Sweet!

[digitS']

Rad! Wicked! Awesome! Sweets:

Plunking in sets isn't the only way to enjoy scallions from the garden! The seeds for those sweet onion went into potting soil in the greenhouse about the 1st of February. I didn't turn the heat on in there for about 6 weeks! I'd pull the flats down on the floor and cover them when it was real cold.

Here they are hardening off the hard way in mid-April:

In not very many more weeks, I'm expecting the ones that will be left in the garden to look something like this:

Steve

 

[journey11]

Nice! All that onion is so very good for your heart. We eat onion with nearly every dinner.

 

[thistlebloom]

I'm an onion kindergartner but I sure am learning a lot from you onionologists! I did direct sow some little red onions year before last, can't remember the name, but they did fantastic, and they kept well through the winter. Not too bad for an onion novice. Sometimes dumb luck makes me look good....

 

[digitS']

I think in many ways, they can be our easiest crop.

Fresh onion seed nearly always has good germination. It really does help to start them indoors because they cannot handle weed competition. Actually, they can handle it - all too well. They just "fit right in" with whatever crowd shows up! Which means, they can't grow!

Given enuf opportunity, they can and will grow! When they are tiny, they transplant real well. I use little guys not much bigger around than a tooth pick, make a hole with my finger, drop them in and gather the gravel I have for garden soil around them.

If it freezes, the onions are usually just fine. There are many varieties to choose from in a couple of general classes: bunching, storage, sweet. With bunching onions, we've got the a critter than never forms a bulb. Some will just keep getting larger and larger, like leeks. Storage is really a nice broad class with onions that should appeal to anyone who likes them. Sweets are what you find on your sandwich from the restaurant.

Sweets especially make awfully nice green onions during the weeks they are of that size. By planting sets as my earliest crop and growing both sweets and bunching onions, I've got a loooong season of green onions. After they form bulbs, the sweets will last until Christmas in my basement. The storage onions will last aaalll winter.

Other than to keep the weedy crowd away from them, about the only "secret" of growing onions is to treat them like lawn grass. If you want lush grass, give it lots of fertilizer and water. I feed them an organic lawn fertilizer - high nitrogen.

There are also the onion relatives, leeks and shallots. The leeks do fine for me in a location with some afternoon shade. Growing shallots from seed is something new to me and the horticultural world. I just planted a tiny area in the garden a couple weeks ago. They may not amount to very much this year but I can get them out of the way and into winter storage, then put them out at the same time as the onion sets go in. They'll divide nicely!

Onions! I wish all vegetables were so easy to grow.

Steve

 

[lesa]

You've got me convinced, Steve! Next year I try onions from seed. The most appealing thing is that you can start them so early. I am eager to be digging in the dirt, come February!
I agree with you on the ease of onions (and garlic is the same)- just plain easy. A little weeding is about all they insist on. Compared to a tomato- it is a no brainer!

 

[digitS']

Of course, sweet onions can be used at any stage of their growth. (Convincing you of that is why I started this thread .)

But, the sweets are starting to bulb up and can't be considered scallions for too much longer. Just in the nick of time -- the bunching onions show up!!

sweet onions on the right

These new-to-me bunching onions beat my regular Tokyo Whites to harvest size. That may be a result of location but they've grown nicely from the same winter sowing time in the greenhouse, to transplanting in the open garden. The name is a bit overblown - Goddess!

Steve

 

[Greenthumb18]

Speaking of onions, this season for the first time I planted my onions from transplants. Can't believe how big their starting to bulb up now. I need to post a picture of them. The variety I chose is supposed to get around 2 pounds, even 5 pounds is common .
I do like to use the smaller onions for salad and such, the big ones are left for storage.

 

[Collector]

Lots I didn't know about onions, the sets we planted this spring are growing well though. Sounds like I should fertilize them though, thanks for the tip! Maybe I will try seeds next year for a wider variety of choices. How do the goddess taste?

 

[digitS']

Ummmm,

I'm still goin' with the sweets!

Bunching onions certainly are nice. The Tokyo Whites are good scallions and remind me of leeks when they get of real large size. It's always possible to strip away the oldest leaves and get to the tender parts.

Growing a variety for sets has long, long been an idea of mine. The only varieties that I have ever seen advertised as sets, are Ebenezer and Stuttgarter. It could be that any good keeping onion would be appropriate but, I don't know that. Baker Creek sells Stuttgarter seed (many, many places sell Stuttgarter sets). The timing of sowing has to be critical so that you've got tiny bulbs for winter storage. Then, storage conditions have to be optimal.

I do appreciate the green onions from sets that show up so early in the season. And, they really are a long-lasting storage onion by fall.

Still, Imma goin' with the sweets - as much as I can, for every purpose.

Is that an Ailsa Craig onion, Greenthumb? I grew them a year or 2 ago. They tended to be bigger than the Walla Walla Sweets from the same source (Dixondale) but were quite variable in size. Imma still goin' with . . . I guess I've already said that .

Steve

 

[NwMtGardener]

I'm an onion novice too, and now that ya'll are telling me how easy they are, i cant quite figure out why i always thought they were so hard!! I've got some kinda white onion and leeks in the garden this year that i started from seed...hopefully early enough. I think i better fertilize them too! I think the reason they've always kinda baffled me is that they're on a different schedule than other garden things!! And while i love to eat garlic, i really haven't figured it out in the garden yet... I mean it just seems bizarre to plant in the fall!!