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digitS'
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Like onions?

I do :) and grow several varieties, including shallots and leeks.

If you think you don't like onions, help may be on its way! (LINK)

I'm not sure how much bioengineering went into those "tear-free" onions. I'm comfortable growing hybrids but have a couple of heirlooms to try this year.

Bunching, bulbing, top-setting - what have you enjoyed from your garden, or looking forward to, olde & new?

Steve

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digitS'
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Mr green
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I like onions, but they are fairly cheap to buy so I don't grow much of them.

In the link: "House Foods Group said the "new onions" are extremely low in the enzyme that causes eyes to water when the vegetables are sliced." Is not the enzymes that helps us digest food, then would be quite stupid growing vegtebles that are made just to be low on them?

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Mr Tulips
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Haha tear-free onions! I just run them under water before chopping and that pretty much holds in all the gases for the time it takes to chop them.

As for me, green onions are the order of his season, they're still in my containers.

imafan26
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Actually when I did harvest my onions, for the first couple of weeks they were sweet and mild and tear free. They only got hot after that. I don't know how to prevent that from happening.

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jal_ut
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what have you enjoyed from your garden, or looking forward to, olde & new?

Steve
I have some Egyptian walking onions or as some call them, bunching onions. Then I planted several bunches of small plants from the nursery, Big Daddy, Red Onion and some Whites. I planted a pound of Yellow Spanish dry sets. Then I planted a row of seed for some green onions.
Image

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digitS'
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Nice picture, James!

Storage conditions vary and, importantly, the requirements of different vegetables and fruits in storage vary. My basement seems to be really good for keeping onions. Long past when sweet onions are supposed to have reached their "pull date," mine are still in good shape.

Only shallot seed is directly sown in my spring garden. I also have a flat of bunching onions to transplant out ... along with the sweet onions :). I put shallot bulbs back into the ground last fall, along with some garlic sets. This is the first time in about 35 years that I've grown garlic! It's also the first time I have left shallots to overwinter. Usually, those bulbs go in with the first planting of things, in the spring.

When I first tried leeks, I wasn't very optimistic. I associate leeks with the UK. The arid summers here seemed a long way from the weather on the British Isles! Leeks do okay, however :). I started seed for them, the bunching and sweet onions in the greenhouse in early February. You should know that I don't turn any heat on in there until mid-March. Those things went outdoors for a little hardening-off, yesterday.

Steve
who is harvesting chives only ... at the moment ;)

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jal_ut
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You mention chives. Yes, chives are excellent here. They are perennial and you can get some early cuttings for that onion flavor.

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sweetiepie
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New for me this year is growing onions from seed indoors. My mom always planted onion sets and I was led to believe all these years that we didn't have a long enough season to do seeds. So I am excited to see if I get bigger onions then the sets because of course I got more onion sets since I don't trust my seed starting abilities yet.

My family doesn't seem to like raw onions and I have to sneak in the dehydrated minced kind. So that's how I store mine and then if I need to be sneakier I blend it to a powder.

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jal_ut
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Here onion seed planted directly in the garden will make nice green onions or if let go they will make small bulbs about walnut size. If I want large bulbs it is necessary to plant sets or some small plants that I get from the nursery. Yes, one might start his own plants early indoors. Onions are day length sensitive and bulb when the length of the days is what they need to bulb. So, we have short day onions, long day onions and some that are said to be day neutral. It is said that in the North you plant long day onions and in the South plant short day onions.

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digitS'
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I mentioned new-to-me heirlooms in my first post.

Gallop is a hybrid bunching onion that I was happy with but Osborne Seed dropped it this year. I feel I should have something other than Tokyo White, which can compete with leeks for size, late in the season. So, I tried Fukagawa and Kyoto Kujo Negi.

Tokyo White is very dependable and a very safe choice but I hope to see some differences with these new Japanese heirlooms. For a red, I've got Lillias, again. It almost forms a bulb late in the season but that's okay.

I've made quite a commitment to stir-fries in my diet. It was my, and DW's, way to increase the role veggies play in our food choices. Bunching onions, scallions, are a better choice in stir-fries. I'm happy to have the sweet onions for the fall but I've got the idea that I may be able to transplant onion plants out of the garden and into the greenhouse for the winter. They would join mostly bok choy in there. The Asian greens have done well in there the last two winters, why not Japanese onions?

:) Steve

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digitS'
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I mentioned new-to-me heirlooms in my first post.

Gallop is a hybrid bunching onion that I was happy with but Osborne Seed dropped it this year. I feel I should have something other than Tokyo White, which can compete with leeks for size, late in the season. So, I tried Fukagawa and Kyoto Kujo Negi.

Tokyo White is very dependable and a very safe choice but I hope to see some differences with these new Japanese heirlooms. For a red, I've got Lillias, again. It almost forms a bulb late in the season but that's okay.

I've made quite a commitment to stir-fries in my diet. It was my, and DW's, way to increase the role veggies play in our food choices. Bunching onions, scallions, are a better choice in stir-fries. I'm happy to have the sweet onions for the fall but I've got the idea that I may be able to transplant onion plants out of the garden and into the greenhouse for the winter. They would join mostly bok choy in there. The Asian greens have done well in there the last two winters, why not Japanese onions?

:) Steve



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