Planting Onions

[jal_ut]

Planting Onions

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/plant_onion.JPG[/img]

[DoubleDogFarm]

Very good James.

Hope this isn't a dumb question Have you noticed any difference between one long row vs. many short rows. Block planting.

Is the long row a barrier for some other crop or is just because I can.

Eric

[jal_ut]

I have experimented with some block plantings, and wide rows. I like to plant a block with radishes on a 2 inch x 2 inch grid for as big as you want to make it. Doing this every seed makes a nice root. I like to plant 4 or 5 rows of peas 10 inches apart. Lots of peas doing this and the plants seem to hold each other up. No trellis. I often plant 3 rows of onions from seed 10 or 12 inches apart then leave a wider space of 30 inches for access.

I know we think that an onion doesn't seem to have a large top and only a 3 inch bulb, but truth be known, under the ground the roots go up to 18 inches radius. Hence rows at 30 inches will have intertwined roots. I have not had good luck with bed planting of onions meant to go for large bulbs, but find good success with 30 inch rows and plants 6 inches apart in the rows.

Three rows spaced 10 or 12 inches then a wider row of 30 inches works well for some of the other smaller plants like beets, turnips, spinach and carrots. In any event it is good practice to not plant too thickly. Any plant will develop and produce better if it is not closely crowded.

What works well for you Eric?

Edit: I like 3 or 4 close spaced rows better than a bed with seed tossed on at random. The reason being it is easy to drag a hoe between the close rows to weed it. It is a problem to weed a bed with seed at random.

[Duh_Vinci]

I knew you'd be starting sometime soon! And my God, how much I admire the view you have!!!

Regards,
D

[jal_ut]

At present it is snowing. The forecast has it snowing through Tuesday. I did manage to plant some onions, both seed and sets, and also some spinach, and a little bit of broccoli, kale, cabbage, peas and radishes. That is about all I wanted to plant this early. Most years I don't get a chance to plant until April. This year is a little different. I guess you can say my seed is getting watered?

[applestar]

Off to a great start!

So, when would you expect these seeds to come up? I sowed some peas back on 2/20 and I noticed they started to come up 3/13 and are almost all up now. I also sowed some pre-germinated peas 3/9 (since we weren't expecting any freezing temperatures) and they started coming up a few days ago.

[jal_ut]

I expect the seeds to come up in ten days to two weeks. It will depend on how warm the weather is for the next while. It really hasn't been all that warm here as my fall planted garlic is just starting to show.

[gixxerific]

Beuatiful as always James. Good to see you getting something in.

Though am I hearing you right that I should have not block planted mine. I went by the following which is what I did last year and it was the best onion harvest I ever had in my many years of gardening. Though that could very well be because I finally got some good plants for once.

Got my plants from Dixondale and this is what they suggest:

2. Plant

Plant your onions 4 to 6 weeks before the last estimated spring freeze. (Your agricultural extension service can tell you when that is.) For the best growth and yield, onions need fertilizer right from the start. Use a fertilizer with the middle number higher than the other two, such as 10-20-10.


■ Dig a trench that's 4" deep and 4" wide. Sprinkle ½ cup fertilizer per 10 linear feet of row. Cover the fertilizer with 2" of soil.
■Plant the onions 6" from the edge of the trench on both sides of the trench. DO NOT plant the onions in the trench! Leave a 2" margin between the onions and the outside edge of the bed.
■Plant the onions 1" deep and no deeper, as this will inhibit their ability to bulb.

If you want the onions to grow to maturity, space them 4" apart. If you prefer to harvest some earlier as green onions, space them 2" apart and pull every other onion during the growing season, leaving the rest to grow to maturity.

When planting several rows of onions, leave 16" between the outside edge of one bed, and the outside edge of the next. The spacing from the center of one fertilizer trench to the center of the next should be 36".

[gixxerific]

On another note my fall garlic is going gang busters. It HAS been WARM (hot) here. If you want any come harvest for next year PLEASE let me know I would be more than happy to hook you up.

Dono

[jal_ut]

Dixondale's plan sounds good.

