Onion Talk for year 2022
HU-422368488
2 years ago
last modified: last year
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green onions and/or bunching onions
Comments (17)The bunching onions, which are Allium fistulosum, are the only true perennial onion. This group is commonly known as Welsh onions (not because they are from Wales, by the way, but from the German word 'welsch' meaning foreign), Japanese bunching onions, bunching onions, long green onions, spring onions and scallions. However, people often refer to some non-bunching onions by some of those same names (especially scallions) so it can get confusing. The other onions commonly referred to as perennial onions are Allium cepa var. aggregatum and are not true perennials but act like perennials. How's that for confusing? This includes all the multiplier onions, also variously referred to as walking onions, Egyptian onions, potato onions (nothing potato-like about them). There is no true perennial onion that produces huge bulbs like the biennial onions that we all plant in winter and harvest in late Spring and early Summer. If you like the Allium fistulosum type of onions and want to try others that are not as well-known as Japanese Bunching, Evergreen, Tokyo, etc., then the Oriental seed company based in California, Kitazawa Seeds, offers 8 different varieties of them: Seeds of Bunching Onion Varieties From Kitazawa Seed In some soils the perennial onions may not be perennial. They can have a hard time surviving prolonged excessively wet weather in clay soil, so do best in raised beds with well-drained soil, including very well-amended clay....See MoreLet's talk onions
Comments (38)Captain Dirt, I plant directly into the soil, planting shallowly because that is what onions prefer. I weed the beds about once a week for the first month or so. Then I add mulch, but I put the mulch only in the open area between the onions and don't have it up so close to the onions that it touches them. (In a rainy year, wet mulch in direct contact with the onions can lead to disease issues.) I usually don't put paper on the ground under the mulch in the onion bed beacause the onions don't like being covered up...the bulbs like to sort of pop up out of the ground as they enlarge and grow, and they grow better if you let the bulbs expose themselves, so to speak. I've tried growing onions every way possible, and leaving the soil unmulched right around the onion plant works best for me in my garden. Sometimes I have to pull out weeds that pop up in that open space, but it isn't that big of a deal and the effort pays off because onions that are shallowly planted and have the mulch pushed back a little from the plant do better than those that have mulch touching them. If I were planting the way you want to plant with paper under mulch, I'd cut an "X" in the paper where each onion will go and fold back the paper around the X so the paper doesn't lie back down over the soil. So, each X'd area is a little spot of bare soil. I'd put the soaker hose under the paper before planting. So, in order to plant, prepare your soil. Then, put down your soaker hose first and turn on the hose and run it while you can look at it and make sure it doesn't leave any dry areas. If it does, rearrange the hose. If you're going to use a pelleted fertilizer, put it on the ground as a top dressing, or mix it into the soil thoroughly as you prepare the soil, under the paper, but not where the X's are cut for the onions. You don't want granular or pelleted fertilizer that close to tender young roots. Put down your paper and use something to hold it down temporarily until you're through planting and can mulch. Plant your onions through the X's cut in the paper. Lay your mulch on top of the paper at least an inch thick, but leave the X'd area unmulched so the bulb can pop up out of the ground in a couple of months as it enlarges. Water the area well. After that, strive to get your onions an inch of moisture a week. Regularly weed and remove any weeds that sprout in your mulch or in the open soil next to each onion plant. Add more mulch as time goes on, but continue to keep it back away from the onions. In roughly 90-110 days (if you're growing here in or near Oklahoma), you'll have nice, big fat onions ready to harvest. Dawn...See MoreGrowing Welsh onion or Japanese Bunching onion Negi, anyone???
Comments (22)"I keep reading that the germination rate of allium seeds falls off very sharply after the first year. I am planning on buying some seeds and there will be far more than I need for the moment. Will the seeds essentially not be usable next year?" Unprotected, at ambient temperature, the germination rate of onion seed will indeed drop off very rapidly. But if frozen, the seed will last for years. The seeds need to be dried to very low moisture content before freezing, so if your environment is humid, use desiccant to dry the seed first. Once dry, store the seeds in an air-tight container, (such as a ball jar, or doubled-up freezer bags) and place them in the freezer. When removing frozen seed for planting, the container must be allowed to reach room temperature before opening, or condensation can form on the seeds (which will quickly destroy them). It is a good idea to separate a large amount of the seeds which will be frozen into small zippered plastic bags (such as those sold in craft shops). That will allow you to quickly remove only the amount of seeds needed, while leaving the rest undisturbed....See More3rd week of March 2022
Comments (60)Productive day for me, too. I cleared out the overgrown stuff around my outside water pump so I can use it for the garden. Much easier than fighting through dogs to get to the faucet in their area. Planted the elderberry I got from Bruce at SF a few years back. It was one tiny stick then so I put it in a bucket until I decided what to do with it. Then we started talking about moving so I left it to plant at the new place. It was still small, but I have 3 or 4 little twigs instead of one. Threw out some lettuce, cilantro, and a few other seeds. At this point I'm not sure what I have planted. I try to snap pics so I can reference back but I'm pretty sure I missed some. And got my lawn mower tire back on track, thanks to Bruce. It went flat & popped off the rim, so I went looking for ways to fix it. Nothing worked so I posted in the local facebook group & he offered to fix it for me. Looks like tomorrow's another nice day here, so maybe I'll get a little more done. Or the husband will be feeling up to tackling that center bed so I can start planting it....See MoreHU-422368488
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