How do I get bigger onions?

[wiswash]

Hi, My first 2 years of gardening I planted set onions and they did not grow very large. I think that they did not even grow 50% larger. I do not fertilize but that didnt stop my other vegys from growing well. Any tips on how to improve my yield of onions.? My soil is a clay loam in Wisconsin. Thanks

 

[lesa]

Did you get them in the soil early?? I put mine in the minute I can work the soil. If you started them too late, that could have been the problem. Adding organic matter to your soil, is always a good idea. Do you have chickens? Are you composting kitchen waste? What type of onion did you plant?

 

[Greenthumb18]

It does help to get them planted early in the spring to give them enough time. I've always tried growing onions from the onion sets, but next season I'm going to plant onion plants which are sold in bunches instead. I think onion plants will give better success. Their's a variety I'm going to plant called, Ailsa Craig Exhibition Onions they grow to be 2 pounds, that's pretty big for an onion i would think.

I hope this helps!!

 

[journey11]

Make sure also that you are getting the right type of onion for your area (especially if you are ordering your sets from a catalog.....generally anything you find in your local garden center or feed store will be the right type for your area.)

Here is a quick quote taken from http://www.chestnut-sw.com/fastfact/oniontypes.htm that explains it well:

Fast Facts:
Long-day and Short-day Onions
When you are shopping for onion varieties to plant in your vegetable garden, you will often see them listed as either short-day onions or long-day onions. Which ones to grow depend upon where you live.

Most onion varieties begin to form a bulb when the temperature and the number of daylight hours reach certain levels. Varieties listed as short-day onions bulb up when the day length is between 12 and 14 hours. Long-day onions, on the other hand, begin to form a bulb when the day length is between 14 and 16 hours.

Northern gardeners should plant long-day onions. In the North, daylight length varies greatly as you get farther and father away from the equator. Winter days are very short, but summer days are long. Long-day onions will have a chance to produce lots of top growth (hence produce bigger bulbs) before the day length triggers bulbing. If short-day onions were grown in the North, the onions would bulb up too early and they would be small by comparison.

Southern gardeners should plant short-day onions. In the South, there is much less variation in day length between seasons than up North. If long-day onions were planted in the South, they may not experience enough day length to trigger the bulbing process.

Get them in early, so they have more time to put down their roots before they decide to make tops and bulbs. The better the root system, the more nutrients they'll pull in for growth. If you procrastinate, they won't be ready when daylength triggers bulbing. Usually this is as soon as the soil is workable in the spring and danger of freezing is past. Make sure your soil is loose, fertile and well-draining too.

Mine did pretty well last year, but I heard about a trick using low-tunnels to get them out even earlier and I am going to try it this spring. Hoping I can get them all baseball sized!

 

[vfem]

Get them in EARLY, as soon as the ground is soft... if you expect a random snow or cold snap GREAT! That's a good thing... they need long cool periods to grow. Warmth just makes them flower.

Here I plant in October and put out some great sized onions in mid June.

I have to FORCE cool weather on them.

 

[digitS']

And, onion bulbs are the base of the leaves, Wiswash.

They grow large as a result of the flourishing of the leaves. That means green chlorophyll and nitrogen for that chlorophyll.

Like grass, onions are monocots. Think of a bed of onions almost as tho' they are a lawn that you are trying to grow as lush and full as possible. Look at the fertilizer requirements of lawn grass -- that very high first number (the N, for nitrogen).

Lots of water . . . onions are a crop with a high demand.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

It does help to get them planted early in the spring to give them enough time. I've always tried growing onions from the onion sets, but next season I'm going to plant onion plants which are sold in bunches instead. I think onion plants will give better success. Their's a variety I'm going to plant called, Ailsa Craig Exhibition Onions they grow to be 2 pounds, that's pretty big for an onion i would think.

I hope this helps!!

I never had any luck planting bulbs but planst do very well for me in Northern IN. Agree with plant as early as you can. same w/garlic.

 

[sparkles2307]

We got a bag of onion sets from the local nursery last year, same as we do every year. They 100% guarantee everything they sell. We've never had problems. We planted onions twice from them last year and both times they just rotted in the ground, not one started to grow. What caused that?

 

[sonjab314]

Has anyone ever started onions from seeds? Just curious.

 

[digitS']

This is very early in the season. The flats of onions were started indoors then moved into1st the greenhouse (which could more acurately be called a sunshed), then into the plastic tunnel. The beds have been planted to Asian greens and lettuce which are just beginning to emerge. It was a rather dark early spring day:

Edited to show 1 of the flats, earlier in the greenhouse:

And, a bed of bunching onions out in the garden. They were started by seed, indoors: