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Bubblebeam
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Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 9:49 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Spring Onions Why are Tips Yellowing?

Hello.

So I've had spring onions (or scallions) for about 6 weeks now. They were store bought and after consumption the roots were put in water. Then about 3 weeks in, I put them in potting soil instead.

They're still doing good, apart from some yellowing dry tips? I've read this is normal but this is spreading quite far down some of the onions now. Are these ones gradually dying?

I can't find any specific information on raising these in soil, and how often to water, how much sunlight etc.

Could anyone share their experience on this? Are the dry ends happening from too much sunlight, too little watering, or something else?

Thank you!

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

If you transplanted the onions. Cut off the tops and let new ones grow. They don't always transplant well if you try to keep the leaves. Please add your location to your profile. Onions do ok from partial shade to full sun. In summer, I would start with partial shade morning sun.

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jal_ut
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Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

Here onions grown from seed will make loads of scallions and if let go full season will make some small dry bulbs about an inch in diameter. If I want large onions I have to plant onion sets in the spring and space the sets about six inches in the row. Just push the sets in deep enough so that they will stay put. They don't need to be planted deeply. The bulb will form mostly out of the soil. If the onions send out flower buds, just clip the buds. You don't want them to go to flower if you are going for bulbs. Onions are cool weather plants and they are day length sensitive. IOW they make a bulb when the days are of a certain length. So it has been said Short Day onions for the South and Long Day onions for the North. Oh, full sunshine! Have fun.

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jal_ut
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Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

All parts of the onion plant are edible, so if you clip them for any reason you can eat the clippings. Onions are used to spice up a lot of dishes. Use in soups and stews, to garnish a pot roast, or flavor a salad.

Farmerboy
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Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:54 am
Location: Southern Oregon

Onions grown from roots trimmed off of harvested onions are good for producing green onions only. They will go to seed before they produce a bulb big enough to use for a slicing onion.

I cut the bottom end off of green onions, leaving about 13 mm. attached to the roots. Just take the roots while still fresh and plant them, cover the entire end and roots with soil. Within a week you will see the green tops coming up through the soil.

For large dried Slicing Onions, slice about 13 mm above the dried roots, and plant right away. Keep moist and they will send up green tops in about 10 - 14 days.

Water your onions every 2 or 3 days. They are almost entirely water, so they need watering often. Set a tin (or plastic container these days) near the onions so it will catch the sprinkler water. When the tin has about 25mm of water in it, that is plenty. They also are heavy feeders, so place a thin line of commercial fertilizer about 50 mm from the plants if you don't have compost. Remember to harvest before they send up seed stalks and get too "woody" to eat.

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I read a very good articular written by an onion grower in Texas. Onions are controlled by the heat from the sun not the length of the day. It has always been the belief that long day onions could only grew up north where days are long and short day onions grow in the south where days are short. The TX grower grows long day onions in TX during the winter when days are short and days are also cool. When days get longer they also get hotter it is the heat that makes onions go to seed not the length of the daylight. Plant your onions so they get morning sun then full shade after lunch to keep them from getting hot during the hot part of the day. If you mulch with black mulch it gets hot from the sun and onions go to seed quick so mulch with light color straw it reflects light and the soil stays cooler.

This spring I planted 2 crops of onions in the spring about April. I had 75 onion sets that got lost in the work shop I found them about mid May and planted them about May 20th. I figured being a late crop it would not do well waste of time to plant these but I planted them anyway in the only available place in the garden. Turns out the onions got morning sun and shade after 1 pm to dark. That was the best crop of onions I ever planted in 40 years. I had no clue why the onion crop did so well until I read the articular about growing onions in Texas. Next year my onions get planted so they get shade from a large tree from 1 pm until dark. Also we had a very mild summer this year it only got in the 90s a few times all summer.

Texas is desert, it gets 115 degrees in summer and 70 degrees all winter. When I lived in Arizona 115 degrees in summer I planted garlic under a palm tree last of October all winter until May, it was 70 degrees during the day all winter, best garlic I ever grew. Desert soil needs lime, fertilizer and organic material. Wood ash works good it has lime and lots of minerals.



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