Next is Texas 1015 Y. I got these as sets. They were huge. Some where penny and nickel size wide, and it turns out that 22 of them have seed heads on them. This would usually irritate me, but they're not hybrids - they are OP. I will be saving lots of seeds, and will plant them in flats when their name says - October 15.

Look better than mine.

Worth.

Robert,

When you have a moment, it would be very interesting to have your taste test impressions comparing these varieties that you have grown. Thanks.

Raybo:)

Worth, your onions needed to grow gills. As you already know, I sure was hoping yours would grow huge.

Raybo, the Red Candy Apple is so good I purposely grow them outside of their Int. day zone. I'd like to know how they taste grown in their correct day zone.

I'll be trying out the different yellow ones over the next few days.

On to the last pics for today...

Wow, what a long day.

The first two pictures are of the onions I started from seed indoor back in October. I don't know which ones are 502s and which are hybrids - they look and smell the same. (My labels faded).

The last two pictures are what I'm curing them on and the end results.

I learned a lot about onions over the past 9 or so months.

Is it cheaper to grow from seed? Yes, a little. If you're ordering onion sets online, growing from seed is WAY cheaper. Growing from seed has you gardening year round. It was nice tending to them in November-January. For me, it meant I was starting pepper and tomato seeds about the time I was planting onions out.

Too much rain is too much rain no matter what.

I also learned that the area I called, "The onion bed" is not a good place for them. When the oaks start leafing out - it makes too much shade. They will be planted in the middle of the main garden where there are no trees.

Possibly use a high N fertilizer to get them started and then go with 10-20-10 or higher P later on. I need to research that a lot more. Using nothing produces onions, but trying for some bigger ones will be challenging.

Robert, those are beautiful onions! Congratulations on a bumper crop. Mine were pretty lousy this year. Way too much rain. Most of mine were golf ball to tennis ball size. There's always next year.

[QUOTE=rnewste;566623]Robert,

When you have a moment, it would be very interesting to have your taste test impressions comparing these varieties that you have grown. Thanks.

Raybo:)[/QUOTE]

Raybo, I thought I had replied to this. Sorry for keeping you waiting.

We like all of them the same. For some reason, our onions always grow to have a sweet taste to them. They're always juicy. I wish grocery store onions tasted like ours do.

However, if I had to pick one favorite - it would be the Texas 1015Y.

The next test is seeing which ones have the longest shelf life. If there is one variety that way outlasts the others - I'll be growing that one.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;576948]Raybo, I thought I had replied to this. Sorry for keeping you waiting.

We like all of them the same. For some reason, our onions always grow to have a sweet taste to them. They're always juicy. I wish grocery store onions tasted like ours do.

However, if I had to pick one favorite - it would be the Texas 1015Y.

The next test is seeing which ones have the longest shelf life. If there is one variety that way outlasts the others - I'll be growing that one.[/QUOTE]
Salt you know how I love all things onion.:lol:

I need to find or order some onion seeds pronto.
I am going to grow big onions if I have to do it in my bedroom.

Worth

Worth, I was beginning to think my 1015Y seed heads didn't produce seeds. I checked today, and yes, they have seeds in them. I should have a lot of seeds soon. I also checked our local Walmart and they still have some Granex Hybrid seed packs. I believe they are Ferry~Morse.

Robert that is really an awesome onion harvest!

I planted mine really late. I'm ashamed to say how late. :lol: Anyway one of them is called "Red Marble" so I expect I will do justice to that name. :roll: Lesson learned: don't start onion seeds unless you have a bed to plant em in. Spring is too busy for me.

Salt, that's a big table and a lot of onions! You will probably have onions for a long time but here is an idea for you and Worth to keep some on hand. I had far too many plants and sets so I planted some in a window box planter which is in partial shade . They are getting a good size although they are close together. in there. Since they liked the planter I bought some sets at end of season sale to stagger in the window boxes and they made scallions really fast. Again too many grew but the sets are cheaper than the grocery store scallion bundles. I hope to keep this going and take them inside under lights in winter.

- Lisa

I shouldn't have read backwards. You knew all that!

