How are your onions doing?

[yopper]

My onions are finally starting to grow after some much needed rain!!! It was so dry the weeds didn't even grow. You people that got yours planted in early April should have onions as big as watermelons by now. Everybody must be working in their garden as not many new posts on here! TIG did you get your sawdust problem fixed? Come on people LETS TALK ONIONS!
YOPPER

[puzzley]

Yopper, I put out yellow onion sets in April, and the tops are huge. I'm a bit disappointed, though, because they aren't forming bulbs like they did last year. If I pull one, they look like a giant green onion, without a large bulb. I'm not sure what's going on....

[g8shot1]

Our yellow onion sets spent most of April sprouting. The tops are probably 18" plus now and continue to look great today. We haven't tried to pull any yet to see how they're doing underground.

[TZ-OH6]

I planted sets of candy sweet and yellows, in early spring. This is my first year growing them, I didn't know that you werre supposed to plant the smallest sets if you wanted bulbs instead of bolting so I mainly planted the biggest sets. Some are starting to bulb while others are flowering.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by puzzley

Yopper, I put out yellow onion sets in April, and the tops are huge. I'm a bit disappointed, though, because they aren't forming bulbs like they did last year. If I pull one, they look like a giant green onion, without a large bulb. I'm not sure what's going on....

well i am you planted sets vs plants. start from seed or buy plants but no one should plant sets. they are last years onions put in storage for many months and just don't do well. onions produce seed in year 2 and you are growing year 2 onions. sure they are easy to plant but not worth the space used or time spent. i used sets for 1 or 2 years with poor results and then found out what i just told you. i then bought plants locally and did great but because i was settling for just the 3 or 4 varieties they had i started to start from seed. it's easy and well worth it.

tom

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by yopper

You people that got yours planted in early April should have onions as big as watermelons by now. ...... TIG did you get your sawdust problem fixed?

oh yeah i planted 4/12, hell my onions look great, if it was may 1st!

i have to admit over the past month they have grown a lot but they are very small for this date, maybe 10 to 16" tall. they should be 2' to 30" tall with at least 8-10 large leaves that would be a good 3/4"+ in diameter at the base, mine are about 3/8" at the base.

so i'm not sure what to expect but i don't expect much. i usually have 75-100 pounds of onions but this year i may get 10 pounds, then again i may get zero! i think the bulbs will be < an 1" but we'll see. i hope they grow more before they start to bulb but since that is triggered by the day length they should already be starting to bulb tho i don't see anything.

everything else except the peas seem to have done ok despite the saw dust problem but i have been fertilizing every week vs every other week. my peas don't have the full bushy growth they normally would have but they are producing peas, i picked the 1st today.

onions are one of my favorite things to grow but this year looks pretty sad. i expect i'll be buying onions for the 1st time since i started to grow onions not from sets. tomatoes are doing great so for that i'm happy.

one thing i see this year is i have a LOT of large worms and small night crawlers in the soil - much more than normal. i wonder if the manure was seeded with worm eggs? i did not see any worms at all in the manure when it was dumped but just about anywhere i dig in the garden i see big healthy very squiggly worms thrashing about when i turn over the soil!

tom

[puzzley]

Tom, you may very well have the problem defined, however, I have used sets in the past with great success, including last year, when the sets produced huge, excellent onions. I guess what I mean by "I'm not sure what's going on" is that I don't understand why the difference from last year. While the problem may very well be due to using sets, I'm wondering why they produce so well one year, but not the next. One possibility is that I get the sets from different suppliers in the last two years.....

[333.okh]

I am growing from seed this year and mine are only little 6 inch long sprouts right now, but we had snow till nearly June.

IN THE PAST I USED SETS AND IF YOU USE TOO MUCH NITROGEN THEY WILL RACE UP AND NOT DEVELOP A BULB.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by puzzley

Tom, you may very well have the problem defined, however, I have used sets in the past with great success, including last year, when the sets produced huge, excellent onions. I guess what I mean by "I'm not sure what's going on" is that I don't understand why the difference from last year. While the problem may very well be due to using sets, I'm wondering why they produce so well one year, but not the next. One possibility is that I get the sets from different suppliers in the last two years.....

that is a definite possibility but i was going to say that it may just be how the onions were doing before they were dug or how they were stored all fall and winter or how they just plain responded to being stored based upon their individual dna. hard to know. planted in a similar full sun location? different soil amendments, fertilizing, watering, weather..... there may be many different factors that play into why you do ok one year vs another. sets are easy to plant and it's why i went with them initially having watched how simple it is to plant them on a gardening show. for me most either bolted, rotted, developed into very small onions or just flat out died. i was pretty disappointed and that was when i started to buy plants from local greenhouses and they did very well but i was so limited to variety that i decided to try seed. at this point i was not starting much from seed as i bought almost everything from a greenhouse even tomatoes starting only prue from seed. when i saw how easy it is to grow anything from seed i stopped buying plants, started to select varieties of all different vegetables for taste or storage and saved a bundle too! everyone is different but i just have a strong dislike for sets and always try to get folks to abandon them in favor of plants.

bottom line is if you can buy plants or better yet start from seed i believe that sets are just the worst possible option when it comes to growing onions. if you only grow a dozen or 2 then maybe it is not a big deal but i grow for long term storage and i need onions that will perform reliably. mine store for several months (red wing) and over a year (copra). i have both in my basement fridge and they are doing fine tho the red wing are getting to the end of their storage life which is around june so i'm pushing it at this point.

tom

[TZ-OH6]

Some questions about starting from seed.

