In this video I finally get to harvest my onions to see just how big they are. I’ll let you in on how they got this big and I’ll also show you how to harvest and cure onions for storage.
In this video I finally get to harvest my onions to see just how big they are. I’ll let you in on how they got this big and I’ll also show you how to harvest and cure onions for storage.
27 Comments
Great job!
I knew I should have been sleeping with my onions!!!
You're so adorable. Love your humor!!! Amazing onions too! 😀
Nice onions!!! a few of mine got big like yours but I only planted a few Texas early Grano onions. This fall I’m going to plant a lot of them. Can you tell me did you start them all from seed or did you get some plant starts from a vendor?
I grew bulbing onions for the first time this past winter. I was very happy with the results. Yes I'm planning on growing again this year! – Rhonda
That was very helpful…. Thank You
wow, those are huge! excellent video. i learn more when you show it like it is, as it happens and what you do to correct it.
You let them in the sun after harvesting? Stuttgart is what I'm growing.
Oh My Goodness, that was such a Hugh onion I ever did see. This is my first year gardening with your encouragement on your channel. I am going to plant onions this weekend. I live in Phoenix AZ so its extremely hot right now, so I have switched my gardening in the evening of early mornings. I am using Grow Pots on my back patio. I saw your video on grow pots and it suits me perfectly. Thank you soooo much for your invaluable lessons on gardening
Kevin from epic gardening also had huge onions. He’s also in California. I think you guys had really good weather for large onions this year!
Half of my onions are big and half are gold ball size and the tops are bent. Do I just pick the small ones? Will they grow bigger if I left them? Thank u .
Where is the link?
we cut up and vacuum seal and put in freezer to store them at least ones for cooking
Onion "science" and onion growing comes down to some simple points-
(1) Onions are bulbs – not tubers (potatoes, sweet potatoes), not leafies (lettuce, cabbage, …), and not roots (carrots, turnips). Bulbs like to grow within a small surface area, and atop the surface. They are not carrot roots or radishes that like to have their roots buried up to their shoulders. Onions like to have their rootlets being the only deep part of the vegetable searching for nutrients and water under and around their soil perimeter. Thus ! – roots like to be near the surface, and down deep, the bulb (at most depth) lies to sit on the ground. That is why you sow onion seeds in the very smallest depth of soil.
(2) Onions are alliums – meaning – they are sulfurous bulbs (onions, garlic, shallots, scallions, chives, leeks, ramps, ransoms). Cruciferous vegetables are sulfur vegetables (cabbage, kale, collards, tree kale, tree collard, brussel sprouts, … turnips, rutabagas). Remember that word – sulfur.
(3) So to get the best sulfur vegetables – you want to apply sulfur or "magnesium sulfate" Epsom salts to the allium beds. The hydrated sulfur (weak sulfuric acid) breaks down the minerals and metals in the soil, making them easier to consume. Epsom salts applied to an allium bed – magnesium for chlorophyll and maximum photosynthesis of sugars, starches, proteins, and growth.
(4) Hydration – yes. Irrigate the onions to fill up all their cellular structures, as well as having firm and tall leaves. The "ONLY" reason why onion leaves fall over, is not due to age and maturity, it is lack of water. Onions can be perennials (as well as the other allium bulbs). The only way onions have fallen leaves is extreme weather, heat, lack of irrigation, dehydration and thus pre-mature aging and dying, and falling over leaves. Maximum hydration will NOT have fallen over leaves. The only issue of harvesting is when you want to harvest them …
(5) Look at an onion. It is make up of multiple 10s of internal layers. Notice the leaves – they are also made up of older outer leaves and younger inner leaves. It is these outer leaves and those paper-thin onion "skins" that were the younger bulb's growth. All growth of onions happens in the center, upward, and outward. TO KEEP AN ONION GROWING, is hydration, proper fertilization, appropriate seasonal growing, and watching those internal leaves keep growing and growing. When you see a stop to those inner leaves, you know that the onion has achieved its maturity … and will then "naturally" go to seed.
(6) Maturation of an onion and going to seed – happens most-times by bad gardening practices. Lack of watering, and a dying onion will attempt in its last breaths to go to seed – to make a future generation of seeds. Overheating and drying out will go to seed. A properly mature onion plant will have tall and firm leaves, AND shoot up a seed stalk – yet not die. It is a perennial, thus a seasonal shoot of seeds will be its seasonal production – and it will continue to live – with proper nutrition, tending, fertilization, hydration.
(7) Overwintering onions in the soil, also makes them perennial. With Fall, "they decide" when they will fall their leaves, saves all excess energies of sugars into the bulb, and go dormant. By allowing onions to naturally fall, and covering them up with DRY mulcings, allows them their own "root cellaring" environment, minimal dehydration (just as the ancestors used root cellars – dry, cool and sand or sawdust sucking up any moisture keeping the bulbs (not molding etc) – and the moist sand or sawdust would keep the moisture content of the onion intact. The same can happen with garden onions in temperate grow zones. In Spring, uncover, and they will resprout new leaves (from the inner core) and grow even larger (!).
(8) One CAN grow even more HUGE and IMMENSE onion bulbs with the proper (and highest) of tending, nutrition, fertilization, mulching, and hydration.
Those onions are super impressive, dude!
Spooning made me snort-laugh 😆
what does breaking the neck do for the plant?
I am in Maine. I grow onions every year and love using them in my cooking. A friend grew Ailsa Craig onions last year, as big as your biggest one. She gave me one, and it was wonderful. I'm growing Ailsa Craig's this year, and we have had a ton of rain. I'm hoping, now that the sun is finally shining, they will take off and GROW!!
My garlic did the neck breaking thing. Didn’t know garlic would do that too. Went out one day to most bent over so they were ready!
Why break them rather than letting them break on their own? And, what breed of onion are you using?
In my area (I’m in Kansas zone 6a) I’ve found many people don’t plant their onion early enough. They think it’s too soon because it’s still cold. I plant mine between the middle to the end of March. Onions are tough, they can take it!
I have two comments. First one is my Vulcan side coming out… wouldn’t it be more logical to harvest the ones with broken necks first, and then break the neck on the rest, so you’d know which were which? Second comment is that I would rarely have use for such huge onions! I am happier with medium sized ones so I can use the whole thing in a recipe rather than having to put part of it back in the fridge. That said, it’s a pretty cool thing to see such big onions!
This was the best onion year for me. I topped the onions in the past but this year they never needed it and I got bigger onions. I also planted them in the sunniest part of my garden since I am growing long day onions and the bulbs won't get big unless their location gets full sun. I only spoon my onions if I see they are bulbing too deep. I just carefully use my fingers to remove the dirt.
My onions don't grow. I'm interested. I'm going to try again.
I've grown onions & garlic for decades (we live next to Gilroy, California, the Garlic Capitol of the World); I braid the stems, hang them in kitchen & garage & give to family.
I tried growing bulbing onions (Red Burgundy) from seed this year with disappointing results. I followed all the instructions for starting indoors and transplanting out. But about 3 months after transplanting, we got some storms with some pretty heavy rainfall which caused the onion tops to fall over. They never recovered; ended up turning brown and I had dig out some very small onions. Also, without a basement, I have trouble storing onions. Same problem with potatoes (yes, I know to not store them together – they're in separate rooms). They rot and/or sprout long before I can use them. I've become so discouraged, I probably won't grow onions or potatoes again.
Your onions, however, are truly impressive. Well done!
I finally had onions growing well, then we had a ton of rain and the grass that spreads took over the bed. I had to pull everything in the bed. Lesson learned 🤦♀️