Juli I use Superphosphate when I plant and ammonium sulphate every two weeks after they start growing remember onions are pigs they like to eat and drink regulary But one year I over did it and the result was bad.
This year I am trying some of dixondales stuff but only on half. Dixondales is a little on the pricy side because of the postage but contains good things maybe it is worth 3 to 4 times the cost of what I do now we will see.
I have given my onion starts their second hair cut when they get to 8 they get cut back to four inches. Ernie
onions
Ernie, you trim the onions back? (My first year of growing them.)
Can anyone explain the "cutting back of onions"? Thanks!
Flip
Flip I can't speak for all sections of the country or for onions direct seeded but starting them the way I do in late Dec early Jan in my gh, cutting them back gives me stockier starts with better roots. Prolly going to do it again tomorrow. Ok back to bed I go. Ernie
THRONEOFYORD, You must be the onion expert; would you say (allium cepa) 'White Lisbon Bunching' Onion is the same as 'White Lisbon' Onion? I see both names on seeds packages.
Throne--do you start onions in the fall like garlic? I've grown garlic for years (quite successfully) but think next fall I want to plant onions too.
Do you start from seed? What's your method and timetable for planting?
Debbie
Tammy, about the White Lisbon, yes...White Lisbon and White Lisbon "Bunching" are the same. In addition to being a bunching onion they're also known as "spring onion" and "pickling onion".
dmj, I plant onions both in the Fall and also late Winter/Early Spring here (NC). Not sure what folks in Texas do so will wait for someone down your way to make a suggestion.
Shoe the plants we buy from Dixondale are planted in the fall . Fall planted onions here are prone to being attacked by mildew in late spring early summer unlike those planted on the otherside of the mountians thats why I quit over wintering onions. One benifit I get from starting seed ove the bought plants is they never stop growing like the plants. Ernie
It would be fairly risky to call me an onion expert. I am trying to become one, but six years ago the only alliums I had ever grown were chives and society garlic. Still I am happy to share the misinformation that I have carefully gleaned so far.
I would personally suspect that the white lisbon and the white lisbon bunching are the same or desended from the same. Since it is a heirloom and not a hybrid, there is a good chance of a small difference. It is also possible that the seed source is the same and only the packaging is different. Sadly the term bunching does not always mean the same thing. In the agricultural field it means you can grow them close together and sell them as a scallion or green onion. In horticulture bunching means that new onion leaves will produce new onion bulbs. Most seed companies do not know the difference. The term scallion has also been used for alliums that split off of other alliums, but is commonly used to describe any old green onion. I am raising 5 different evergreen onions and two different hi shi ko onions. All of them are supposed to be the same onion, but if you put them side by side, you can tell them apart. Some of my other varieties look a lot like each other. I pulled some Deep Purple and some Crimson Forest today, and I think I can tell them apart, when they are side by side, but I would not choose to argue the point. If you grow one of them and you observe leaves making new bulbs, please let me know the variety, seed source, and the rate of division.
Good luck with your onions,
Bob
Debbie, I try to plant 2 days after the new moon nearest Oct 15. But since onion seeds don't keep well, I tend to plant them when I get them. I planted Shimonita, North Holland Blood Red, White Lisbon, Mouse Garlic, Fistulosum Red, Nodding Onion and Bear Garlic this spring. I plant the conventional onions from Dixondale starts, when they arrive at the Producers Coop. Since you are going to be at the Roundup, I'll give you starts of my three favorite bunching onions. After they establish themselves, you won't ever need to buy a green onion again.
Bob
Howdy Ernie...Yep, forgot Dixondale was in Texas. (I should remember though, after all the onions they've sent me over the years!) I bet they start theirs from seed though, and not set out plants, don't you think?
Bob, good info. Thanks. (I was elated to find out that White Lisbon actually dates back to our Civil War days...now THAT is an heirloom, eh?)
As for the term "bunching"...yep, it normally refers to "green onions/table onions" (and in the Market world, "onions sold in a bunch) (with a free rubber band around them!). As for the horticultural definition you mentioned, that is new to me. When you say that "onion leaves will produce new onion bulbs" are you referring to the "potato onion" (multiple bulbs underground) or a "walking onion/topset onion" (multiple bulbs produced at the tops of the leaves)?
Many thanks!
Shoe
Bob--
Thanks for the info and I'd be honored to give those onions a good home! Is there anything I can bring up to the RU for you?
