onions

I still have onions in the ground. I'm wondering if they can stay there the winter through? I'm also wondering why they didn't get plump and round. Any ideas?
-Juli

Are they the plump round type? Are they the right type for your zone? I am not sure but guess yours need to be the short day type. Onions are heavy feeders and drinkers did they have adaquate amounts of both when they were forming? onions need lots of feed and lots of water when they begin bulbing sounds like yours did not get to the bulb stage . They will probably be ok in the ground and should grow in the spring if the problem was not day length type. Are these the ones you trans planted last year ? Ernie

Alisa Craig averaged more than two pounds.

Yep. These are the same ones. They are "Sweet Spanish Yellow Utah Jumbo" from Ferry Morse. It did not say anything about day legnth on the seed package. I guess I'm gonna have to do more research on this one. Thanks Ernie.
-Juli

These are long day onions, that do thier bulbing when the days are longer than 16 hours. (May June July). Short day onions are grown in the winter and bulb in March with 10- 12 hours of sunlight. If your summers are not hot, The Spanish onions will do well in the summer.

Ok so if they were long day onions I wonder why they didn't bulb up. We used that Alaska fish emulsion fertilizer and compost and I think my DH used a granular one by Schultz. We do get awfully hot days here in the summertime but I thought that we kept everything well watered maybe it wasn't enough though. Thanks Farmerdill.

I don't know your climate or when you planted. When I lived in western Virginia, I set Spanish plants in March and they bulbed nicely in June. Too hot here in Georgia, so we grow short day onions in the winter and harvest in April. From seed you have to start about two months earlier than setting plants.Note that if the cultivar says 110 days you want the correct daylight hours to began at 80 -90 days.

Thanks Farmerdill for the helpful info. I think that I'll look for a shortday onion for spring. We don't get those 80-90 until the end of July and then they are 105+ So I'm thinking if I start in spring with a shortday one maybe it will work better for me. It's all a learning process. Trial and error.
-Juli

I've been growing onion 'sets' for years. But they are getting harder to find at local outlets. I like the yellow 'storage' type. Last Spring I had to settle for a white that was a big disappointment.
This year I'm thinking about seed rather than sets. Any suggestions?
Andy P

Andy onions I grow every year and should do well for your zone are

Copra is a long day medimum size keeper rated best keeper up to a year.

Walla Walla grows big and is very sweet, but is not a keeper it must be used quick after harvested. We freeze them when they start to spoil or dehydrate them.

Alisa Craig is a huge sweet onion that keeps well but not near the way Copra does.

Red Burgermaster is a large red ,very sweet and great for salids or one slice for burgers from the centers, they keep fair I still have some.













.

Alisa Craig over 2 pounds

Red Burgermaster about a pound each

Andy I am planting the last of my onions in my gh today for planting out mid march . Yoy still have lots of time to get seed and I promise you wont plant sets again. Ernie

Eweed, Thanks. Are Copra available from seed? Those sound good. I don't want giant ones.
Whatever I grew from sets in 2004 kept until the next June. I didn't have to buy any for over a year.
Andy P

Andy yes Copra are available from seed they are common here in most of the seed racks in the stores they are also available from Jungs seeds and HPS and several others.

Juli I dont know how many onions you would like to grow but Dixondale Onion Farm sells in Texas sells awsome onion plants for starters and have many short day types. On the surface they look expensive but if you buy 10 bunches of 60 they are 3.22 for a bunch of 60 and usually you get a lot more than 60. Maybe you have a friend to share with any way the postage is included so the price is about the same as buying around here in the stores. These are no miss transplants from a 400 acre onion farm that Horseshoe and Misty Medows told me about a couple of years ago.

Candy is a short day type that Shoe thinks Kathy [ MM } grows a lot of for her market sales you could ask her if that is right and if she thinks that would be a good one to try. Jungs Seeds has those seeds.

Stockton Sweet Red is grown commercially around the Stockton area are you close to there ? Seed for those should be available in garden stores if so. Ernie

Juli cant resist adding Red Wing a long storage red onion to my list for this spring.

Any of you know how to braid I kinda figured it out but chickened out and tied with twine to.

Thanks Ernie! I'm gonna look for those short day ones to try. Do you always start from starts instead of seed?
-Juli

yes to much trouble to keep the tiny seedlings weeded. I plant some seed and grow plants to set out and buy some from dixondale.

The other reason I put out plants is to extend the growing season and get the onions into the bulb building stage at the longest daylight hours starting in late may and june, July.

The onion farmers on the other side of the mountians plant seed in sept and winter over. The first time I tried that it was with great results the next two times I lost my onions in june to downey mill dew which I find out happens on this side of the mountians a lot so I quit that but maybe you would be successful with that . I am very close to the salt water here so lots of milldew forming conditions cause by this maritime climate raining at night grrrr, Ernie

This site has instructions for braiding:
http://www.dixondalefarms.com/onion_braid.htm

EWeed, I found Jung Seed and they have the onion and a few other things I need. I ordered a catalog to peruse at my leisure. I find that easier than the net.
My last frost date here is 3rd week of May, when should I plant the onion seed?
Andy P

Andy hard for me to say because I dont know about your weather . If you have a gh or good cold frame I would say today if you can keep them from freezing. Most of mine are four inches high now and I will shear their tops off soon to help them grow thicker.

When can you plant in the ground? onions can take some frost and even light freezing of a short duration. Mine will be about 10 weeks when I plant them mid march to late march.

So I guess normaly 10 12 weeks before planting. Copras are 110 days to maturity from trans plantso from seed about 170 days, Good luck Ernie

Andy,
I set mine out about the 10th of April with a a last frost date of about May 5th or so.

