planting onions

[njzieglers]

Gonna plant onions today! Very soggy here, still raining and cold. Plants were delivered yesterday. Gonna try getting them in the ground today.

 

[Snowwark]

Welcome, njzieglers!

Lucky you, getting started on your garden! What else do you like to grow besides onions?

Are you growing them in a bed, or in containers?

Kim

 

[DixieDreamer]

Peas and onions are the heralds of spring planting! Have fun!

 

[njzieglers]

I used to grow LOTS of veggies, but now my garden is much smaller. I grow a lot of garlic, onions, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, sunflowers and some herbs. We're on around an acre with a large lawn some flowering trees, blue spruces, swamp pines, and many beds for annuals and bedding plants.

 

[doxdogy]

We put in some onions a couple of weeks ago. We also have grape tomatoes, tomatoes, watermelon, cukes, collards and strawberries in our garden. Have seed potatoes and green potatoes on order. Going to plant the limas, blackeyed peas and green beans next Saturday.

 

[Snowwark]

Njzieglers, were you able to get the onions in, or were you rained out? Your garden is much smaller? It sounds huge to me!!! If you ever have a chance, we love garden pics! Keep us posted on your planting progress, okay?

Welcome,Doxdogy! Lots going on (and in) your garden! It's great to have another Florida Bud posting!

 

[njzieglers]

Actually I didn't get them in til yesterday (Monday). We had rain and snow all weekend.

 

[MidwestPiglet]

I'm an onion newbie here .

I planted an onion and some garlic bulbs in my garden last year, and promptly forgot about them. I was shocked when a few weeks ago I noticed that I've got both onion and garlic shoots coming out.

Here's the stupid questions -- Do they multiply over the winter? Do I pick a few and leave the rest to multiply?

 

[DebºoºS]

Midwestpiglet, What a nice surprise for you I know zilch about garlic but onions are a staple for us each year. They're very easy to forget. I left mine in also and have little onion sets now. You may have started your own seeds or you may have a set. Either way I'd let them grow and put in sets also just in case.

Here's a little moe info on onions than you probably ever wanted to know:
"Onions can be grown either from seeds or 'sets' (small bulbs). Seed production is cheaper and there are more cultivars to choose from. However sets require a shorter growing season (making better use of space) and omit the difficult seedling stage.

The main growing problem onions encounter is bolting. Onions are biennial: grown from seed they produce foliage in their first season, overwinter as a bulb, and then flower and die the following year. It is the cold winter temperatures that initiate flowering, and problems can occur when fluctuating temperatures trick the plant into thinking that it has experienced a winter chill when this is not the case. Onions only become receptive to winter chilling once they are a certain size. Consequently careful manipulation of sowing and planting dates lessens bolting. For example, by sowing seeds of overwintering onions in August resulting plants are large enough to survive winter cold, but small enough to be insensitive to chilling.

Bolting is more problematic with autumn sown or planted onions, as there is more risk of the bulbs being exposed to variable temperatures. However, spring cultivars are often more susceptible to bolting than autumn types. In order to obtain large bulbs from spring sowings early seed sowing is important. This is because the size of bulb the onion produces is related to the amount of foliage it produces, and as soon as days become long enough bulbing-up begins. Consequently an early sowing will give you larger bulbs, but it will also increase the risk of bolting as seedlings will become large enough to experience winter chill at an earlier date. This can be deterred by growing the onions in a heated glasshouse until weather conditions settle, or covering direct-drilled crops with fleece or glass cloches. Alternatively, delay sowings until mid-March if very large bulbs aren't required.

Onion sets have already completed one growing season and so are more sensitive to bolting. Again careful planting dates are essential (plant no earlier than mid-March) or purchase heat-treated sets where the flowering stalk has been destroyed by high temperature exposure."

 

[MidwestPiglet]

Thanks Deb -- you're right -- that is a lot of information about onions

I'll just take the "I'll let them grow and see what happens until fall" approach.

Thanks again!

 

[DebºoºS]

Hope they do well for you. Keep us posted on their progress.

 

[njzieglers]

I posted in April that I was planting onions, which I did. Those onions got best in class at the NJ State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show. Also got best in class for elephant garlic and 5 other blue ribbons. Veggie gardens are really producing this year, flowers and trees are nice too.
Just had to boast a little.

 

[DebºoºS]

Congratulations!!! That is very cool!!

 

[njzieglers]

Congratulations!!! That is very cool!!

Thanks, yeah it was pretty cool. Besides onions and garlic, right now, we are virtually overloaded with tomatoes. Cukes did well, but are slowing down now. Some peppers did good, some not so good. The groundhogs are letting us have around 4 pumpkins. This year I bordered the rear of the veggie garden with scarlet runner beans. They have really flowered nicely and we have as many hummingbirds in the veggie garden as the flower beds.
We've gotten a little nutty about the garlic we grow and consider it to be like backyard tomatoes, the store bought just doesn't compare. Anyone with a little extra room in their veggie patch should try it, it's super easy.