Debbie
To Shoe,
The Ideal bulbing onion makes 13 leaves. Each of these leaves makes a ring. This is where the splitting or deviding or bunching or shallots or rakkyo, or japanese onion or true scallions may be different. Instead of growing a new ring inside of the previous ring, they grow a new 'ring', but it ends up being beside the previous 'ring.' The result is an onion that may not ever form a bulb, or if it does, it is more like a garlic clove than a ringed onion. I have an unnamed onion that will grow an inch in diameter, flower every year, and will go from one onion to twenty in a year, every year, even a bad year. It does not notice that the temperature is 20 or 110. In a 6" pot that was knocked over on it's side and unwatered for 6 months in the peak of Texas summer, it lived. It is delicious as a green onion in a salad. The bulb if and when it chooses to go dormant, is a cross between mild onion, mild garlic and something else, almost a rose flavor. I suspect it is a shallot crossed with a japanese onion. I have another japanese onion that only gets about as big around as a pencil, but it will go from 1 onion to 12 onions in three months. I have a shallot that doubles every 90 days or so. Every other year when it multiplies it makes 15 to 20 more from each original bulb. It is one mass producing shallot!
-Bob
Wowzers~! Those sound like some great onions! I'm impressed!
I'm familiar w/the "13 leaves/perfect bulb onion" (thanks to the literature at Dixondale!). The way your onions are multiplying...is that the same what that "chives" multiply? Perhaps what you have is a glorified form of some type of chive? Or perhaps something that crossed with chives? (Allium schoenoprasum)
No, if you dig up some chives, you will find they have a bit different sort of root than the classic cepa onion. These look just like the spring onions you would buy in a store. In fact some of the spring onions you have bought may well have been bunching onions in both meanings of the word. Many of the classic onions will produce side shoots on occasion, usually after they have gone to flower. These varieties just do it more regularly. Some walking onions will do it all. Multiply from a bulb, create side shoots, make seed, and produce bulblets. The Japanese onions, Allium fistulosum, typically is a bunching onion. In the book Onions and Their Allies it mentions that dividing onions regularly show up when hybridizing onions. In modern agriculture dividing onions are not generally favored. Vegetative reproduction can pass diseases and pests on from year to year. A lot of diseases can be avoided by using seeds instead of live plants to propagate with and if you are propagating fields of onions, it is often much more cost effective to plant seed. Automation is much easier with seeds. Reproduction from seed is much faster than vegetative reproduction. For the home grower however, a plant you can put in a nice rich well draining bed and then keep pulling onions from most of the year is a dream come true.
Thanks. Maybe I'll look for a good "bunching" onion that will grow to a good size and keep onion stock growing through the summer here. Gotta have my onions! (Will have to check out the book you mentioned also. Thanks!)
Wow, just have to jump in here, look at that red dirt and who is that very pretty girl holding all those good looking onions
Howdy Maria...
That pic is of my two most favorite "harvests"! Onions (& garlic) and my DD (age 8 at the time)!
And yes, "red dirt" is what we have to work with here! But I love it! (Had to learn to love it though! But now I'm hooked on it!)
Shoe.
Horseshoe, The book Onions and Their Allies was published in 1963. It is by all reports the original best work in the field. Dr. Pike (Developer of the 1015y) was kind enough to lend me a copy. It helped me to see past a lot of false or somewhat slanted data. It is not currently available. However I made a jpeg copy of the book. I just checked at http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/books/cce/ to see if they had renewed the copyright, and they had not. That means it is fair game. Dave Mail me an address and I will send you a copy on cd along with some bunching onions.
Bob
Wow! You're a saint, Bob. Many thanks! Will D-mail you right away!
By the way, great site you linked to; I wasn't aware that copyright info existed.
Another by the way...with my Salmon cakes tonite I enjoyed some fresh-picked green onions cooked in a bit of olive oil ('til tender), hit with a dash of Sesame oil (smells the place up really nice!!) and seasoned w/a tad of salt/pepper, then simmered in a veggie broth for a few minutes (ten?). A wonderful way to enjoy green onions (scallions? bunching onions? :>) Yummy!
Shoe
I am drooling and panting Shoe, yum
Hah! Welp, I reckon you better get some onions growing, Maria!
you think so? We used to when we had a garden, I would braid them just as I remember my grandmother doing it Austria while visiting her in summer, but having been born and brought up In Vienne, my husband was totally amazed that I could do that..:-)