Thank You

I bought some vidalia onion seeds, first of all, i didnt know you could grow onions from seed, these are in a regular seed packet from burpees, i was happy to find them though, and will try them. I miss a good sweet onion.
We live in a warm/hot climate in the summer, we are now having cold weather, my question is, should I start them indoors when I get back home? (I am home in the US for another week)? also, any hints or suggestions would be appreciated.

I have another aquestion: we dont have celery in turkey, not the kind we eat here, there they only eat the root. I was looking for celery seeds, but I couldnt find any, does this mean they dont grow from seed?

thanks for your help
pebble

Pebble onions will do nicely from seed if you weed well feed well water well and pick the right oion for your lattitude. I cant tell if you should plant when you get home because you say you have cold weather now but dont say for how much longer. The Johhnys seed catalog has several onion varietys that list the lattitude they do best in.

Onions are shallow rooted so you need to keep after the weeding and not let the weeds get big because pulling them when they have established roots disturbs your onions.

Fertilizing onions should be when planting and every two weeks they are hungry eaters if you want big nice onions. I make a trench about 3 inches to the side of the row and let the fertilizer leech to the roots so they wont be burned.

Onions do better if watered on the ground not from the air.If you must water from the overhead sprinkler try to do so in the morning so they can dry before night.

Yes cellery is grown from seed and most seed companies have it. I wonder if the root eating you speak of is celerac ?

Hope this helps you Ernie

I read the last thread first, and got all exited, PEBBLE ONIONS? I had never heard of pebble onions, neat, I want to grow pebble onions! Then I read the thread before and saw my mistake. I get pretty exited about new onions, I even grow onions that won't bulb in my area. Ailsa Craig won't bulb for me, but then again it will still make a huge green onion, so I grow it anyway!
Right now I am growing:
Onion Deviding Ultra tough Cepa
Onion 1015 yellow
Onion Ailsa Craig
Onion Bermuda Belle white
Onion Big Red
Onion Big yellow
Onion Copra
Onion Crimson Forest
Onion Deep Purple
Onion Dividing Local Heirloom
Onion Dividing Tough Productive Probably White Lisbon
Onion Egyptian Walking
Onion Evergreen
Onion Evergreen Hardy
Onion Flat Red
Onion Four Seasons
Onion Granex yellow Sweet
Onion He Shi Ko
Onion I'itois
Onion Ishikura
Onion Japanese Unknown
Onion Kuronobori
Onion Mass Producing Japanese
Onion Natsuguro
Onion Potato
Onion Yellow Potato
Onion Red Beard
Onion S1 Productive Redskin Shallot
Onion Southern Belle Red
Onion Southport White
Onion Summer TS
Onion Superstar
Onion Sweet Spanish Contessa
Onion Tokyo Long White
Onion White Nebuka
Onion White Spear
Shallot Ambition
Shallot Armador
Shallot Bonilla
Shallot Matador
Shallot Mirage
Shallot Old German
Shallot Pinkish
Shallot Prisma
Shallot Red
Shallot Ultra productive
Shallot White
Shallot yellow Skin
Leek
Leek, Lancelot
Chives
Chives Garlic
Garlic
Garlic Elephant
I listed this to demonstrate how much I like getting new onions!
When I thought pebble onion, I imagined a small hard brown flattish bulb on a dividing onion that pickled well and stored well. Now I really, really want a pebble onion!
-Bob (confused and searching for lost things that never existed.)

egads, didnt know how many varieties of onions there were.....
I did get some chive seeds too........

lol Pebble he left out a bunch

Hey Bob, No pebble onions but how about button onions, Look under Cippolini

Pebble, currently There are 398 onion cultivars in Plantfiles.

This message was edited Jan 28, 2006 5:11 PM

Farmer I am going to grow those this year I ordered two bunches from Dixondale they just looked like they would look neat braided. I think I may grow them in a cow lick tub so I can avoid having to weed them. Ernie

Sadly the cippolini is a long day onion. Makes no sense that an Italian onion would only bulb up north, but then onions be strange. Then again, I am growing Ailsa Craig. I was describing it as the record size onion to my lovely wife and she insisted I grow it. I told her that it would never bulb, It would just make an enourmous green onion. She decided I would grow it anyway so that she could stuff it and cook it. So I am happily growing it anyway. I think I have a red cippolini anyway. I don't know it's name but it is a small flat red sweet onion.
-Bob

Bob thats Alisa Craig up above I forgot to say when I posted the pic it is not the largest but look you can read the scale 2.4 pounds

These are Red Burgermaster

I found celery seeds today. so i am excited about planting them......
I also got snow peas.

I figured it was Ernie, how tall did it get? I am looking forward to some really tall onions. If I get flowers at the same time I will try crossing it with some dividing onions! Some huge dividing onions would be fun!
-Bob

Bob prolly 2 and a half feet Maybe you can see from this and guess maybe not

Bob here they are still growing think this was early July.

nope still june I see the peas in the lower right hand corner there are some bunching onions that are a couple years old . Ernie

This message was edited Jan 29, 2006 11:44 PM

Well, for what it's worth, I grew a very small planting of cippolini onions a few years ago and they didn't do much of anything for me. Probably mostly my fault as the summer of '04 I wasn't here much and I lost them under the crabgrass.

I have a wild onion that is the only onion i know that will hold it's own against grass. It is native to my property and tastes a lot like a chive. A bit sharper and tougher to chew, but still chive like. In the right environment society garlic seems to thrive in grass, but the grass needs to be kept cut. Anybody know of any tough onions?

What do you guys fertilize the onions with?
-Juli

I use the fertilizer sold by Dixondale Farms
http://www.dixondalefarms.com/