Red Onions and Hardnecks All Sprouting Now

[barkeater]

I've got to get some Copra for this year!

For Red Onions I grew Mars, Red Bull, Red Burgandy, Red Zeppelin, and Redwing last summer, but I didn't keep good track of them after harvest and the 8-9 that were left could be any of them. Anyway it doesn't matter as they are all sprouting at the same time, so there goes the theory that one red variety lasts any longer than the other.

Although only 2 actually have put a shoot out the top I found that by looking closely you can actually see new roots starting to extend from the outer edges of the basal plate a good week or more before shoots come out the top. They look like little translucent white bumps at first, but it is a sure sign that inside the onion (the same with hardneck garlic) it is greening up.

Most are sliced up and in my dehydrator since last night - down in the basement. What a strong smell! I could of sworn I could smell them upstairs when I got up this morning.

[tjg911]

barkeater,

copra should last you at least 9-10 months in storage assuming you cure and store them properly. i usually finish up my onions by the time i dig them for the season but i have had copra last to october that were dug the prior august. they were getting soft but that's a long time. at 12 months my copra are still in good shape tho maybe just a little less hard than at 8 or 9 months, 12 months is quite doable with copra.

if you mixed all your red onions then you don't know what you have let now. maybe you ate all the red wing a few months ago? i used to grow mars but gave up on them as they often rotted in the ground, when on drying racks and in storage. i found mars to keep maybe 6-7 months but it's been years so i can't recall exactly. there is no comparison between mars and red wing imo.

red wing keep a long time. my red wing are still rock hard (dug about 8/10 or 8/15), absolutely no sign of root sprouts or green shoots out of the top. my red wing keep almost as long as copra, 8-9 months is expected tho they won't keep as long as copra. i grow 1/3 red wing and 2/3 copra and try to finish the red wing by may or june since they are best when hard. i think red wing is one of the longest storage red onions if not the longest. i wouldn't consider any other red onion.

pinetree sells copra and red wing for very low price, can't remember but i'd guess it was $2.25 or $2.50, you get about 200 seeds give or take 25. s&h is reasonable there, i buy almost all my seeds from pinetree. if you need a thousand seeds maybe not but they have packets that make sense for gardeners, low prices and not a lot of seeds. do you really need 300 broccoli seeds? 50 or 75 is plenty adequate for most home gardeners. that's why i like pinetree, low prices and a reasonable quantity of seeds.

as far as garlic, mine is holding up very well, the best ever. this year when the temperature in the basement got to 55 i took the garlic upstairs and stored it in a north bedroom where it is 59-64 degrees all winter. by now in past years my garlic would be sprouting bad typically music and german white is what is left now. i read garlic stores best at 55-65 degrees and the basement would be 48-52 so i think that was causing them to sprout earlier in past years. some garlic has been sprouting over the past 3 weeks but very little vs whoa i can't eat it that fast!

tom

[salix]

Guess I've been lucky - still have a dozen or so Red Bull in good shape. They are just loose in a cardboard flat out in the unheated garage (which I know at one point got down just to freezing about a month ago). It only gets that cold in the garage when the temps dip down to -35 C or colder for more than 2 or 3 days.

[barkeater]

I think I used up my Mars onions first as I only had a few germinate from 3 year old seed. They always did well for me but Mars is no longer sold as of last year.

I did have one bulb that I found that isn't sprouting so that is probably Redwing, and there are 4-5 more red onions home in VT I'll be checking when I get back this weekend. Hopefully some of those are Redwing.

I think my onions and hardnecks are sprouting so early because it has been much warmer with increased humidity this winter. Normally there is no humidity at all in the winter to the point that I 'm constantly zapping static electricity everywhere I touch. That hasn't happened once all winter.

[tjg911]

why was mars discontinued? no loss to me! i really grew to hate mars. good eating but too many bad onions and they did not store long enough.

onions and garlic have very different storage requirements. onions store best at 37 degrees and i think 60% humidity but definitely 37 degrees. you should never store garlic that cold or you'll promote sprouting, it thinks it went thru winter and starts to grow. garlic is best stored from 55-65 degrees again i forget humidity but i think 50%.

if your red wing don't store well maybe they had too much water at the end when the tops started to fall over. maybe you did not cure them properly or store them properly, too warm.

tom

[yopper]

Barkeater I think you are right on about the warm weather and sprouting. My candy onions started sprouting right after the first of the year.I have never had them sprout This bad this early but this is the warmest winter that any one can remember here. I had to sort them about every two weeks and gave the neighbors plenty to eat and freeze. I still have about a bushel to get me through till spring. TIG has me convinced about copra. I ordered a bundle for this year to try. GOOD GARDENING TO YA YOPPER