dug onions 14-17 days early

[tjg911]

i dug the copra and red wing onions this last week. i'd have left the red wing for another week but there is so much rain in the 7 day forecast i did not want them sucking up rain. i haven't watered them in 2 weeks and it didn't rain in that time so this was an issue. the copra were bent at the neck and sat for 7 days then i dug them. the red wing i bent at the neck but dug 3 days later rather than letting them sit for a week. we had 2" of rain that day (saturday) and there's rain in the forecast all week except for monday. today it rained for a couple of hours. i think it was wise to get them out of the ground before all this rain fell.

normally i'd dig the copra about 8/3 and the red wing about 8/10.

nice harvest, copra are good sized. the red wing are good sized and some are huge, red wing tend to be larger than copra. i plant garlic and onions 6" on center but i think they'd size up better 8" on center but that'd use too much space in the quarter they are planted in (the garden is planted in 4 quarters for a 4 year crop rotation). i don't really want monster onions, what i got this year are about as big as i'd want.

i'll leave them cure in the sun under their greens for a week the move them to the shed for curing until early october when i'll trim and weigh them.

tom

[yopper]

Tom I think you did the right thing by harvesting ahead of the rain. I have harvested in the mud and they don't store well! My walawalas are just starting to fall over but the candy and copra are still standing good.Not the best onions I've grown as it has been a realy dry year here. YOPPER

[tjg911]

hi yopper. i think that at the end of the onion's life cycle they tell you to stop watering because if the onions take up water it may effect their curing or more likely their ability to store properly. they need an 1" of water per week but at the end they shouldn't get water or rain.

this is why i decided to dig the red wings early. in the past i have allowed t storms to dump water on onions that were finishing or was caught when a storm happened i was not expecting. i don't think these storms dumped large amounts of water. i can't say i have had problems with storms that happen at the wrong time but with lots of rain a given that day and rain in every day for the next week it seemed reasonable to get them out of the ground.

everything went well all season, why blow it in the last week!

tom

[jennifer28]

Ive never grown onions before. I got some red onion sets from a local greenhouse in the beginning of June and planted them in the school garden. There are nice chive looking things that are up. How do I know when to harvest them?

[tjg911]

typically onion sets are not all that good to use. you'll get greens but that's about all. the reason is you plant onions early for max growth before mid june when bulbing starts. i put mine out 4/5 this year, for you i bet you could have planted out at least 1 maybe 2 weeks earlier. the greens will be ok to cut but don't expect bulbs.

my suggestion is to buy onion plants locally (you could buy them thru the mail from suppliers but i used to go to a greenhouse or nursery) or start from seed. i prefer seeds because you can chose the varieties vs settling for what they offer in plants. purchased plants are ok, i'd never use sets. i did try sets 2 years but the results are so so, sets are onions from last year and when you plant them this year they often think it's time to set seed. also they tend to grow poorly or just rot and store poorly.

i start seeds 2/1 to 2/7 and grow them under shop lights trimming the greens when they get 5" tall back to 4". plant out in very loose well draining soil. they require 1" of water per week whether from you or rain. harvest is now or early august, this year they are earlier than the past years.

i'm still eating onions i dug last august. most onions won't keep 12 months but i grow 2 that store very well.

tom

[jennifer28]

Thanks tom

Maybe I didnt buy onion sets. Time for me to sound as ignorant as I am about onions. I went to the greenhouse and there was this big tray of red onions, but they were small. They already had chive looking things on them. Are those sets or are those considered the onion plants. Sorry if I am driving you crazy with this, I just picked the onions on a whim because I thought maybe the kids could have fun digging them up in fall?

[tjg911]

those were sets. sets are tiny onions and when sprouting they have that growth just like an old onion that is sprouting in your fridge.

plants are literally plants, you pull them apart and plant them.

tom

[jennifer28]

Thanks Tom. Next year I'll go for plants.

[Father'sDaughter]

Hey Jennifer, try seeds. Like Tom, I've had good luck going this route. I start the seeds in late January under lights in the basement and plant them out in mid April. Just choose onions appropriate for our area (long day, vs. short day), and you can grow whatever type you want. Like garlic, onions are one of my plant them and let them do their thing crops. Very low maintenance!

[raindrops27]

Thanks again Tom, I just started some spanish sweet onion seeds based on this post. I also started granax seeds a few days ago but found out they may not work well for me here on Long Island but here is to trying again.

[tjg911]

i question what you'll get from the granex. iirc they are day short onions the type grown in the south. onions bulb based upon the length (in hours) of the days in june. here we have 15+ hours but down south about 13 hours. i've read that in the south you can't get bulbs from day long cuz the days never reach the length required for bulb formation. the converse tho isn't true. we do get 13 hour days but that's very early in the season. the plants at that time are very small, we're talking around mid to late april. so your plants are still seedlings and if they try to bulb they are so small the bulb would be quite small. stick with long long or day neutral for ny. i'd like to know how the granex do for you.

tom

[bower]

I grew short day cipollini onions from seed last year which I bought by mistake. The largest onion was only an inch and a half across, but they weren't a complete waste, they were sweet for salads and I used the small ones in pickles - delicious.

[raindrops27]

I don't know Tom, I remember gaining inspiration from you last year to try onion from seed. So, even though I had not planned on growing onions on impulse, I thought of you and all the info I gained from you and I picked up granax, and the spanish sweet onion seeds from my local walmart.

Which brings me to, why would walmart even sell seeds they know will not do well in our area. Oh well, I will not make that mistake again. I will let you know how it goes.

Bower, can you share your pickle recipe with me please and thank you.

Melissa

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by raindrops27

Which brings me to, why would walmart even sell seeds they know will not do well in our area. Oh well, I will not make that mistake again. I will let you know how it goes.

good question. i suppose walmart buys all types of vegetable seeds and distributes them to all their stores all over the country. the people doing this no doubts don't know any more about growing onions than i do about cardiac surgery or have no option other than to stock shelves with product even knowing those onions are for the south. so granex is popular therefore they buy the seed and sell it. i agree, they shouldn't sell it up here but apparently they do. i'd stick to buying seeds from reputable seed companies vs a big box store where they tell you whether the seed is day short, long or neutral in their catalogs and online. i have no issues with walmart selling anything but in this case it would be better to offer day neutral onion seeds if they want to buy and ship them all over the country.

apparently day short onions will bulb in new foundland which is quite a bit north of us so you should get something just not what you'd get if you were in the south.

tom

[raindrops27]

I usually do buy seeds from reputable places, but this was an impulse buy when I saw one of your posts and knew I would not get onions seeds shipped to me on time to start them. I will however remember this.

I do have a question if the very tips of the growing onion seedlings are shriveling am I doing something wrong? I will try to post pictures tomorrow since it's late, and I just took some sleeping pills to rest.