Should you start onions now or in spring? What are the best tips to get big, juicy onion bulbs?
Should you start onions now or in spring? What are the best tips to get big, juicy onion bulbs?
27 Comments
I’m in zone 6b and will have freezing temperatures at night soon. I’m planning on harvesting the green onion and garlic tops that have come up, because the frost will take them anyway, might as well enjoy them right!
do these rule apply with garlic?
That has happened to me.. living in a long day onion zone. All I got was leaves.
So I ordered short day onion sets from a reputable site. They will be arriving Nov. 14. I was told to plant right away, but here in zone 10A I find out that planting of these onions should be early January. Sigh. How will this affect my production? Anything I can do to change this outcome?
Love your videos! Do you have any tips for growing celery? I live in zone 6b Southern Ontario Canada. Mine never get nice thick stalks!
Brian, I see you're using drip tape. I have a question about connecting the tape to the barb that goes to the main line. Mine have a tube that you slip the tape over and then screw down the fitting that locks it in place. I have a terrible time getting the tape over the tube. Do you have an easy way to accomplish this? If anyone knows, it would be you. Please help…
Oh, my goodness! I had no idea there were onion types! I just ordered some long day onion seeds. I look forward to a great harvest next year!
Great to know!!! I’d almost all but given up on growing onions and garlic! About to watch the other video for info!!!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻💪🏻
Is there any chance a short day variety would plump up later in the fall of a northern climate?
Awesome! I didn't know about the different onions either and so true the garden centers especially the big ones the bring in the wrong type last year it was pitiful. Very good video Brian! Always! 🤗❤🤗
Don’t know what was my dads reason for this but he always used sets to grow green onions and the bundles of what looks like green onions (transplants?) to grow bulbs. He lived in Nebraska and always had great gardens every year. I live in north Texas and have terrible luck gardening. I try to remember what I can from what he did but I wish he was still here to help me. Thanks for all you do. I didn’t know to watch for short day onions. Will definitely be on my radar now.
Yours look just like mine though mine were a little larger this year. I grew Walla Walla Sweets, Spanish, and Red onions.
This video has ALL the pertinent info I need!
Thank You Brian!
I'm in zone 8b in Texas, and the one and only time I tried to grow onions was the Fall/Winter/Spring of 2019-20.
This time frame just happens to include that infamous Polar Vortex which paralyzed Texas for 6 days straight.
Timing is everything, right?
Yes, I'm still holding a grudge with that storm, even though all the humans in my household made it through the storm without any big problems.
My grudge came from what that storm did to my gardens, and all the flora near me.
I'm not normally a "grudge" type of person.
And,
I never thought I would hold a grudge against something like a storm!
But here I am.
Anyway, my onion and garlic story from that year is a long one. I won't bore anyone with the sad, weird, details.
The bottom line is that I haven't tried growing onions since then.
And I'm still not growing them this time around either.
However, with the extra info such as when to stop feeding them, and what to look for when they've stopped bulbing, I now feel a lot more confident whenever I do start growing them, again!
As for right now…
I still don't trust Father Winter.
He's been pretty squirrely ever since that Vortex came for an extended visit…
We'll see how I feel next year.
I get really good bulbs from starts, but starting from seeds, they barely get larger than pencil lead!!
I have tried to grow them from seed and sets with bad results both times. However, I found a fantastic source for transplant onions. Dixondale Farms. I have even had success growing them in a Green Stalk. Dixondale Farms is a great family-owned company located in Texas. Check them out!
I live in Delaware Day neutral/ intermediate day. Local stores only sell long day onion seeds. I feel like there aren’t as many choices for my area. I did have some success with a long day red onion but they didn’t get big but I also neglected them, they were a test so I just didn’t put time other than some weeding and fertilizer at planting.
15 years ago I worked on a farm in north Florida. The grower put me in charge of the onions. We grew what they called St. Augustine Sweets (Vidalia style onion). He ran the planter the first of September. When they got to the size of a small green onion a crew pulled them to plant in a larger field(10 acres). I did the fertilizing, cultivating and spraying. A large crew hand pulled them in mid April.
I tried some sets in my garden last year but let the grass and weeds get ahead of me. This year I planted some sets and have seedlings just about ready to transplant. I made sure I got short day seed. I am going to wait until after this latest storm to do that.
Do gophers like onions? Does it make them cry?
The most success I had in my raised beds this year was with onions (I'm in New England so I grow Long Day onions). I struggled with soil conditions with everything else I planted, but the onions did great. I recently collected soil samples and sent them off to be analyzed and I'm awaiting results. I still have quite a few red onions left (Red Candy Apple variety). I use the white Walla Wallas first as they do not keep as long. (got my starts from Dixondale Farms online)
I planted two onions that sprouted in my fridge raider and from those two I got 12 nice pretty good size onions since I didn’t even know what I was doing!
I noticed the same thing with the big box stores. I just grow onions from seed for this reason because I have never seen intermediate or short day onion sets. So I just grow them from seed.
great information..thankyou! cheers from Australia. 😁
I understand why my onions were teeny tiny bulbs! However, I live outside of Seattle where we don't necessarily have sunny days in the summer (last summer started in the first week of July). Would that be bad for growing onions?
I have been waiting for years to acquire this information about onions. I live in Los Angeles county and have only been able to grow green onions. I can't thank you enough for this incredible information about onions and daylight length. This is Next Level information! I've hit that subscribe button.
I needed this! I have struggled with onions and haven't had any luck besides green onions.
I have never had good luck with onion bulbs. I do all my onions by seeds. Two days ago I planted around 250. When it comes to the big box stores there never in season with Arizona's planting season
I grew onions in Del Mar from sets. They did really well in container and got really nice big onions. I did not know about pruning so they did not get as big as I would have liked. I used Gurneys short day white and red (Candy) variety. They sent so many small onion plants I was giving them away.