■ Dig a trench that's 4" deep and 4" wide. Sprinkle ½ cup fertilizer per 10 linear feet of row. Cover the fertilizer with 2" of soil.
■Plant the onions 6" from the edge of the trench on both sides of the trench. DO NOT plant the onions in the trench!

So if the trench is 4 inches and you stay 6 inches away from it on both sides, your rows of onions will be 16 inches apart. That is just right if you ask me.

The spacing from the center of one fertilizer trench to the center of the next should be 36".

This is also good. It could be reduced to 32 inches.

If you want the onions to grow to maturity, space them 4" apart. If you prefer to harvest some earlier as green onions, space them 2" apart and pull every other onion during the growing season, leaving the rest to grow to maturity.

I will give a little different viewpoint here. Pulling every other onion later will damage the roots of those left and slow them down. I would also suggest 6 inch spacing between plants if you want the real nice large bulbs. Many varieties will easily go over 4 inches if they have the room. If you want some for green onions plant them 1 inch apart and pull them all when you harvest.

Whether you make a fertilizer trench or not doesn't matter to me if you have properly prepared the soil by loosening it up and applied fertilizer.
Onion roots do not penetrate hard soils very well.

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/sr_3_21_2012.jpg[/img]

[jal_ut]

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/plantin_onion.jpg[/img]

These are little onion plants that were grown in Texas and shipped to the local garden store. I got 4 bundles of three different types. About 90 plants in this bundle.

[jal_ut]

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/sr_3_23_2012_2.jpg[/img]

The sunrise over my garden this morning. When the sun gets up, its back to planting onions. I planted some onion seed earlier, but it is not up yet. The seed goes mostly for green onions.

[pickupguy07]

! And my God, how much I admire the view you have!!!

Regards,
D

Yeah with that view.... do the gardening, grab a cold one, and sit back and enjoy the beauty.

[Northernfox]

Jal_ut

looks like you have a similar growing season. when you are planting your onions you don't wait for the below freezing temperatures to stop?

[applestar]

I had some abandoned onions from last year in the garden beds that survived the mild winter and started o regrow. Most of them had twin plants, and seeing how jal's purchased onion plants looked, I decided to perform separation surgery on them today.

I went out with my gardening chef's knife, and pushed it down as exactly between the two plants as possible, then sliced the soil around one and used a trowel to lift out. I was successful with most of them and they are now lined up with sufficient space between them. Some that I misjudged and sliced off without roots have come inside for dinner along with upper part of the green tops of the transplanted onions who received a haircut....

[btrowe1]

Jal,
I noticed you are planting bulbs and plant onions, I have access to both types, do you find you get a better onion from one type or the other.. I have always used the bulb type was never sure what I would get using the plant type. your bulbs look much larger than what I get though. Thanks

[jal_ut]

The bulbs/sets were about marble size, which is just right. Larger bulbs tend to want to go to seed. They are of the variety Utah Yellow Spanish Onion. These always do well for me.

The plants: I got three varieties. Walla Walla from Washington. I have grown Walla Walla before and they do OK, but some do not make good bulbs. Red Zepplin Onions, and Big Daddy from Texas. The Big Daddy's stand out as the largest bulbs I have ever grown. I haven't tried these reds before, so we shall see.

I have had good results with both bulbs and plants. Can't say one is better than another, with the exception that if the sets are too large they go to seed. Get the right sized sets, they do well.

I also plant onion seed. I planted a row of bunching onions and a row of Yellow Spanish onions from seed.

I also grow Egyptian Walking onions and planted a row of bulbils. These quickly make green onions.

Onions are cold hardy. You can plant them as soon as you can get on your ground. Right now it is about two months until the date of my last average frost.

[btrowe1]

Thank you for the reply, I'd luv to try reds but the squirrels like those as food here, it will be the white varietys, but I may just try the plants as well as the sets this year..
Would luv to get out but am nursing a fractured tiba for another week or 2.. I just bought a tiller too, had the son (15) start to till the garden but I guess it was a little harder to do than it looked, I got a good laugh as I watched him trying to keep up. I told him he should be glad he has a tiller I use to do it with a shovel, the look I received was pretty priceless, He did a good job but it is a hard job, Can't wait to get all clear..