Robert,

From what I have read, if you are getting sweet tasting onions, you probably have low Sulphur soil as they do in Vidalia, Georgia.:yes:

Let us know how your 1015Y storage life test goes.

I have about 18 of the 1015Y in a seedling tray awaiting transplant into an EarthTainer for trial before I do the real September starts in about 7 weeks:

[URL="http://s253.photobucket.com/user/rnewste/media/IMG_4473.jpg.html"][IMG]http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh67/rnewste/IMG_4473.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

regards,

Raybo:)

Thank you all for replying. Here we are talking about onions in July.

Bower, I planted some late too. I explained it earlier in this thread post #47. I mostly just wanted to see what would happen. This is what is left of them after cooking many.

Not a thing wrong with em! :D
I would much rather have a few small onions I grew than none at all. :yes:

One thing I tried this year, I started my seeds in flats as a "mass planting", but I took a few of the seedlings and transplanted into 9 cells just to see if it made any difference. The ones in cells were treated pretty roughly, got stuck outside in the rain and some of them had most of the soil washed out of them - but still, they ended up way bigger than the others at transplant time and are looking the best out in the ground. You can see the difference at a glance.
So I'm wondering if this is something that onion growers do and find worthwhile, or is it just that they are doing better because I planted out so late. :?!?: My friend who farms doesn't bother with onions in cells, she just plants them from the flat - early! :oops:
Robert I see you have some in cells, I wondered if you do that with all your onions. You got a great crop!

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;566636]
I also learned that the area I called, "The onion bed" is not a good place for them. When the oaks start leafing out - it makes too much shade. They will be planted in the middle of the main garden where there are no trees.[/QUOTE]

Great looking harvest! If that was from a not so good place, I can't wait to see how they do next year!:yes:

October 2015 was my first time to plant in a tray. Before that, we always bought sets in January, and that meant growing whatever variety we could find. There are many things I like more about planting in trays.

You get a wider choice of what varieties you want to plant.

It's a little cheaper than buying sets. Onion seeds packs have a lot of seeds in them - or at least the ones I bought did.

You can also save seeds from those that go to seed. I think growing seeds from plants that produced in your own garden do better, but that's just my thoughts on that.

They are growing inside under lights a lot like tomatoes and peppers. The lights don't have to be so close to the plants, so there's a lot less moving the lights up.

You are still gardening while it's cold and snowing outside.

I grow them in our home, so there's no extra heating cost, and you get to watch them grow. You can even give them a haircut - sort of like pruning a bonsai tree. I really enjoyed growing them this way.

I also planted sets we bought. Both ways produced well and at the same time. So far, I haven't found any differences between growing hybrids verses OP - other than saving seeds.

About that not so good place because of the extra shade. I'm going to plant onions there and in a much sunnier area to compare. We like onions of all sizes. It nice being able to pick the size onion you need for whatever you're using it for. We like that better than cutting a huge onion and using part of it and then it sits in the refrigerator for days or weeks.

No way could I not eat a whole onion in one day.:lol:

If I dont I set them out to dry

Worth

I planted Black Eyed Peas today and will be planting some more tomorrow. They fixate nitrogen - [URL]https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=nitrogen+fixation[/URL] so I planted some in the onion bed. I plan on turning that crop in/under and planting mustard greens to overwinter until a few weeks before time to plant onions - again, turning the mustard greens into the soil. I want to add as much nitrogen the organic way as I can before planting onions. This is an experiment for me - part of why I like gardening so much.

If you let the beans go to seed you will lose the nitrogen and not get much added the soil.

Strange but true with most of these nitrogen fixing plants.

Worth

Yes, very true. I have do the same thing with the mustard. [URL]http://www.bountea.com/articles/ccmanure.html[/URL]

Odd Growth
 

This is an onion we've had sitting on our kitchen bar for a month or so. We try to keep the house around 74F. It grew this while sitting on the bar.

It has reverted back to a dividing onion maybe potato onion.
Plant the thing.

Worth

I have heard of them. I looked up a site [URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_onion[/URL]

Now I've got to go see if there are more of them. Thanks for the info Worth.