Onions in storage sprouting

I have some red "Candy" onions that I grew this year. Several of them have begun to sprout. If I set these in the garden, what will happen? Will they make new onions? Will they flower and set seed? Will they just die?

In the past we've managed to eat all our onions before they began to sprout - so this is new to me.

Thanks for any advice.

If you're not going to eat em...stick em in the ground and see. What have you got to loose? I've had onions that got tilled into the ground in the fall come up in the spring. Never let them grow though...too many new ones to contend with.:)

Onions are biennials. If you plant it & it makes it to spring, it'll eventually bloom & set seed. It'll all depend on whether & how much your soil freezes. And how hardy the onion. If you suspect that it won't make it outside, pot it up and put it in a cool/dark garage or basement and try to keep it barely growing till spring, and then plant it outside.

Is it an Open Pollinated/Heirloom onion? If so, it would definitely be worth trying to get it to set seed. But if it's a hybrid, the offspring won't be 100% like the parent, and you may as well eat it now, unless you've got the room & an inclination to be adventurous, just to see what happens. (Or if you like allium type blooms which can attract beneficial wasps & such.)

nedweenie - I hadn't thought about "Candy" being a hybrid, so I looked it up. Yup! It's a F1. Thanks for the heads-up - I'll chop them up and eat 'em! I don't really have the room for experimentation - I will order some "sets" instead.

HoneybeeNC, I am having the exact same problems with my red candies. I've always been able to keep onions in the garage until March or April. Do you think it's just the variety?

Donna

Donna - I suspect it is, because I also grew the white "Candy" onions and they didn't sprout. Although, we have already eaten all those, so they might have done if given the chance.

My white candies are not sprouting yet. I also have big daddies and they are okay. Will you grow the red candies next year?

Donna - yes, I plan to grow the red Candy onions again next year. I purchased my starts from Jung last year and they were a nice size. Where do you buy yours?

Dixondale

Donna - were they nice onions? I assume that anyone that only grows onions for a living must know what they are doing. If you say you liked them, I'll give them an order.

I just looked at Dixondale's site to drool and see what they offer. I had poor germination from several seed sources this year but probably got enough to supply fresh use. I have plenty dehydrated already. I just love to grow them. I was most tempted by the short and intermediate day samplers.

I still have some short day open pollinated Red Creoles in my garage that were harvested in mid-May which is more than 6 months. Dixondale says their short and intermediate day types are for storing only 2-3 months. What am I missing here?

HoneybeeNC, I'll post a picture to show you. They're fantastic onions. I've posted this someplace else but here you go. Keep in mind I really don't know what I'm doing, this is only my 3rd year growing from Dixondale, and only my 4th year growing onions. All 3 years of the Dixondales have been great.

Donna

dddal, nice harvest! Good pics! I'd say ya done goood! :>)

Honeybee, I've bought from Dixondale for at least ten years, possibly much longer, and have always been happy with them. You can't go wrong with them. I'd encourage you to give them a try next Spring. Same to you, twiggybuds, I bet you'll be impressed with their plants. Be prepared though, their "bunches of 60" usually contain many more.

Oh yeh, and while you're ordering you oughta pick up a bunch of leeks while you're at it. Yummy!

Shoe
Oh yeh, the Candy onions, both white and reds, are not known to be good storage onions so those of you that have them sprouting of softening up, that's normal. I put in a successive crop of them this year just to have them for a longer period of time but, alas, here it is December and I'm "Candy Onion-less" already!

Donna/Shoe - thanks for the testimonials.

Donna, those onions look very inviting :) Well done!

Twiggybuds - if your onions stored longer than recommended - that's great. I froze my extras last year, but didn't have room in the freezer this year because it was full of tomato sauce! Won't have that problem next summer, 'cause I recently purchased the biggest freezer I could find!

Shoe - are your Candies still growing, or are they gonners? Did you have some delivered at a later date, or was there a way that you stored the ones you received in (I'm guessing Feb?)

