Trouble with Onions

[Anne Welsh]

Last spring I planted 50 small onion bulbs in my raised bed garden. As visions of stored onions danced in my head, I watched them grow nice green stalks. Some of the plants did appear to stop growing after a month, so I dug down to take a peak; the bulbs were exactly the same size as when I planted them!

I decided I needed to be more patient, so I waited for early fall when the stalks turned brown to dig them up. The onions had grown very little and I couldn't use them at all.

So I'm wondering if I should try again this year? Does anyone have any idea what I did wrong?

 

[headfullofbees]

There are three types of bulb onion; day short, day intermediate, and day long.
It is important to plant the right type of bulb at the right time, because the type of onion they are determines when they stop growing leaves and start bulbing in preparation for flowering.

Since you're in New England, you probably want day long onions, which you do plant in springtime, so perhaps some of our North American friends could point you in the right direction in terms of varieties, Lori or Durgan, perhaps.

Or perhaps you could grow Welsh onions?

 

[Durgan]

I plant a row of bought bulbs usually Spanish and a row of bought onions small green shoots.They both produce about the same size at the end of the season. I now plant Walla Walla from seed since they grow huge and have no hot burn. One can eat them like a slice of tomato. I preserve them as juice with celery. Onions usually grow with no effort. Here are some pictures.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?TUAJW 20 April 2014 Planting Onions
Two rows of onions were planted, on row of bulbs Spanish, one row of plants Sweet Giant. Rows are one feet apart and plant spacing is about eight inches in the row. Later a row of Walla Walla will be planted. They are now in the greenhouse.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?ESRPS 13 April 2012 Walla Walla Onions
Onions (30) were planted in the outdoor garden today. Onions can withstand some cool temperatures. The ground temperature at six inches was 10C and at the surface in the Sun about 20C. A dog leash was used as as row marker,since it is convenient. Onions were planted at 7 inch centres, and at the same depth as in the pots. The planting was accomplished without disturbing the roots. Pictures depict the operation. The onions were moved from the flats to individual cups about 20 March. Next year the seeds will be planted in individual pots without using the flats

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?CETZA 30 July 2011 Onions
The two rows of onions were pulled today (about 60 onions). Time to pull is determined by the stalks falling over and going soft just above the bulb. They will be allowed to dry in the Sun for about two days then will be trimmed for storage in the cold room. Spanish onion don’t store as well as stronger onions, but two to three months storage time is possible, depending somewhat upon the temperature and humidity.


26 August 2015 Onion Celery Juice
Posted on August 26, 2015 by Durgan
http://www.durgan.org/2015/August%202015/26%20August%202015%20Onion%20Celery%20Juice/HTML/ 26 August 2015 Onion Celery Juice
Thirty pounds of onions and ten pounds of celery was made into 14 liters of juice.The perfect onions were washed and quartered and added to the celery in the cooking pot. Ten liters of water was added to the pot.Material was cooked until soft about 20 minutes and blended into a homogeneous slurry.The slurry was strained through a Victorio food mill. Th residue of the food mill was put through a Champion Juicer to extract all nutrients.The juice was then placed on liter jars and pressure canned at 15 PSI for 15 minutes.

 

[Chuck]

As @headfullofbees stated you need long day onions and there are literally dozens of varieties. There are 3 ways to plant onions, like you did from what are called sets, from seeds and from plants. In all my gardening years I have never had good luck growing from sets. Far and away the best way to grow onions are from plants. Onions are heavy feeders and do not like to dry out so make sure you keep them well watered and fertilized. Each "leaf" of an onion plant equals one ring on a onion bulb so the more leafs you have the bigger the onion. Daylight hours determine when an onion makes a bulb.. The days are longer in the northern parts of the US so you must have long day onions. Here in the south daylight hours are shorter thus we must grow short day onions, but the methods are the same.

 

[atlmom5]

I really learned a lot about growing onions from you guys. I wasn't going to respond to this forum since I didn't have anything really valuable to bring to the table. I've never been able to grow onions, I can grow leeks very well, just not onions, but I think my problem might have been with the type of onion I decided to grow.

 

[Chuck]

I really learned a lot about growing onions from you guys. I wasn't going to respond to this forum since I didn't have anything really valuable to bring to the table. I've never been able to grow onions, I can grow leeks very well, just not onions, but I think my problem might have been with the type of onion I decided to grow.

http://www.walterreeves.com/food-gardening/onion/
This site should be of help to you

 

[headfullofbees]

I really learned a lot about growing onions from you guys. I wasn't going to respond to this forum since I didn't have anything really valuable to bring to the table. I've never been able to grow onions, I can grow leeks very well, just not onions, but I think my problem might have been with the type of onion I decided to grow.

It's great to get feedback from fellow forum members, positive or negative, as it gives the value of offered advice, and in fact, can be most valuable where the advice fails.

Questions are something really valuable to bring to the forum.

 

[atlmom5]

http://www.walterreeves.com/food-gardening/onion/
This site should be of help to you

Thank you so much! I'll check it out.

 

[Corzhens]

From what I remember, we had planted some onions before. And before planting, what we did was to "overhaul" the soil - cleaning if for stones and debris and then mixing compost and fertilizer plus potting material like coconut coir or dried leaves. That would somehow change the composition of the soil which will be a challenge to the plant. And if the onion is not growing fast, give it the water that you rinse your meat with or better the water that you used to wash the fish in the kitchen.