dress your onions, and scratch the fertilizer into the soil, letting the rain, or your hose wash the nutrients into the ground.

In the Dixondale Farms (onion grower/seller) planting guide, they suggest you put organic fertilizer out at planting time and then at least once or twice more during the growing season. They say to put the fertilizer between the rows of onions.

Hmmm. If I put it between the rows, how will the plants get the ferilizer, I wonder. Ok. Thanks.
I have always seen amazing things happen with plants when grown with or in compost, so I always thought it was good to start them in and add fertilizer later. I will try adding some in a bit since we are supposed to get rain and snow this week.

I plant my onion sets in the spring & fall. Then I let them over-winter. They start off growing in the spring again. They like cool weather, & the cold weather just lets them hibernate until spring.

Well, everything grows well in my compost pile! LOL LOL

http://www.dixondalefarms.com/downloads/OnionPlantingGuide.pdf

My onion sets also came from Dixondale and I did read their instructions to place the fertilizer in the row next to them. However, I've always mixed the fertilizer with the soil I intend to put the onions in - so that's what I did.

I'm not saying Dixondale is wrong - it's always best to follow the advice of experts (which I'm not :)

I have left some in the ground to overwinter. I am also leaving walking onions in the ground through the winter. I want those to multiply. As for the purple onion sets that I had in the ground since April, I do not know how they will do. I have a hard time with bulb onions bolting. A person down the road grows onions all year and the flower stalks get fatter and fatter, and I wonder if the onions are actually getting bigger too. If this doesn't work, I think I will just be sticking with chives and the walking onions. That would be sad.

Keep us posted as to how your over wintered onions do. I've seen a couple growing in my garden that I must have missed. It will be interesting to see if they survive the winter.

I have found that I cannot overwinter onions like I do with garlic. The temperature fluctuation tricks the sets into thinking that they've had more than one grow season, and sends them to bolt. From that perspective, I have considered planting sets later this year, after the temps have become more predictable, but before it gets too hot.

basilandbella -

You guys need to learn the difference between sets and plants. Sets are always long day storage onions and are usually used for spring onions as they definitely tend to bolt. Rarely will bulb in any area where temps in June climb toward triple digits. They need the summer solstice daylight length to begin bulbing and they can't stand the heat. South of I20 in Georgia we grow short day onions in the winter. Plant in October for harvest in April. An onion "bulb" is actually a cluster of modified leaves. They require a lot of nitrogen so you might want to add a nitrogen source to your compost. Dixondale is a good source of plants and their planting instructions are good. Mixing additives into soil is good, they say put between the rows, because some folks will put in the row and then transplant directly into the fertilizer. If it is very strong that will stunt or destroy the plants. Between the rows is safe and encourages the plant to grow a larger root system.

Tattnal County in late April

I mean, I have a problem with my onions bolting. I saw my error after I reread what I wrote.
Well, farmerdill, I guess I have both. I always thought the starter onions you buy are sets.
This is my first time leaving them in the ground, so I will try to remember to let you know how it works out, come spring.

Thanks Farmerdill - I learned more about growing onions in the seven lines you wrote than I've ever known before. Your knowledge is invaluable, thanks for taking the time to share with us.

Weeds,

I'm late to this discussion, but I thought I'd chime in anyway...I'm not anywhere near as experienced as Farmerdill, but I've finally been able to get decent onions for the past couple of years.

The key is figuring out what your day-length really is, then getting the correct onion type. The long-day onions (needing more sunlight) can be dry bulbs (sets) or small plants for transplanting. Intermediate day-length and short day-length onions are usually sold only as plants. You can check your day-length then get the right type. I buy plants from Dixondale Farms. They show Utah as being either Intermediate or Long day.

I think, though, that the bolting is mostly a problem with weather. Onions are bi-annual, bulbing one year then seeding the next. If your onions start growing, have a cold spell, warm spell, and another cold spell they may be confused into thinking that two winters have passed--I don't think there is anything you can do about that except plant the right type at the time recommened for your area.

David

Ok. I KNOW I'm gonna need help! My shipment of short-day sampler 1015/Con/Hybrid SO BELL onion PLANTS arrived yesterday. I desperately WANT big bulb onions!

HoneybeeNC sent me some onion plants?sets? last season, and they were growing nicely into some golfball size onions, until the heat hit em. Then they stalled and got eaten (by me...). This will be my first time growing plants, really. And, since all my patented Earthboxes are EMPTY, I'll use them to grow these onions in.