Mornin, Folks. And brrr.

Honeybee, I ordered two separate orders BUT they recommended I order both of them early and designate a preferred ship date for the second order. I've had to do that in the past for leeks because they sell out fairly early on those, too, and I like to have some to winter over.

My first order arrived 2/26 and was planted that week; the successive order/planting arrived 4/27. Since Candy's are intermediate variety I wasn't too concerned about them not having time to bulb up and they did fine; I didn't get the size out of them as in past years but the same was true with my earlier crop. Perhaps that was due to our fairly cool summer this past year though.

Oh yeh, and no, they aren't still growing, they were either all sold at the mkt or eaten by yours-truly! Yummy! I still have leeks to pull from though and you'd do well in your area to have them in your garden in future fall/winters.

Twiggybuds (and others interested), "Red Creole" are known for having excellent storage qualities, much longer than most varieties I've ever grown. And no, I've never grown them but when you mentioned how long they were keeping for you I just HAD to go Google them. What a great reputation they have. I should try some next year.

Shoe

This message was edited Dec 4, 2009 2:41 PM

We grow a variety of onions each year and this year we had an early cold snap before removing them from the garden. The Walla Walla's in the past actually lasted up to three to four months before sprouting began. When we can't keep up with the sprouters we cut them up in 1-inch cubes and freeze them in gallon zip locks for chili. The other thing we noticed on the Walla Walla's this year is that some were rotting in the centers, again a result of an early freeze I presurme. Typically we purchase the whites, yellow and purple skinned onions in 100 set packages, and Walla Walla's as plants. I like the purple skins best for mild flavor and term storage. I have also grown some purple skinned from seed which were very mild. I too have wondered about replanting sprouters, but I figured they would rot and even if the onion actually regrew what would it taste like???

I was just reading about leeks, and even though you can winter them over in the ground, you have to eat them before they wake up and start to send up the flower stalk because the edible base changes with that part of its life cycle. The texture & taste was described as "woody" & "hot". Probably because its stored sugars are being used to form the flower stalk, bloom & seed. (An "educated guess" there! Not a biochemist.) Since onions are in the same family, it's probably a similar situation. After dormancy, it's time to wake up & reproduce...

Shoe - great info, as usual - thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

I will definitely add leeks to my order. I love their mild flavor in winter soups.

I don't think I'll order more "Candies", than I did this year 'cause I'm planning on growing more soy beans next year, and there's only so much room in the garden. Onions are one veggie still affordable in the market, so I can always buy what a I need later in the year.

I checked out "Red Creole" and although they sound interesting, from what I have read they grow best south of our location.

Spent some time uploading the photos I took this summer. These are some of the onions - most of them have been eaten already

Honeybee great looking onions! I was wondering how are those candy onions, are they sweet? I am going to grow some red burgundy onions, I started them from seed and hopefully I'll be able to plant them out in my raise bed sometime in Jan or as late as Feb. I want to be able to grow onions that are sweet and not too spicy.

Glad this bumped back up...

Great looking harvest, Honeybee! Having eaten most of them makes ya wanna grow twice as many next year though, doesn't it!

Carmin, Candy onions are very mellow/sweet, you'd like them, no doubt about it.
Red Burgundy onions can go sweet or "potent" (eye waterers!) depending on their water supply. Keeping your onions well watered will help with keeping them sweeter and mellow; lack of water, or inconsistent watering, will cause them to produce more pungency.

Here it is Christmas Eve. I wish all of you a great holiday season, be it Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. Best to all of you!

Shoe

Thank you so much Shoe, I don't think I'll have a problem with water, we get too much over here in this part of the woods if you ask me. Maybe next year I'll try the candy ones they look really good.

Happy holidays to you as well, hope you and all have a Merry Christmas!

