Red Onions- long not bulbus.

[digitS']

I am farther north than you are too, Stubborn'. Farther north than anywhere in Maine. Ha!

(Okay BC gardeners, you can tell us about your onions .)

My sweet onions are beginning to bulb and I really don't know if I made room for them soon enuf! Even the onions purchased from Dixondale were crowded a bit by having rows of onion sets right down the middle! They should be fine and haven't done any flopping over but the plants that I grew from seed in the greenhouse - they were real tight from the get-go. Now that they are fairly well thinned, I'm hoping that they make some size in whatever days we have left to their season. . . .

Steve

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

They're not really bulbing either... but they have a ways to go yet methinks.

Now I've got a nice long green onion to incorporate into dinner

How are your onions looking? Just curious. I know that you are further north than I am, but wondering how you were making out.

Sorry for the late response...

We FINALLY got some sun here, so things are looking good. I had no idea one was supposed to fertilize onions to get them to be bulbous, I had read to not fertilize them because you'll get a strong oniony flavor. So here's them just a few minutes ago, still nice and green:

 

[Sunsaver]

If you want big onions, you have to treat them as a greens crop, not a root crop. Lots of nitrogen for big onions, but none for the potatoes and carrots. Soil that's rich in nitrogen will cause potato scab and a poor harvest of potatoes. To get big onions you also need the proper day-length variety for your area, planted at the right time of year. Short day planted in fall for south. Long day planted in spring for the north. If the commercial growers can make big onions, home-growers should be able to as well, even with organic growing practices.

 

[digitS']

The onion roots are those little scraggly things that hang down from the bulb. The plant should have quite a few of those things - roots. The onion is really quite good at growing them, given the proper conditions.

I would have trouble growing onions in a container. And, yours look like they are doing well, SCG. Mine would probably just survive. Onions are good at survival, usually in competition with other plants or where they are shaded. Little sun, little room - they survive.

They can also survive with soil moisture pretty much only during the earliest part of the growing season. Of course, they will only grow to a tiny size. Even if you neglect to harvest them in the fall, many of them can survive a lot of cold so they might show up next spring and surprise you. Surprise you, that is - if you are wearing your glasses and can find them.

The idea, as Sunsaver suggests, is to give them all that they want - sun, room, soil moisture, and a fertile ground to grow in. Then, they will decide to grow big.

Stubborn', I have some bunching onions this year that look very much yours. They are "Goddess" from Osborne Seed. I am NOT expecting them to form bulbs because the description is for bunching onions. I didn't grow "Mars" this year. They are red bulbing onions. "Red Bull" is another bulbing onion but the name . . . I mean, getting charged up from an energy drink is one thing. Maybe I just don't like the idea of getting charged up from the onion in my sandwich. Besides, I have memories of actual red bulls and they don't quite fit with onions and drinks.

Anyway, after sacrificing your best garden soil and location and attending to his every need for water and feeding - there's not much more required from you by your onion . . . Oh, DO chose the variety wisely. You don't want your easily-confused onion to think he is in Texas when he is really in Minnesota or, the other way around. And, whether he is ornery or not depends quite a lot on his family history.

Steve

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

digitS, yes just a little farther north than me! I dug a little bit of soil off the top of some of my onions as recommended by a very experienced gardener. It seems to have helped, bulb out some of them. It of course could also be time, or something else that has encouraged them to bulb. Either way, my cucumber and squash plants are now encrouching on my onions, so there time is nearly up! You mention the "Red Bull". I find it so interesting the names people come up with. Yeah, do you really want to be talking to someone that just ate a sandwich with a slice of "Red Bull" on it? Sounds leathal to me!

 

[Neko-Chan]

I'm experimenting with growing onions from seed. I sowed two rows of onion seeds in the garden plot at the beginning of winter (or late autumn, maybe). I chose two varieties, California Red and Hunter River Brown. They're both supposed to be bulbing onions. I also have seeds for bunching onions, but haven't planted those yet. I'm waiting for early spring.

I just sowed mine in rows, but I read that if you were going to grow from seed, you can sow five or six seeds into a small pot, and then transplant the seedlings to the row and let them grow in clumps. Supposedly they push each other apart as they grow.

I never saw the point in sowing a baby onion to get a big onion. It kinda defeats the purpose for me, I guess.

I did get about four bulbs of something called a "brown potato onion". I think these are supposed to grow in clumps like shallots do.