DUCKS for THEE in 2023

[ducks4you]

It has been dry and temperatures have been up and down. I buy 400 bales of hay for every winter and the trick is to count flakes so that it lasts until the pastures are ready. From November to almost May I put my 3 horses in their stalls every night, but I try to turn them out every day. When it's dry like today I can drop a whole bale outside.
They do not waste hay in their stalls, and usually don't waste any when it's dry outside.
The manger in their shelter...that's another story! When it's wet and sloppy then I feed in the manger of their 16 1/2' x 19' shelter.

 

[heirloomgal]

It has been dry and temperatures have been up and down. I buy 400 bales of hay for every winter and the trick is to count flakes so that it lasts until the pastures are ready. From November to almost May I put my 3 horses in their stalls every night, but I try to turn them out every day. When it's dry like today I can drop a whole bale outside.
They do not waste hay in their stalls, and usually don't waste any when it's dry outside.
The manger in their shelter...that's another story! When it's wet and sloppy then I feed in the manger of their 16 1/2' x 19' shelter.

View attachment 54904

Wow!

 

[flowerbug]

We grew a red onion last year that I absolutely adore. I'm so tempted to save seed, but have heard that it requires quite a number of plants to keep the seed healthy and prevent decline. Trying to decide if I want to bother planting so many... but there are not many sources of seed. (it was supposed to be a red spring onion but it formed modest-sized bulbs, no doubt due to neglect and my forgetting to check on it. it was so sweet and good in sandwiches, and salads too! Apache, at Territorial Seed)

it can be interesting to do something to learn even if you know later on you may refresh your seed supply again.

Have any of you saved your own onion seed before?

yes, and i learned that some do just fine not being planted for several years -- despite what the references say.

i have a real onion patch now with several different kinds of onions and i test them in very harsh circumstances to see if they survive.

today while going through some containers i came across some onion seed and dried pods that hadn't been completely cleaned up or labelled so i don't know what kind of onions they might be. i will send those seeds to the worm buckets to be recycled into more onion food.

my preferential use of onions is as a green vegetable in late winter and early spring when they start growing again. i want something fresh for eating as soon as i can pick it in reasonable condition. the same for green garlic but that is a difficult thing for me to harvest here (i often get very busy and forget until it is too late). the green garlic itself is very easy to grow because like onions nothing bothers it much other than trampling it.

 

[ducks4you]

All great ideas, here!
I think it is a good idea to realize what seeds you cannot save successfully and plan on buying those. Today I'm going to grab a couple of dried out heads of the African daisies I planted last year. I know that they are invasive, but the birds have had a go at the seedheads alreay.
I ended up planting one package that had more pinkish flowers on one bed, and another with more salmonish flowers on the other side, and the I will replant the latter Here, give the former to DD's.

 

[digitS']

I have saved seed for only one allium. I'll come back to that ...

Easy to grow onions? My garden is only about 200 miles north of Walla Walla. So, sow seed in late August? Tried that for 2 years and there was just too much Winter kill. The origin of that variety was an island in the Mediterranean - wrong location for such a casual approach. I just sow seeds in the unheated greenhouse about now and just be careful about the flat freezing.

Walking onions in our Winters survive outdoors but I don't care for them.

Shallots will do fine with seed sown in the Springtime, outdoors. When I decided to save seeds - the only shallot seed that I knew about were listed as hybrids. Okay, I decided to see what they would do as saved seed. Easy to save and only a few plants were left to over-winter. I guess that I'm now on F3 and I don't know what I've got! The original was a "French type," last year's were round and white ..? I have never grown potato onions but they are related to shallots - maybe that was one parent to the hybrid!

Anyway, I planted Zebuna shallots in 2022. I thought that this non-hybrid was just fine but DW doesn't care for them. Ya know, I think that if she was honest about it - it's just because Zebuna is so homely . Ha! Autocorrect changed Zebuna to "Devine" -- see, it doesn't matter what they look like if they taste devine!

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

Would that we could find a domestic onion that would spread itself like wild onions do...ALL OVER MY YARD!!!

 

[Phaedra]

I have saved seed for only one allium. I'll come back to that ...

Easy to grow onions? My garden is only about 200 miles north of Walla Walla. So, sow seed in late August? Tried that for 2 years and there was just too much Winter kill. The origin of that variety was an island in the Mediterranean - wrong location for such a casual approach. I just sow seeds in the unheated greenhouse about now and just be careful about the flat freezing.

Walking onions in our Winters survive outdoors but I don't care for them.

Shallots will do fine with seed sown in the Springtime, outdoors. When I decided to save seeds - the only shallot seed that I knew about were listed as hybrids. Okay, I decided to see what they would do as saved seed. Easy to save and only a few plants were left to over-winter. I guess that I'm now on F3 and I don't know what I've got! The original was a "French type," last year's were round and white ..? I have never grown potato onions but they are related to shallots - maybe that was one parent to the hybrid!

Anyway, I planted Zebuna shallots in 2022. I thought that this non-hybrid was just fine but DW doesn't care for them. Ya know, I think that if she was honest about it - it's just because Zebuna is so homely . Ha! Autocorrect changed Zebuna to "Devine" -- see, it doesn't matter what they look like if they taste devine!

Steve

I tried last autumn a small bag of onion set, winter kill, too. I guess I will never try it again. The scallions I sowed in late January are germinating now, and I will sow onion seeds this Friday.

 

[digitS']

Yes, I know about wild ones, Ducks' but, fortunately, don't have those loose in the lawn.

Just looked at the USDA database. Seven pages of different onions in the US, yep, wild natives and introduced invasives.

I should learn more about the Walla Walla. Somehow, I suspect that even in that valley they have to be cared for in a special way and don't "go wild." Wonderful onion, though. Well worth the small effort it takes for us to grow. Tried Vidalia once - before I really understood the day length thing. Little, golf ball size bulbs is what I had, here at this latitude.

Oh, and onions from sets @Phaedra - realize that you are limited on choices. And, if you save them for storage - they tend to be not to everyone's preference, flavorwise. Me, for example .

 

[flowerbug]

Would that we could find a domestic onion that would spread itself like wild onions do...ALL OVER MY YARD!!!

had you mentioned that i would have sent you samples of 7 or so onion types i have and a few of them have shown no problem at all being treated like natives. though i don't think they're good for horses or dogs. remind me the beginning of March and i'll send you an envelope. you like green onions?

 

[meadow]

I have saved seed for only one allium. I'll come back to that ...

Easy to grow onions? My garden is only about 200 miles north of Walla Walla. So, sow seed in late August? Tried that for 2 years and there was just too much Winter kill. The origin of that variety was an island in the Mediterranean - wrong location for such a casual approach. I just sow seeds in the unheated greenhouse about now and just be careful about the flat freezing.

I noticed just this morning that Quail Seeds has a new for 2023 (new for them anyway) sweet white onion that sounds intriguing:

Ailsa Crag: Big, mild, easy-to-grow onions. If you haven't been happy with the size of your onions, try this jumbo type. Farmers report immense yields per row foot. For fresh eating and short-term storage. Mild sweet onions don't keep as well as hard pungent types, but Ailsa Craig is a better keeper than most. Ailsa Craig is the name of an island in Scotland, where it was developed. These have wide adaptation--from 38 degrees to 60 degrees latitude--making them an easy choice in most parts of the country and up into Canada. Also known as Ailsa Craig Exhibition, because in England, people compete to grow the biggest ones, like pumpkins in the US.