Honeybee, I've been watching your thread for a while and I thought I would toss in a couple of things. I too have had a bad year for storage on onions. My Walla Walla's have all started to soften and sprout and I don't have room in the freezer to store onions at the present. I have grown Walla Wallas from seed and have purchased them as a plant for the past two years. I buy three types of onions as bulbs from a local nursery as well because price is good and I have not always been successful starting my Walla Wallas from seed. Production on all my onion plants were good this season, but we got hit with an early frost in August and we didn't have time to harvest our onions as we did in the past. Typically we pull the onions and place them on a tarp covered pallets in the shed for two weeks until we can get back to them and box them up for storage. Our Walla Wallas have lasted as long as four months and the bulb sets have lasted right up to spring. This year's crop isn't going to last much longer from the looks of it, possibly because of the early heavy frost.

I did purchase two packages of 400mg, certified organic, onion seed from SeedsofChange last year: Rossa Di Milano (Rare); and Red Wethersfield Onion (Heirloom). Both were transplanted a little late because of my late start in planting the seed. The sets were hardly bigger than pencil leads when I transplanted them. I wasn't expecting much of a yeild from these transplants, and I didn't retreave them from the garden until after I removed my other onions. To my surprise these plants grew well and they are doing better in storage than any of my others. As for flavor the Red Wethersfield, the larger of the two, has become stronger in storage, but are my choice for chili. The Rossa Di Milano are smaller onions, but still have a nice mild flavor. When SeedsofChange catalog comes out I will be ordering more of these for next season, and try to get then planted ASAP.

mraider sorry to cut in, but I really have a question. My onions are growing right now under grow lights. I placed my seeds in a big yogurt cup and had a fairly good germination, they are about the sice of pencil threads some are a litlle thinner, I've heard some people saying that you have to let them grow to the size of a pencil before transplanting to the ground but I doubt mine can get that big since I kind of overcrowed them. My question is how long can I leave them in the yougurt cups before transplanting, I was hopping to to be able to transplant them begining of February but will they survive in the yougurt cup this long since I did not leave them too much room to grow or should I just go ahead and plant them out before then? Also do you cut some of the green tips before planting?

Carmen I put my onions out a month ago and they were very tiny, like threads. I sprouted them in 4" pots which aren't as deep as a yogurt cup. The first week most of them doubled in size and I think it was because they appreciated the ample root space. They aren't growing nearly that fast since then but are making progress. The cold we've had doesn't bother them at all. I gave them a couple hair cuts early on and it did seem to make them thicker. I think yours would be fine planted out anytime. They'll work on their roots and be ready to go as the days lengthen.

I checked LSU's advice recently and it says to plant them out by Jan 15. I got a very late start this time. It says to start seeds in September and I was a month or more behind. We still should get something useful since many times a smaller onion is all that's needed. It also said that we can start green bunching onions up until Feb 1. and any variety will work for that.

Twiggy that's exactly what my planting dates are as well around Jan 15th, I just did not know whether they were going to take the cold weather or not. Yes I think I started mine a little late as well but hopefully like you said we can still get something. I was just checking webcajuns videos on onions and saw that he lets them grow pretty good size before planting them out, and also he gives them a haircut before placing them in the ground.

Those nice ones like webcajun was planting are the ideal and maybe we can get it right next year. I watched that video trying to discover the date he planted the seeds but I didn't hear him say. One thing that always trips me up is that onions grow in cool weather yet they must be started and finished when it's hot. They harvest Vidalias in South GA in April. It's all very confusing to me.

twiggy, yes he probably started his a lot earlier not sure when either. It is confusing to me as well, it could be because they take a long time to mature. I also just notice that he sells his DVD's not that I have any $ to spend in more DVD's or books.

