onions & snow

[yopper]

Tom they were on sale this week at our local TSC!
YOPPER

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by TomNJ

I often use blood meal Tom, which is 13-0-0, but it will take a couple of weeks for it to begin breaking down. Since your plants are already pale and yellowish, I thought a faster dose might be in order.

Tom

i just spread 2 pounds of blood meal on the onion bed and watered it in and now i see it takes 3 weeks to break down. there's only 5 weeks to the 1st day of summer. my plants are not growing! they've been out for 4 weeks and i am sure they should be taller than this. i have grown onions for years but have no notes on size 1 month later but i do know they have to grow as much as possible before bulbing starts. i realized today just how close the solstice is. i may get tiny onions this year if that! this is a disaster. i fear i poisoned the garden with all this saw dust! even the cabbages are looking pale green. green lettuce is yellowish. the only spot doing ok that is planted is the garlic and i did not put any horse crap/saw dust there since it was already planted or about to be planted and i did not want to risk hot manure in a spot where i was planting the cloves.

i wanted 4 yards and probably 3 would have been ok so to be a nice guy he brought 5 yards! i bet it was at least 50% maybe 75% saw dust. i did not like it but it was urine soaked so i figured it'd be ok. this may be a year with a poor garden. it has been dry and hot at times but only the garlic looks ok but it had a big head start. i guess i'll know in 5 or 6 weeks. if it is as bad as i fear i may just give up and till it planting green manures until fall. what a bummer. i'm going to see if i can get alfalfa pellets. maybe extra fertilizing? i usually spray neptune's harvest every 2 weeks i may water it in every week. i just can't stand losing all the food i eat all summer. i will not eat as well and it will cost a lot more for food. i have not bought onions for years but this fall i may be having to.

[TomNJ]

Hi Tom,

If you are correct that the saw dust robbed the soil nitrogen, then you need to give them a good shot of water soluble nitrogen quickly. Unfortunately, most organic sources are not water soluble and require some time to break down. Perhaps fish emulsion has available nitrogen, but if not you may need to go inorganic for one feeding to salvage the crop. Miracle Grow is water soluble, as are some lawn fertilizers. I try to stay organic, but if I need a fast inorganic feeding I don't hesitate.

BTW, I keep a garden log and for reference my onions were about 10-12" tall one month after setting out the plants from Dixondale Farms. Last year they were 8-10".

Tom

[yopper]

What a bummer!! But I agree with TomNJ. I think you need a shot of quick acting nitrogen of some kind. Good luck with what ever you do and keep us posted. I had to buy onions last year. Mine got moldy early in storage and I had to throw out three bu. there was tears rolling down my cheeks as I dumped them in the woods. I will be spraying fungecide this yr.
YOPPER

[tjg911]

i'm going to start a thread on this in an appropriate forum, whatever that is, called alfalfa tea.