[FruitAddict]

I've got to know Applestar and anyone else who knows...

I've got a few questions in regards to dividing and replanting over-wintered onions. I planted a few onions in a spot they didn't do to well in last year and left them in the ground - now all are starting to grow again.

1.) when dividing should you take off the somewhat rotten layers of onion or leave that on?

2.) if you accidently tear almost all the roots off one of them discard or plant anyway?

3.) sould you cut back the tops when replanting?

4.) If tops are droppy will they survive or should I just discard those?

5.) can you also do this with store bought onions which have started to grow green shoots but no roots?

Any precise instructions would be great if someone knows how this is done.

[jal_ut]

I guess it doesn't matter much how you do it, those overwintered onions will most likely just want to go to seed. Onions are biennial. You can eat them if you wish as green onions early in the season. Just peel off all the old layers. The seed leaf and bloom are edible too.

The only exception is if you planted seed late in the season and overwintered very small onions, then they can be grown for bulbs and will most likely make a nice bulb.

If you want to try growing those overwintered onions, just pull them or dig them, and peel off all the old layers, then separate the shoots and replant them. It won't hurt to prune the top some since you are going to lose some roots and this will balance it out. Onions are tough. If they can pull plants in Texas and ship them North bare root, you should have no problems getting them to grow.

In any case, I would be interested to hear how it turns out growing these overwintered onions.

[btrowe1]

My onions came in, I purchased red and white (storage type) onion sets, not too pleased with the sizes of the bulbs. small like a quarter to a dime in size.
I'm planning on planting them this coming weekend, I tilled up the garden and it looks good for the area where they're going to go.tilled in lots of leaves and grass that were on the bottom of the compost pile area.

I'm going to follow the directions that were posted earlier in the post. I'm going to stick to a 4" to 6" spacing using long rows, like Jal-uts picture, I should end up with 40' to 60' onions rowed, (my garden is 20' wide) I want to keep them for storage purposes, not sure if the reds will make it as the running grays seem to like them..squirrels that is.. Maybe the sweetness.

Is there anthing special you all suggest, I have about 320 bulbs to put in.
Thanks as always.

Gosh I'm glad to get started.. I think a bit early for up here but the trees have buds and some have leaves so I guess its okay..

[rustycrusty]

New to this forum, I put my sets in 2 weeks ago and they are up about 2" above the ground now. Never planted them before. I'm kinda new to the gardening scene, just started when I retired 3 yrs ago. I bet you have to
have a rope tied around your leg and drug out of bed in the morning with a view like that. 5000 Feet yikes that is about 1200 feet higher than the tallest place we have in Virginia!

[klevelyn]

Nice garden view.

I too planted onions, peas, radishes, kale, spinach and chard. My peas are just now peeking through and the radish and spinach is up.

It was such a beautiful day today, warm and a nice view of snow on the mountains. I hope the summer isn't to dry.

[applestar]

We had lots of rain, then a couple of sunny days. I noticed a few more onions that overwintered in the ground that had multiple shoots and these had somewhat spread apart and were leaning in opposite directions. When I grasped one near the base and pulled steadiy sideways, the shoot came up with some roots attached -- as long as 4-5 inches. So I pulled and planted them (nearly burned my dinner in the mean time as I had only come out to get a few green onions )

I think the onion shoots swelled with water and pushed away from eachother, and the moisture had softened the base where they are joined.

These tend to be thickness of my pinkie -- thicker than a pencil but thinner than a sharpie marker.

Last time I did this, the transplanted ones got droopy shortly afterwards so I cut the top third of the green. I trimmed these shoots as well. I think it makes sense as they lost a lot of roots.

I don't discard but eat the nice trimmed greens and ones that didn't get any base of the shoot at all, but if it has that hard calloused (kind of) base, I think there's a good chance that roots will grow. I had so much and don't have enough garden space as it is so I only transplanted ones with all or almost all of the base.