Twiggy, not much I can add to Carmen's sage adivice here. I have grown larger sets in seed flats where I meticulously placed each seed 1-inch apart using strings to lay out a grid. Got lazy last season and planted each packet of seeds in several 4-inch peat pots, which is probably why they didn't get much size. If fact they grew slowly and tall but not much diameter. The reason I chose this method was because I purchased some onion plants from a local nursery several years ago which were plated similarly, and they were all about pencil size, which is ideal as Carmen mentioned. I do cut my tops off whenever the plants get over four inches tall, otherwise they start to droop over. We should ask Carmen's secret to getting them to double in size. I added some light fertilizer several times, but they just grew taller and not thicker.

They doubled from skinny threads to thicker threads. After a month being planted out, the largest is only half the size of a pencil and most are smaller than that. I figure they're working on building strong roots.

Actually this is my first time growing onions, I decided to start them from seeds instead of sets because of the $ savings, I was very surprised that out of the whole package of seeds that I bought and placed in the yougurt cup only half came out, not very good if you ask me, but nevertheless onions indeed. I went with a red onion because I find them to be milder than the regular yellow ones at least in the stores that is, but after hearing about this candy onion I think I have been proven wrong.

Twiggy I have a DVD about gardening that helped me a lot in this endeavor of gardening, and the fella that plants his onions are not as thick as pencils but much thinner more like the lead of the pencil thick and he still ends up getting huge onions. I will definetely have to plant my onions very soon, some little bulbs are comming out on the surface of my yogurt cup not sure if this is due lo lack of space but I still have to have my DH build me the raise bed, so many projects so little time. I've also been reading in my plant companion book that is is not good to place all the onions together that it is better to interplant them with other veggies as well so that way diseases does not spread out. Cabbage for example is a good companion for onions so is beets so I'll be placing these as well in the new bed.

carmin - I grow all my onions from seed. The most important thing to remember in the south is to use short day type onions or you'll get lotsa green and small or no bulbs.

Honeybee, onions can be stored in the freezer??? I didn't know that! .....Do you need to put them in ziplocks or anything? How long will they keep frozen? Do some varieties freeze better than others? Any other tips are welcomed! :-D Thanks!

Glenda - you can chop onions and peppers and store them in freezer bags and just take out what you need. They lose their texture somewhat so I don't use them "fresh". They're great to add to stir frys and soups and whatever other recipe you can use them cooked in...

That's awesome!!! My Candies I have down in the cellar are starting to sprout. I'll see if they're still firm and if so, I'll chop them up and get them in the freezer! Thanks!! :)

Glenda if you have a dehydrator you can dry them as well. For several years I have bought several of those 3lb bags when they're on sale. I put them through the slicer on the food processor and dry them. They keep perfectly and I use them in everything. They're a great convenience that I won't be without.

This year I grew some of my own and dried green onions too. No waste. They plump up like fresh ones if there's moisture present, like in potato salad. Ditto for peppers.

Yes those are really good ways to keep your harvest for longer, I just hope I get to produce more onions so I can either freeze them or dry them. I kind of want to buy myself a dehydrator but don't want the ones that use electricity, there is a really cool one that is sold by the dervaes family in the peddlerswagon.com this one does not require electricily and is a solar one.

By the way this question might be silly for some of you but has anybody made an onion or garlic braid, they look really cool and a good way to keep your onions as well, or to give some as a gift.

Here's a picture of the solar dehydrator.

Here's another of the onion braid.

http://www.bloomingfieldsfarm.com/garbrdhow.html

That looks like some good instructions for braiding. I'd like to try one too.

I hate to be a spoil sport but I don't think a solar dehydrator would work along the Gulf Coast. Our humidity stays around 80% or more. The A/C takes moisture out of the air in the house and still small peppers will often mold or ferment instead of just drying.

It's my understanding that CA gets plenty of sea breezes and yet people there can solar dry things. I've never understood how that can be.

Oh boy Twiggy I never thought of that, the humidity here, you are right it might not work in our wet part of the country, too bad, it looked like a good energy efficient tool.

Thanks for the link, it really looks neat to braid your onions or garlic, in Spain where I am from they do that a lot, and it just looks pretty and funtional at the same time.