Spanish Onions making me cry!

[HunkieDorie23]

My spanish onions are making me cry and not in a yummy slicing them to eat way.

I bought some seed last summer on amazon because is was a really good price. I bought red onion (growing great), some pearl type onion (which is what I was looking for) and some spanish onion seed. The spanish seed will not grow for me. I don't know if it was old seed or what. I started all three over a month ago. The first two doing great, spanish onion fizzled only got 27. So I thought OK I restart the and seed heavy, took the lid off (been about a week), 3 sprouts!

I have 88 red, and 80 pearl doing great. I am also doing scallions so I am not sure if I should chuck the rest of the spanish onion seed and plant more of the others. I don't use that much of the red mostly just for salsa and sauces that I want a kick in. Do the red onions store well? I didn't think so. I usually use a larger yellow onion as my storing work horse.

I was growing the pearl onions to try to can, but since I have never actually canned or pickled any before I am not sure if I should plant more of those and just use them all winter. Anyone use pearl onions as a winter staple?

 

[digitS']

'Dorie, if you look at most any expert information on seeds (here's one: Seed Viability) you will see that onion seeds rate right down there at the bottom in viability.

I think that Iowa State is a little too pessimistic about any & all of the seed in that table. Still, it has been my experience that onion seed is the first to go. Onion seed was sprinkled into the soil of a house plant about a month ago - 10 seeds of 3 varieties. The Walla Walla Sweets (a Spanish type) had a 2009 date on the package. Those had 6 germinate. That isn't very good but the seed is now 3 years past fresh . . .

My seed storage conditions must be very good - dry, cool basement shelves. Many areas of the country have much higher humidity.

A little off-topic: If I remember right, the seed for Walla Walla came originally from Corsica, which is a Mediterranean island controlled by France. It was brought to the Walla Walla Valley by Italians . . . we call this entire class of onions, "Spanish." I may be planting an over-wintering type this August that was developed in Japan! I've just learned that there are more than 4 strains of Walla Walla! I've got a new one to try this year but 1st, I'd better use up that old seed . . . and, I don't want to rely too heavily on the Utah Sweets! They tend to do better anyway .

. . . Your other questions. I can't store scallions too long in the fridge. The sets are put into the ground as long as they can still be coming out of the fridge and looking good. That gives me as long a scallion season as I can push it. Japanese bunching onions (from seed) make up for the rest of the season. Maybe I can say that leeks take their place (started in the greenhouse, very early). I don't care much about the bulb onions I get from the sets and try not to have very many left by the time they begin to bulb up.

Pearl onions can just come from late-sown Sweets since they will begin to form bulbs when the hours of sunlight prompt them to. If the seed has gone in about late May, the plants will not have made much growth when this begins to happen. You could can them. If they have very high sugar content, I don't suppose that the pearl size onions would last very long in storage.

Steve

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Well the scallions I wasn't planning to store, I was just looking at if I could keep growing them in place of the spanish onions. If I could keep them growing into Nov and Dec, chances are I could use them enough to replace the yellow onions. I am not sure if I can, I am looking at raised bed hoop houses.

As for the pearl onions and red onions, I have been reading on the internet and it looks like most people store them in the freezer. I just don't know if I want to double down on red onions because they do have a different flavor. I read that pearl onions are short day onions grown in the north, I have a lot of viable crystal white seed. Can I plant them closer because they really don't make a big bulb so that could replace them? That is a lot of work though. Having to peel all those pearl onions. I may just go out and buy a set at the store.

 

[digitS']

Evergreen bunching onions are on quite a few shelves at the garden centers. He-shi-ko and Nebuka are others that I have grown. Actually, I think one or another of these is the same variety but with a different name. They are very useful as scallions early but tend to get quite hot late in the season.

I've grown Tokyo White bunching onions for quite a few years. If you just leave them alone thru the early part of the season, they will grow quite large and begin to resemble leeks. If 2 or 3 of the outer leaves are stripped off in September, the inner layers are still nice and tender. They are suitable for most anything.

This year, I'm going in with the scallions at a "Gallop" (click). Osborne and some other seed companies sell this variety. I grew it last year and was really quite happy with it. I didn't try to get it too late in the season, however. I may end up missing the Tokyo Whites but, we will see.

Steve

 

[digitS']

They never form a bulb . . .

I went on quite a bit about what I call "Japanese bunching onions" without actually saying that. I don't know which ones you are growing for scallions, 'Dorie. It might be these.

Of course, you can use any young onion for a scallion, or what many of us call a "green onion."

Bunching onions are what are sometimes called, "Welsh onions." I guess that the Welsh people actually have rather unique onions but these ain't them . They may not be truly "Japanese" either but the Japanese cooks make awfully good use of them . It is my understanding that the "green onions" we are buying in the soopermarkets are these types, or hybrids of this type. Allium fistulosum is actually a perennial but I don't want you to think of them as perennials . I don't consider them useful after they've gone thru a winter in my garden! Those Gallops that I was talking about above, were long gone before winter and the last of the Tokyo Whites were tossed in the compost.

Just to take this one step further . . . there's a variety called "Four Seasons." I grew it one year and was happy with everything but its germination rate. The name could point to its usefullness all winter but I don't think I'd have much appreciation for it when it is 10 or 11 months old! Maybe if you succession sow the seed . . . I'm almost sure that the weather conditions would keep me from doing that until the temperature begins to cool in late summer. Maybe in areas without severe winter cold, the onion seedlings would grow on thru the winter .

Steve

 

[HunkieDorie23]

I have evergreen bunching and a red japanese bunching (can't remember the name). I decided to go all in and I planted the rest of the yellow spanish onion seed with actually was 500 seeds. If I get 10% of them which is about the germination rate I am seeing I will end up with 50 onions. I am Hungarian ie Hunkie and use a lot of onions in the kitchen. I am planting more chives and with the scallions it will have to be enough.