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Gary350
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Is anyone growing 3" diameter 8 ounce or larger onions?

How are you growing large onions?

Picture is a grocery store onion. Called yellow onions in TN & brown onions in AZ.
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Vanisle_BC
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Gary350 wrote:
Sun Nov 01, 2020 3:44 pm
How are you growing large onions?
I grow Walla Walla and Red Globe. I don't do anything special. Some get really big, some stay medium and some are puny; all side by side. It's a mystery.

(Edit) Oh, and I pulled my first Parsnip of the season: 1.25 lb, but I think that's not impressive for the species. Maybe some of its companions will be bigger. I remember letting a parsnip go to seed once and it got to be the size of a small tree.

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Gary350
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Vanisle_BC wrote:
Sun Nov 01, 2020 8:08 pm
Gary350 wrote:
Sun Nov 01, 2020 3:44 pm
How are you growing large onions?
I grow Walla Walla and Red Globe. I don't do anything special. Some get really big, some stay medium and some are puny; all side by side. It's a mystery.

(Edit) Oh, and I pulled my first Parsnip of the season: 1.25 lb, but I think that's not impressive for the species. Maybe some of its companions will be bigger. I remember letting a parsnip go to seed once and it got to be the size of a small tree.
Do you grow onions from, seeds, starts, or bulbs?

What are your weather conditions at the time of planting onions?

I have learned our spring season is too short, our summer is too hot to grow anything other than yellow/brown onions. If I lived farther south I could grow winter onions like you grow summer onions. I grew excellent large winter onions in Arizona sunny & 65°F all winter but it is a challenge to grow onions in TN, winter is too cold, spring is too short, summer is too hot & dry, I am determined to learn how to grow large onions. I talk to farmers market growers they tell me how to grow large 2" golf ball size onions, I can grow 2" golf ball onions but not 3" grocery store size onions.

Vanisle_BC
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Gary350 wrote:
Sun Nov 01, 2020 3:44 pm
.
Do you grow onions from, seeds, starts, or bulbs?

What are your weather conditions at the time of planting onions?

I start onions from seed. In a good year maybe half will grow to about 3", the rest smaller. I start them indoors in flats, in February, and plant out late April or early May - the end of our frost season. For overwintering I seed them outdoors in June/July. We have cool wet spring & fall, mild winters and hot dry summers.

Edited to add: Onion seed has a short (one year?) storage life. Fresh seed is recommended.

Vanisle_BC
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I seem to recall that onions are sensitive to day length. Some varieties are only suitable for northern growers and some are only good in the south - regardless of temperatures? So it would be important to choose types that grow well in your own region.

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Gary350
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Valentin01 wrote:
Tue Nov 03, 2020 5:11 pm
Onions want loose soil and good compost to get big. Also, the earlier you can plant them, the better. I have grown them here in the frozen northland and gotten decent sized onions (not huge, but 2 to 3 inches in diameter). When do you plant them, and which varieties have you tried?
I have planted, red, white & yellow onions. White & red never live. I have always planted bulbs but I read online seeds or starts are best for large onions. Starts are grown from seeds they are about 2 months old. My onion bed is, sand, compost, soil, mix. This spring I might buy 1000 lbs of sand for the onion bed. I find a lot of conflicting information online about fertilizer. Several people claim nitrogen grows large onions I have tried that it is not true. Some people claim potassium grows large onions I have tried that onions do grow a bit larger but not very much larger. Several people claim 15-15-15 fertilizer works great but not true I tried it. Commercial onion growers say best fertilizer is 5-20-20 with irrigation. Water cost less than fertilizer maybe I should try irrigation. There is too much false info online I need to talk to someone that knows for sure how to get large onions. I know what you mean about variety of onion sizes being a mystery. I found a YouTube video a woman that said she tried for many years to grow large onions with no success until she planted starts now she gets grocery store size onions. Woman says nothing about fertilizer but she waters plants every day. I am tired of experimenting. Maybe the real trick to grow large onions in TN is get them started 2 months early in the house before weather turns hot.

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applestar
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You don’t have to buy from them, but try reading this page. Dixondale Farms is a good information source. Based on their map, you would do best with "Intermediate" day length onions. You may be able to find the more common varieties as seeds or starts locally. Since you don’t get hard freeze ground, you could likely start your onions from seed now (I have to find ways to protect the seedlings while working around the waning vs. lengthening days and so far have not been completely/consistently successful)


Intermediate Day Onion Plants: Dixondale Farms
https://www.dixondalefarms.com/category ... day_onions

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Gary350
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Day length calculator shows

June 21 is 14 hrs 50 min of sunlight longest day of yr we will be having 95 to 98°F temperatures.

June 1st is 14 hrs 38 min 85° weather onions need to be harvested now.

May 1st is 13 hrs 43 mins of sunlight 70° weather.

April 1st shows 12 hrs 17 mins day temperatures 55° maybe. Last frost April 20

March 1st show 10 hrs 46 min 45° too cold for plants to grow outside.

Feb 1st is 9 hrs 33 min too cold 40° seeds won't germinate & plants won't grow outside.

Online says, onions are a 4 month crop & they do not like hot weather.

Starts are probably the correct thing to grow if I can plant them by April 1 and they need 2 months to grow then harvest will be June 1.