What is a good method for starting from seed?

Fill a pan/flat with mix and dense plant (what spacing)?

What size is big enough for transplant?

How early would you have to start when using fluorescent lights (tomato-peppers seedling set up)?

[Alberta]

TZ...I've grown onions from seed in the past, and actually got some great plants. As you described above its actually easier to start them in flats instead of the small 4 packs, because you will be transplanting them into deeper flats a few times before they are finally planted in the garden. I also went along with the method (I think by the late Nancy Bubel, growing from seed) of trimming both the tops and roots when transplanting which makes for a hardier plant. If you grow alot this can be real tedious, but it does work. In your area I would suggest starting the seed in January, once germinated put immediatly under lights, and then trim as they grow and transplant as described above. Watch the roots carefully, you will know by their growth when to be transplanting. I hope this doesn't sound confusing, its a lengthy process, but certainly worth all the work.

Alberta

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by TZ-OH6

Some questions about starting from seed.

What is a good method for starting from seed?

Fill a pan/flat with mix and dense plant (what spacing)?

What size is big enough for transplant?

How early would you have to start when using fluorescent lights (tomato-peppers seedling set up)?

here's what i do and i get excellent results.

i put one onion variety into a container and label it with a piece of masking tape. if i need more onions of that variety i use another container. i would not use a 6 pack type container or jiffy whatever, i do not transplant the onions they go out in the same container they were started in. if you can't find 4" X 6" containers then use any container that has drainage holes and is at least 2" deep. i usually have 4 or 5 containers to plant out in april.

one year as an experiment i used a cool whip container and just broadcast the seed. i felt the results were smaller plants than my row planting method. this is why i space them in rows. onions are crowded by greenhouses but i think they fertilize the hell out of the plants as they are pretty big when you go to buy them. personally i prefer the row method.

on 2/7 (about 65 days before planting out around 4/15) i start my seeds, i used to do this on 2/22 but i think the extra 2 weeks is better as you have larger plants. i use a 4" X 6" seed starting container but you can use any size that's at least that size like a cool whip container for example but be sure to have drainage holes.

i fill it up about 1/2" from the top with pro mix and spray it with water from a mister bottle. i put my seeds in a row about 7-9 per row going the 4" direction. i space the rows so i get 8-9 rows per container going in the 6" direction. i use a tweezers to place the onion seed in a straight row as they are hard to put down exactly where i want them but that's me. i cover the seeds with 1/4" of pro mix. i spray the pro mix to get it wet. i don't water it until the pro mix has absorbed the water or you'll move the seeds around. if you worked with pro mix you know it does not absorb water easily unless it is warm water. i cover each container with plastic wrap until the seeds sprout in about 10-14 days.

i keep them upstairs where the wood stove keeps the house between 70-78. when they sprout i remove the plastic wrap and water as needed. i put them in a window sill for a few days but if we hit a period where it will be cloudy i then put them into the basement where it is about 50 degrees under shop lights, 16 hours on and 8 off. water when pro mix is dry. keep the shop lights 1" above the plants. when they grow to about 3" i cut them back to 1" with a scissors. i then let them grow to about 4-5" and cut them back to 3". i fertilize them with a diluted neptune's harvest fish emulsion after about 2 weeks under the lights and every 2-3 weeks until they go out about 4/10 or 4/20.

i harden them off a week before they go out. onions seem to harden off faster than anything else probably as they tolerate very cold well and the sun is not all that strong in early april. i plant them 6" on center in a bed 4' wide and 12-14' long. i mulch with finely shredded leaves i saved from last fall about 1/2" thick when i see weeds starting to emerge. it's very windy in april and may and often have to add more shredded leaves.

onions are hardy so when you transplant them into the garden just pull them apart, the roots don't mind being broken. i make a hole with my finger, push the roots into that hole and some stick out but that's on and push soil around them. planting plants is pretty easy.

that's it. by starting from seed you can pick any variety you want to try vs settling for what you can buy. if you have any questions feel free to ask!

tom

[TZ-OH6]

Sounds like a plan. We get plastic pans from pork chops and lasagna. I just melt some drain holes in them and use them for starting 6-8 peppers at a time and then cut root blocks. They should work well for the onions.

[yopper]

I just cultivated and fertilized my onions today. They average 6-8 leaves and have a lot of growing to do. I agree with TIG that plants are the way to go wether you grow your own or buy them. I buy my onion plants but start my own leeks.Nothing fancy I just put them in a south window and then outside in a hot box when the wheather gets better.The onions seem to be growing slower here this year for some reason.
YOPPER

[b54red]

A little trick that makes them much easier to transplant is to clip off about half of the tops about a week before setting them out. This gives you a shorter plant that is much easier to handle and plant upright.

I have had both success and failure with sets and starting from seed; but I prefer starting my own seed. I usually try about 8 varieties each year because some years a variety just won't form good onions. I don't know why this is but I expect it has something to do with the weather which can be drastically different from one season to the next during onion growing time down here.