Onion stem rot

Is the rot I've pictured due to a very wet spring in Illinois, or from pulling the onions before their stems had completely dried? I did pull while stems were still green because of a forecasted gully-washer. Might have guessed rain would stop soon after for the summer. I thought drying on a suspended wire fence under my covered grape arbor, especially is this summer without rain, would allow green stems to dry properly. Over half my Big Daddy storage onion crop was similarly affected. Don't want that to happen next year.

I think we just had this discussion recently, picture looks the same....brb, I'll go look for the thread for you......

hummm, actually may be a bit different but here it is in case the discussion is of use.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1190956/

It looks like your onions sent up a seed stalk. If they do, the bad center is inevitable. Once they bolt you have to use them as soon as possible.

FarmerDill is correct. This condition is further aggravated by breaking the top off the seed stalk because that lets water down the keaf to sit and start the rot .

Beautiful onions, Eweed.

May thank you yes they are getting there. Do you see center front the one going to seed.? theres another left front just back a bit. They are headed for the kitchen soon.

I have limited experience growing onions. Those beautiful rows gave me a bad case of onion envy.

Hey, Eweed,
How close are those onions growing? Did you plan to grow them that way because you don't want to give them more space to grow larger? Or, is that the size they're supposed to be?

Linda

P.S. I was advised that the long an onion grows over the winter, the larger it will grow by harvest time. Please comment on this. Thanks!

I knew once an old fellow who simply planted his onions in the bunch thry came in, after removing the string, and stuck the next bunch in next to them, they grew fine, His garden was the envy and food of all his neighbors, but he is no longer planting the soil, onions can be grateful plants to grow.

Gymgirl those onions are planted 8 inches apart and they average 2 to 3 pounds with some in the high fours . How much bigger do you want them to be.What I do know is they were good enough to get blue fair ribbons for white,yellow,and red so some one besides me liked them lol.

To try to answer your question about the fall planting yes since the growing cycle of an onion is 270 days those [lanted in the fall should be bigger than s[ring planted. In all areas you can't get away with fall planting.Here in the pnw fall planted onions on the west side of the mountians mostly fail because they fall victum to the purple mildew.I would guess Texas would be perfect for fall plants,