Multiple Bulbs -- Why?

[ninnymary]

My garlic and onions did great this year. The one thing I've noticed is that a couple of them have the start of multiple bulbs in them. Did I harvest them too late? I don't know if the garlic is soft or hard neck. I bought it at the grocery store. The onions were walla walla starts from home depot.

My onion tops were still green and not really drying up. But I did notice that the shoulders of the onions were starting to dry out so I decided to harvest them. The bulbs are hugh and alittle green. Did I harvest too early?

Thanks
Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you got the garlic at the grocery store, it's probably hardneck. That stores and handles better so that is what they usually sell.

By multiple bulbs on the garlic, are you just talking about it making multiple cloves? That's what garlic is supposed to do.

I've had a few onions make true double bulbs, with rings and everything. But did your onions bolt and make a seed head? That stalk that the seed head grows on seems to make a second bulb since it is separate, but I don't consider that a usable bulb. It is solid and does not have rings in it. I toss it.

In your climate, I don't know if you harvested the onions too early or not. If you did, they won't store as well. They may be fine, I just don't know.

My onions don't store all that great, so I separated out what I think we'll use before they go bad and hung them up. The rest, I chopped and froze in vacuum bags, putting 2 cups of onions in each vacuum bag. When the fresh onions run out, I'll open one of these bags and put them in a ziplock bag that I'll keep in the freezer to use as I need them.

 

[ninnymary]

No Ridgerunner, the garlic were not cloves. They looked liked there were going to be 3 heads. This made me wonder if I pulled them too late.

As far as the onions go, they were alittle greenish, so I wasn't sure if I harvested them too early.

No, my onions didn't bolt nor did they produce anything that might have been a flower. They did grow hugh and all I used was my compost with chicken poop. They are alittle bigger than the stores!

Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

I made a mistake. Most of the garlic available at the store is softneck, not hardneck, so yours is likely softneck. That's what I get for depending on memory instead of verifying before I post.

I've never had garlic do that. Either it forms cloves or it has just one bulb. I have had them with just a few cloves, but they were clearly cloves. I can't explain what you are describing. My garlic tops were dying before I harvested it this year, so I don't think that would be caused by you pulling it late.

Sounds like your onions really did well. The only downside if you did harvest them early is that they would probably not store as well as normal. Again my onion tops were finished when I harvested mine.

 

[ninnymary]

Oh no, now I'm worried. My onion tops were just bent not browning. But the bulbs were drying so that's why I pulled them. I did leave a few that weren't very big. I think I'll leave those in for alot longer. I really do want my onions to last/store awhile.

Mary

 

[digitS']

The onions will probably be fine, Mary. It seems like I remember the recommendation to pull & cure onions when they are near their time to die back IF you are expecting days of rain. I'm never expecting days of rain during mid-summer so this could just be a phantom memory.

Whatever the case, the scoop on Walla Walla is expect "several weeks" of storage to plan on a storage life of "2 to 4 months." I've always thought my sweet onions have done well when I get them from a 1st of August harvest to the 1st of December. That's 4 months.

Other varieties will do better than that, of course. I was pleased with Ovation last year. (It got a 2012 encore performance .) Ovation was part of a "sweet onion" study by a couple of universities recently so, I guess it qualifies. Generally, if you want them around in the winter, it is best to choose something other than a sweet onion.

You should "cure" your onions as best you can for best storage life. You want them dry and that outer skin, tight. Just looking at this on curing onions in Massachusetts (click). I have always thought that sunlight during curing was not a very good idea but where humidity is higher - it may make sense to allow the sun to help with the drying.

My onions will sit on the step outside the greenhouse where they receive maybe 1 hour of late afternoon sunlight, at most. They are turned several times thru about a week. Keep in mind, my location is one with very low summer humidity.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've had them rot in the ground when it set in wet and they were mature, so I can understand that suggestion to get them out early if it is going to set in wet.

I made some drying racks (I guess that is what you call them) by making a frame with 2x4's and covering the opening with hardware cloth. I prop that up on one end so it can get air under it to help dry. It's more of a shallow box with the bottom made out of wire.

Mary, I agree you are probably OK. This is the first time you said the tops were bent. That means they were finishing.

 

[ducks4you]

I had some big 2 year old bulbs that I just harvested. I braided them to the grape vines where there are some open spaces. They are drying nicely there. I'll get some pictures this weekend to show. I'm downloading like 150 photos from the 4th--just no room to get them all to Photobucket!

 

[plainolebill]

Garlic sometimes produces 'double' cloves which aren't that easy to spot, if you plant one of the double cloves you'll get two bulbs growing together. You can see it by looking at the root end of a clove. It's a little hard to explain but the root end will look a something like a figure 8 with a narrowing between the individual cloves. All in one wrapper of course - wouldn't want to make it too easy.

 

[ninnymary]

Thanks for the info. plainolebill. That makes perfect sense! I knew someone here would have the answer! I just love this site.

Mary