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This web page will tell you all there is to know about onion day-length sensitivity and which varieties will do well at your latitude:

https://tinyurl.com/y2xofhqk

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Gary350
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Vanisle_BC wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:39 pm
This web page will tell you all there is to know about onion day-length sensitivity and which varieties will do well at your latitude:

https://tinyurl.com/y2xofhqk
Link is good I will order starts from them about March to plant April 1st.

Online information. Freezing of onions becomes a problem at temperatures below -2°C (28°F). When soil is repeatedly frozen and thawed the plants can be heaved to the surface of the soil where they die from root damage and desiccation. Bulbs in the ground are less likely to be freeze damaged than those on the soil surface.

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Johnny’s is always good and reliable (particularly for northern growers). Been shopping there catalog/mail order for years. They have been moving towards dedicated to market growers and sometimes can be larger volume/quantity/price. But they have also consistently provided great and detailed growing instructions and information in their paper catalogs, and have kept up with the digital age so much of the info is available on their site. They did kick the backyard gardeners a bit when they began a subscription/membership category of information access and took down or devalued some of the freely available info ... but I suppose expectation of free info could be greedy under the circumstances.... :wink:

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I have grown onions from both seeds, bunching, reds, whites, yellows and sets, sets are easy as you just stuff them in the ground and go. Knowing what variety and day length helps a lot with productivity. Intermediate and short day for you. I've followed this guys lead on growing onions but use my own fertilizer following his procedures. I've also used his sets a few times with great success, I get the variety pack. You get a lot more onions then they say in the sets they ship! Good Luck
https://www.dixondalefarms.com/online_guides

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TomatoNut95
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I'VE NEVER grown onion from seed because I feel like sets are better. Problem is when I buy a bag of sets, I don't need that many.

What truly is the easily way to start onions?: Seeds, sets or transplant bunches?

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applestar
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Personally, I feel that in terms of general horticulture, both seeds and sets are in “dormant” mode, and need to be “awakened” into growth, whereas the transplants are alive and kicking, ready to grow — AND in the case of onions, they are forgiving and resilient. So even if you end up with mishandled dehydrated bunch, they will come back — they are mostly trying to go into dormant/survival phase. Only way those transplants would be hard to get to grow is if they have been overheated or kept too tightly wrapped or rubber banded.

Even way up here in NJ, delivery by 2-day priority from Dixondales in Texas arrive in great shape as long as you take care not to get caught in delay over a weekend. Being in Texas, you should be able to get good quality transplants. I would think there would be other sources that supply local garden centers as well. Northern growers have to rely on speciality location or equipped onion transplant growers because they simply won’t survive the winter here. Heck if I could grow them my self, I would.

Sooooo.... I guess that brings us back to seeds — if you live in an area where you can grow them that way, it might be worth your while to try growing from seeds starting in the fall/winter timeframe. Onions are not that hard to grow from seeds — fresh seeds Of the correct variety for your region being the most important. Weed control being another. My difficulty has always been the temperature and daylength supplied by artificial light through the winter (I have too many plants to have a dedicated area set up with limited day length Just for onions).

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Gary350
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Information I find online says.

Onion SEED is a 4 month cool weather crop. Fertilizer, irrigation, soft soil, 4" diameter onions are easy to grow.

STARTS are 1 month old plants grown from seeds, they are a 3 month cool weather crop. Fertilizer, irrigation, soft soil, it is easy to grow 4" diameter onions.

SETS are already 1 year old, they are a 4 month cool weather crop, fertilizer, irrigation, soft soil, they will grow 2½" diameter onions.

Best fertilizer 5-20-20

RED onions have a short shelf life about 1 month.

WHITE onions have a longer shelf life about 1½ to 2 months.

YELLOW onions also known as BROWN onions have the longest shelf live 2 to 3 months.

Texas onion growers grow onions in winter.

When I lived in AZ I remember a BIG onion field about 25 miles from home, I drive around it in the car it was 1 mile by 1.2 miles square = 768 acres. It was winter, I think it was February. It often gets down to 25 degrees sometimes 21.
Last edited by Gary350 on Mon Nov 30, 2020 7:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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TomatoNut95
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I couldn't grow onions in winter, it gets too cold. Speaking of cold, I need some fast help, please! I just got a freeze warning on my phone. Temperature says as low as 26! Do I need to cover everything? I have: cabbage, Swiss chard, lettuce and Brussel sprouts. All young plants. That's why I HATE Texas winters. Temperature never stays consistent enough to grow cold crops. It's either too warm, or too cold.

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applestar
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26 is NOTHING! I don’t think any of these need to be covered even — tho Some frost burn of outer leaves might Be possible if dried out. If worried it might get down to 24 or lower or it’s going down to 26 for extended period — say over 4 hours, then maybe one layer of old sheets or floating cover.

IMHO YMMV. Oh cabbage and Brussels Sprouts could be somewhat more susceptible if they are in heading/sprout stage of growth.

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TomatoNut95
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No, none of my plants are near the heading stage yet. Still young. All I have for cover is leaf mulch, buckets and pots. I don't know what happened to that sheet I used to have....
I do have an old tablecloth I'm gonna use. I don't know how long the 26 temp will last, but I just want to make sure.
I need to dig through my junk and see what I've got....

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Gary350
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Here is another good onion video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2GIXU_WFC0



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