P.S. I have MG potting mix and homemade compost in the EBs. I have bone meal available...and potassium, too...

HELP ME, PLEASE...

Linda ^^_^^

Linda,

Put them in the dirt and they should grow. Having the right type made all the difference for me.

Where did you order from Linda?

Steph, I got em from Dixondale Farms. I ordered back in October or September.

I'm going to order soon! I also need to order taters so they can get growing.

I'm learning to order early, cause these suppliers seem to run out just when you get around to ordering.

Our plantout date for spuds is January 15th, so I need to be ordering again soon. I lost my entire last shipment of seed potatoes, due to being in the middle of moving.

THAT won't be happening again!

Gymgirl - It wasn't me that sent you onion sets last season.

I'm assuming this is the correct time of year for onions to be set in your zone. December 21st is the longest night (Winter Solstice) so the days will be getting longer/brighter which should encourage your onions to grow well.

You'll know when they are ready when the tops dry out. I pull mine around June 21st (Summer Solstice) which is the longest day. I like to put mine in around March 21st (Spring Equinox).

This spring Dixondale sent mine on February 21st and many of them died in the cold!

I desperately want some nice, large onions too. So I will check out Dixondale as a lot of you are talking about them. I know I am towards the side of long day growing, so I will do more research. At least the walking onions are doing very well so far.

I have ordered "Candy" onions from Dixondale, but this time I've asked them to be mailed on March 7th. Hopefully most of the cold weather will have gone by then.

This is a fascinating pictorial of one man's attempt to grow large onions...check out the potatoes growing in a RB to the right of his onion Bed...fascinating pictorial of their progress, too...

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.allotment-diary.co.uk/DSC00787.JPG-for-web-large.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.allotment-diary.co.uk/page3.html&usg=__jtOMtNL7X27vAEKCqqMzanS4Tm0=&h=480&w=640&sz=73&hl=en&start=15&sig2=Kv9UEvleoyyEgcJCisPExA&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=nLu2HnMYZH48wM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Donion%2Bplants%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=E9gkTaqkGYG0lQeMlPjHCw

Steph,

Short day onions are transplanted in December- January for good results. Dixondale ships them at the proper time for your area.

Gymgirl - I didn't realize the onion grower was British until he wrote the words "rubbish" and "fortnight" - (I'm British)

I don't know why onions need supports.

Dixondale suggests setting them out 3 weeks before your average last freeze date.

Which would put us right around Valentine's Day! Thanks, Steph!

Gymgirl,

I'd plant ASAP in Houston! Last year I planted around Valentines and my onions didn't have time to fully bulb before summer heat. I put my sets into the ground at the end of December this year, so I'm hoping for a better result.

David R

Concur, the size of an onion is directly related to the size of the tops when the triggering mechanism kicks in. For short day onions thats 10-12 hours of daylight, early March -equinox. They also don't respond well to sitting around. You really should have planted them as soon as possible after they arrived. Now is the time.

Ok. Saturday.

ONIONS ARE IN THE GROUND!

Thanks, Farmerdill, et al, for your tutilage on growing these onion plants. This is my 2nd attempt. First time, I dorked around and ended up giving all the plants to someone else who planted them, and got lovely onions. Not this time!!!!

Four Earthboxes with 30/plants per. Pulled a trench down the center of each box, and sprinkled bone meal down the trench. I mixed some additional soil and bone meal together in a big tub, then backfilled the trench with the soil-potassium mixture.

Set 15 plants in two rows, 16" apart. Used the tip of a caulking tube as the hole divot. Quick, easy, and exactly the right depth to set the plants! Necessity = Invention!

Planted boxes on fenceline in the nice sunshine, and watered in very lightly. Went to potluck social. Came home and dragged heavy EBs from the fenceline to the covered patio (in the dark) to avoid approaching thunderstorm from ruining my hard work. Saved my back by using my legs...duh...

But, it's is done! Yippie! ^^_^^

P.S. How much protection do I need to give the planted onions? We're about to have 3 nights in a row of temps into the high 20s. Yesterday I put the boxes against a patio wall and made a TP over them with a large piece of heavy cardboard as a wind break. Is this enough, or do I need to throw a blanket over them? Thanks!

This message was edited Jan 11, 2011 10:48 AM