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ID jit
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Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:00 am
Location: SE New England: zone twilight or 5b... hard for me to tell some days.

Onions going to seed early ???

(No, I haven't done a soil test.)

Bought the generic, mixed bag of onion sets (white, yellow and red.) Planted early in sandy soil, received lots of water. I ended up with some impressive tops, which are now starting to generate the blossom/seed things. All is well except I have golf ball sized onions.

My guess is too much N gave me the impressive tops, and either too much P or K is causing them to seed early.

Any ideas or suggestions?

bri80
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Posts: 282
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2016 5:12 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Onions types vary significantly in how they should be grown. There are "long day (storage)," "short day (over-wintered)" and "indeterminate day (sweet spanish)" varieties. How you grow them and the results you get depend entirely on which type you're growing. It sounds like you're not sure what type you have...?

Also, sets tend to produce plants that go to seed early, so I'd suspect that as your main issue. I don't understand why sets are popular, personally - grown from seed is way better.

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ID jit
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Posts: 339
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 10:00 am
Location: SE New England: zone twilight or 5b... hard for me to tell some days.

Okay,makes sense. Thanks much.

Onion Seeds? Have never seen a package of them, only sets... Will track some down and try them next year. Going to try to "brown bag" the seed heads I have.

Have shallots next row over form the onions and they just blew up. Looking at that I wasn't sure if it was a soil issue or what? Kind of didn't make sense to me.



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