MIgardener: Harvesting Our MASSIVE Onions! Plus Tips and Tricks for Bigger Onions
If you want to grow bigger onions, listen along! In this episode I will tell you everything we did to grow these huge beautiful onions. Happy gardening and I hope these tips help!
I NEVER prune my onions and never will. I also plant starts in March (zone 7). I plant in raised beds, 1/2 top soil 1/2 mushroom soil. Beds topped off yearly with land and sea compost to revive the soil. I also plant with LOTS. Of bio tone starter fertilizer. My largest onion was 2 1/4lbs, most were that large. Sorry but these were tiny😂 Still very nice ! I never harvest an onion until the neck toples over.
the easy way to remember water use for onions, garlic, and the rest of the family is that they need regular water until 2 weeks before harvest. in fact this is true with all bulbs in my experience. the environment they evolved in dictates this. the drought triggers dormancy and longer storage ability. with my soil which has a lot of humus, i sometimes have to let them go without water for a little longer but for most, 2 weeks should suffice. drying eliminates rot probability in storage.
I just harvested our Aisla Craig in the Pacific Northwest zone 6 and I will 100% be growing them again. Biggest onions I've ever grown and they are amazing. They actually grew the largest in the same bed as my blueberries with a low Ph (soil composition is peat/compost/ perlite/ pine bark) which was more of an afterthought when I had extra onion seedlings left over and didn't know where to put them.
Pruning onion in the vegetative stage is fine, but it’s counter intuitive to prune in the bulbing phase! The carbohydrates in the leaves are what fuel the bulbing. There’s no forcing anything by removing the energy source for the bulbing. My onions were not pruned and larger than these.
I do prune them when they are young to reduce the chance the neck breaks. My guess is thats really why commercial growers do it. Its a numbers game.
But once it starts heavily bulbing you want as many leaves and leaf area as possible. Onions don't regrow there tops that well when bulbing because that's when they are sending energy to the bulb. Its not the pruning that does this. The onion does this on its own. It takes the energy from the leaves. You want leaves at this point.
32 Comments
Maybe next year drought got mine this year.
I NEVER prune my onions and never will. I also plant starts in March (zone 7). I plant in raised beds, 1/2 top soil 1/2 mushroom soil. Beds topped off yearly with land and sea compost to revive the soil. I also plant with LOTS. Of bio tone starter fertilizer. My largest onion was 2 1/4lbs, most were that large. Sorry but these were tiny😂 Still very nice ! I never harvest an onion until the neck toples over.
I am in SW Ohio and grew the same variety this year and they did awesome
My first year with a real attempt at gardening. My onions … disaster. Lol
i'll be looking for these in your seed shop , what is the spelling please and thank you.
the easy way to remember water use for onions, garlic, and the rest of the family is that they need regular water until 2 weeks before harvest. in fact this is true with all bulbs in my experience. the environment they evolved in dictates this. the drought triggers dormancy and longer storage ability. with my soil which has a lot of humus, i sometimes have to let them go without water for a little longer but for most, 2 weeks should suffice. drying eliminates rot probability in storage.
What's the special trick for making perfect onion rings?
My onion are golfball size 😢 can't complain at least I got some kind of harvest from it 🧅
I just harvested our Aisla Craig in the Pacific Northwest zone 6 and I will 100% be growing them again. Biggest onions I've ever grown and they are amazing. They actually grew the largest in the same bed as my blueberries with a low Ph (soil composition is peat/compost/ perlite/ pine bark) which was more of an afterthought when I had extra onion seedlings left over and didn't know where to put them.
Yes, beautiful, I was surprised how much you pulled out of that small space, or did the camera make i look small?
What about a tutorial on curing onions and garlic?
First time ever my onions bolted. I harvested and chopped and froze them so it wouldn’t be a total loss
Thank you for always providing so much education and guidance!
Do you have to do anything special if you let the tops dry out? My tops fell over so I hung them to dry. First time growing onion 😊
Our onions were small, but tasty.
Grow for the winter!! Can, freeze, dehydrate, freeze dry
Pruning onions? Nope
My Walla Walla onions did amazing this year! Absolutely huge! Thanks for all the onion growing tips!
My onions were mediocre this year. Last year was much better. But I'm still happy to have had a fairly decent harvest.
Great looking onions!
Jealous!
Is your site having tech problems
Pruning onion in the vegetative stage is fine, but it’s counter intuitive to prune in the bulbing phase! The carbohydrates in the leaves are what fuel the bulbing. There’s no forcing anything by removing the energy source for the bulbing. My onions were not pruned and larger than these.
I just bought another $200 of seeds @ MIgardener's website today thanks to your great sale!
My onion bulbs are small, but the tops are nuts, like 18” long, so much green onion we’re trying to be creative in how to use it
❤Onions❤
I bought that kind on the sale! Excited! When did you plant those?
I love this video because it shows Luke's genuine joy in his accomplishment. It reminds me of his youthful pre-corporate days.
Nice garden..good job 🧅🧄🫑🌶🌾🍆👍
Can I prune my leeks also?
I do prune them when they are young to reduce the chance the neck breaks. My guess is thats really why commercial growers do it. Its a numbers game.
But once it starts heavily bulbing you want as many leaves and leaf area as possible. Onions don't regrow there tops that well when bulbing because that's when they are sending energy to the bulb. Its not the pruning that does this. The onion does this on its own. It takes the energy from the leaves. You want leaves at this point.
good harvest Luke! ❤