What did you do in your garden today?
- Thread starter tortoise
- Start date
Hinotori
Sustainability Master
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2011
- Messages
- 5,777
- Reaction score
- 12,676
- Points
- 373
- Location
- On the foot of Mt Rainier
Ive seen bigger Walla Walla Sweets than that. Mom's picked up some huge ones at the farmers market when she buys bags. They go to Walla Walla enough for doctors apts.
- Thread starter
- #223
tortoise
Wild Hare
An onion this large would be a miracle in my garden!
Trying2keepitReal
Almost Self-Reliant
Same here! I get some maybe the size of small red potatoesAn onion this large would be a miracle in my garden!
@Hinotori, I have family in WA and we drive out every couple years and we always drive home through Walla Walla and get a bag of onions for the trunk. They are so amazingly sweet
R2elk
Almost Self-Reliant
I have grown Yellow Spanish that were 2 lbs.An onion this large would be a miracle in my garden!
- Thread starter
- #226
tortoise
Wild Hare
I'll be happy with anything larger than a pearl onion.
But this is encouraging! Do you remember your growing conditions when you grew large onions?
R2elk
Almost Self-Reliant
I live on a sand dune. I use azomite, 10-10-10 or 16-16-16 if available and lots of water. If I keep the weeds out they all grow nice big bulbs. I just made ham & bean soup with a Redwing that was about one lb. They are a mild red onion that keeps very well.I'll be happy with anything larger than a pearl onion.
flowerbug
Sustainability Master
I'll be happy with anything larger than a pearl onion.
starts of known varieties that will get larger, good soil quality (i use worms as my fertilizer), regular watering, keep weeded, space far enough apart that they all have enough room. i space them far enough that i can get the stirrup hoe between them without getting too close to the bulbs.
if you do start from seeds you have to thin them out if they get too crowded.
my onion growing experiment the past few years gave me about a third of a bucket of pearl onions. i'll eat some of them and plant some of them come this spring. the larger ones will bloom and give me more seeds to work with for the future. i also will have plenty of volunteer onions in the garden where i grew the seeds. i didn't harvest all of them, those tiny bulbs can hide pretty good in the dirt if you don't have an easy way to screen them out.
it's working perfectly as far as i can tell.
- Thread starter
- #229
tortoise
Wild Hare
my plant is to grow some onions for bulbs/eating (the seeds I started this week), and to direct sow seeds in spring for onion sets for the next year.starts of known varieties that will get larger, good soil quality (i use worms as my fertilizer), regular watering, keep weeded, space far enough apart that they all have enough room. i space them far enough that i can get the stirrup hoe between them without getting too close to the bulbs.
if you do start from seeds you have to thin them out if they get too crowded.
my onion growing experiment the past few years gave me about a third of a bucket of pearl onions. i'll eat some of them and plant some of them come this spring. the larger ones will bloom and give me more seeds to work with for the future. i also will have plenty of volunteer onions in the garden where i grew the seeds. i didn't harvest all of them, those tiny bulbs can hide pretty good in the dirt if you don't have an easy way to screen them out.
it's working perfectly as far as i can tell.
R2elk
Almost Self-Reliant
I find that onion plants do better that onion sets. The onion sets have a tendency to form double bulbs and to go to seed rather than forming nice big beautiful bulbs.
For what I can get onion plants from Dixondale Farms, it isn't worth it to do all the work required to gets seeds started, thinned and going good.
It also helps to plant onions that are appropriate for your area. I can grow long day onions here. The people in Texas should plant short day onions. Dixondale Farms has good growing guides available on their site.
