Growing onions

I don't have the best success with onions and want to grow my own sweet ones. Have done so but they are never very big. Would like to know from you folks that are successful how you do it. Do you plant seeds, plants or sets. How deep to plant? When to plant? Can I use mulch on top of them without inhibiting their bulbing? For sweet onions which kind do you plant? A lot of questions, hope I get a lot of answers.

Sparks

My onions never get huge, just maybe about tennis ball size. I have started some from seed and also grown the onion sets that you see every spring in the stores. There are long day and short day onions, each type suited to different day lengths. We grow long day onions in the north, I think you might be able to grow either there in NC. Planting early is important, they will take frost ok. Also cultivate so that the soil is nice and fluffy before you plant them and after they come up so they can expand easily. If you brush the soil away from the top half of the bulb they are supposed to get bigger. I bet Shoe could tell you a lot about onions.

Sparks,

Was having the same problem. Solution, plant in very loose soil. Soil that does not compact. I ordered some stuff from an onion grower that is supposed to help the soil stay loose, thus producing larger bulbs. I also got some specific onion food. I am sure that is not necessary, but I wanted to see what would happen. Good luck!

Sparks, I can pass along the advice that other onion growers have given me for years, but it didn't work for me. Maybe because I grow in very heavy clay? I do know one thing I have done wrong: I planted mine way too deep. At least an inch below the surface.

One tip: when the bloom stalk starts to come up, knock it over. That makes the onion concentrate on growing a bulb, not on flowering. I guess I wasn't trying hard enough to knock mine over, never succeeded in preventing them. Oh well, the flower buds are wonderful! Especially sauteed.

Waiting patiently for the real experts to come to the rescue!

Yeh, Where are the experts? But I never thought of sauteeing the flower buds!

Ah-hmmm...I ain't no expert but...what I've done is when the flower stalk shoots up cut it off. If you knock it over the onion won't gain much more size but will tend to harden off. Also, to get good size you should have the onions (heads) poking outta the ground, not still growing underground. This lets them have room to grow, especially if you have hard clay soil.

Sparks, I plant all three...seeds, sets and plants. Sets go in the ground in our zone as late as Mid-November (Thanksgiving is when my garlic goes in so I also put in onions at that time.) Around the end of Feb, or first wk or so of March, is when I set out plants. Altho most folks recommend you set onions (plants and sets) 4 inches apart I put them every two inches. This way you can harvest every other one for those delish "green" onions (for their tops) and by pulling them you not only cultivate the soil in the row but give the neighboring onions room to spread out, to become "real" onions.

Seeds are broadcast in mid-July or first of August, mainly for making sets. A 3 X 3 ft area will make many sets, nearly a bushel. Harvest them when just past marble size. Let 'em dry a bit. These can then be put where you want to plant them in November (remember folks, this is for zone 7...others will have to go by your local planting dates). The only other onion seeds I plant (in some yrs) are the "bunching" onions...these do not bulb up and are mainly grown for green onions, or table onions as some folks call them. (Really great cooked in some safflower oil or the like, with a dash of sesame oil mixed in, cooked to a tender stage, then covered with either some chicken broth or a Knorr Vegetable broth, simmered for five minutes, then hit it with just a small dash of soy sauce and serve! Tastes so good it'll turn your hair red!) (I've had it before.)

Hope this helps a little.

Horseshoe,

Them are great looking onions and your DD is even better.
You may have answered this question for me before, when you harvest the sets are the stems still on them and if so, do you just leave them on and plant with them still there?

Sparks

The sets that come from the seeds...depending on the weather, the tops will either be wilted/semi-dry, or could still be green (and very skinny and tall)(due to being grown so close together.

If still green, fork up the sets, lay them on hardware cloth or the like, and let dry outta the sun. The tops will shrivel up and dry. You can cut all but about 1 and a half inches off them if you like and they'll dry faster.

'Shoe, can't you just leave the small onions from seed in the ground (or thin and replant) for a harvest the following summer rather than digging them up when they are the "set" size? Seems a lot less work.

I am going to order onion seed tomorrow (I meant to order seeds yesterday, but didn't get a Round Tuit ;~P

I suppose you could Lupy, but it's much easier to fork them all up at once than to hand pick them out and leaving the others behind. These are all growing in a small square block, intentionally close so their size is purposefully restricted. It's easier for me to dig 'em, dry em, then when I plant them in rows I use what I call my "lazy stick" to dibble multiple holes at the same time. Then just drop the sets in and walk away...I don't even bother to cover them up, will let the rains do it.

Sounds so simple Shoe. My bunching onions are becoming big onions! LOL. Guess that shows me, whatta I know. But I have am happy with them.

Gotta tell you, fresh onions are just the best.

BTW, those silly trombocinos are taking over and getting big. My problem now is, I can't eat them all! It takes a couple of days to eat just one. (that is with 2 of us but DH is gone again to Phoenix for 2 weeks) I think I will have to shread and saute them and pack them up in the freezer. Oh, I cooked them until just sort of crisp in butter and we all thought we had left this world early! LOL

Gosh that sounds so good! Mine are up now! Can't wait to try them!!!

Sorry, dumb me, what the heck are trombocinos?

Go to the thread I just revived with some new pictures. Under Trombocino

I just found this thread. Up nort here we have best luck with plants. Ours come from some company in Albany Georgia.
We plant as early as possible, (April 22 this year). Just finished harvesting this week.
Started harvesting the Walla-Walla onion for green eating in June. We plant them close and take every other one for green. People love them! Others we planted about 3-4" apart. Seems to let them get bigger. Weeds are a no-no in onions, they will not try to outgrow weeds!
This picture is Walla-Walla in front & Big Daddy onions in rear of trailer. Trailer has a wire bottem for drying.
Bernie

Other side of the trailer, White Super Star & Mars red onions.
Should have planted more red onions, they go very well.
I should have mentioned, there is an area to the east of us that is an old marsh that some Holland imagrants, (in earlt 1900's) drained so they could farm it. This is peat ground & they raise potatoes, onions & carrots on this ground.
They plant onion seed very early in the spring in rows.
About this time of year they are harvesting. Most of these onions are the type you buy in a super market during the winter. The biggest are maybe 2" in diameter.
Bernie

this is the first year I've grown onions, and not expecting alot of success, didn't figure I'd have many to harvest. Well, it turned out to be my most successful crop!

How do I dry and store these things? My basement is old, wet and dirt. I don't want to have a pile of rotting mold. Any help out there? Thanks.

Leisurelee....I dig em up, shake the dirt off abit, then lay them on a rack (screened on the bottom for ventilation).

If you can do something similar that will do ya right. Or you can hang them in small bundles under a roof...a nice airy place preferably. Once they dry a bit, then you can store them (if they are the storage type) in a cool basement or outside where they won't freeze.

Thanks, Shoe. I guess I'll leave them in my shed until it gets too cold. Maybe by then, they'll be down to a manageable level :-)

to date my onion experience hasn,t been real great but I do getsome as big as softballs. This year I had disaster I started seeds in jan, transplanted into raised bed boxes in late Feb and got the mildew in june. since the market gardens consistently grow huge walla walla sweet onions around here I bought one that weighed three plus lbs and asked the guy what he did. His reply was fertilize post season mid season and use lime and water water water.

This message was edited Sunday, Sep 7th 2:22 AM

eweed,

Thanks for the information from the Walla Walla guy. I am going to plant my onions soon here. I was told that in my area, you plant by seeds in the early fall and you will have a good crop of large onions. I only got my green onions to bulb this year!!!LOL!!

Good luck on your next crop.