November in So CA

How are everyones gardens doing? Mine has been somewhat neglected in the last couple of months. I haven't started winter crops yet - started some lettuce seeds but lost them to damping off. 3 of my 4 beds are still producing very well.
Bed 1 has I think 3 tomato plants overflowing with cherry type toms and the rest of the 4 x 8 bed has been overtaken with my volunteer sweet potatoes. Will be digging them up in the next week.
Bed 2 is my problem child. I did harvest corn off it in early sept, then pulled everything, added worm castings & compost then covered the bed in plastic to try to solarize it to kill off the bacarada(sp?) bugs. It was over 100 for much of the time it was covered. Now I am thinking about trying to replant it.
Bed 3 has dragons tongue beans, a gypsy pepper, chard, celery and a bell pepper. My daughter & I love the beans. They look weird as they turn nearly white when cooked but taste great. I have been feeding the chard & celery to the goats as I never got the celery blanched (planted it too dense). Still getting gypsy peppers - that one plant was slow to start but has since produced over 30 nice size peppers.
Bed 4 (pictures below) had a volunteer sweet potato, a yellow summer squash and a butternut squash in about 5 squares at one end. From those 5 squares I just dug 5 lbs of sweet potatoes and have harvested over 10 each of the 2 types of squash. The rest of the box has bell peppers, carrots and the onion shown.

Anyone have an idea what type of onion this is? When do I harvest it? How about replanting it? I bought the bunch of onions at HD this spring and all except this grew the normal sweet onions that were harvested as their tops fell in about June. This is a white (as opposed to the rest being yellow sweet) and it started out as one plant that seems to have split, then each of those split, etc.


Harvest from 10-30-12 - 5 lbs of sweet potatoes(2 large & 2 small) and a butternut squash.

One usually harvests ones onions when the bulb has formed and the tops fall over on their own accord , they need lots of sun to get to this stage .
To me it looks like the carrot tops will prevent them ripening .. the same happened to me this year . My version of MM made the carrots grow big time .

Those look like dinner onions..... isn't it near dinner time?

Camprn & Plantoid - The onions you see there is the result of planting ONE small plant from HD. The plant seems to have split several times It is very different from the onions I harvested from the rest of the bunch back in June.

I'm wondering if you somehow got a fluke potato or multiplier onion in the batch of "regular" onions from HD? Check out this article and see if your onions resemble theirs at all. If by chance you did get a multiplier, don't eat them, save them for replanting next year & so long as they turn out to be good "keepers" and last you the winter, you'll never have to start from seed or sets again because each of those bulbs will do like garlic does: clone itself! I have some multipliers that I'm planning on planting next Spring, so I'm curious to see what you got!

P.S. I just noticed that you're in California, so your planting seasons are different than mine--just save them until the next time you're "supposed" to plant onions & take it from there. I'm very excited for you!

It does look like some sort of multiplier onion. Sort of looks like my Egyptian onions. In their first yr they do not make the little bulbs on the top of the stem. Probably was grown in the same field with the other onion, or the mother of yours has made seeds and been deposited in among the sweets.
Jo

mollyhespra wrote:I'm wondering if you somehow got a fluke potato or multiplier onion in the batch of "regular" onions from HD? Check out this article and see if your onions resemble theirs at all. If by chance you did get a multiplier, don't eat them, save them for replanting next year & so long as they turn out to be good "keepers" and last you the winter, you'll never have to start from seed or sets again because each of those bulbs will do like garlic does: clone itself! I have some multipliers that I'm planning on planting next Spring, so I'm curious to see what you got!

P.S. I just noticed that you're in California, so your planting seasons are different than mine--just save them until the next time you're "supposed" to plant onions & take it from there. I'm very excited for you!

Thanks for the info. It doesn't look the same. Plus it was planted in about March and still hasn't died back. Guess I will have to dig part of it up to see what the bulbs look and taste like.

Bummer! I was so excited to think that you'd gotten a multiplier...ah, well...post pictures after you've dug them up if you would; it's still an interesting situation.

[quote="Lindacol"]

Anyone have an idea what type of onion this is? When do I harvest it? How about replanting it? I bought the bunch of onions at HD this spring and all except this grew the normal sweet onions that were harvested as their tops fell in about June. This is a white (as opposed to the rest being yellow sweet) and it started out as one plant that seems to have split, then each of those split, etc.



I finally pulled a couple of the onions.



They have a strong oniony taste but are not sweet/good enough for eating fresh. Guess they can be used for cooking. I am debating whether to leave some growing in the bed.

Here is todays harvest.
21 lbs of sweet potatoes! The cold morning yesterday started truning the leaves black so we dug all we could find.


This picture shows the cracks/tracks in some of them, I think the result of accidently leaving the drip watering on for 6-8 hrs a couple of times - when I usually water for 15-20 mins twice a day (unless it rains which has been seldom)

The last of the dragons tongue beans and some little toms. The tomatoes are still going great. The cold hasn't bothered them yet(no cover and they are on a trellis in the same bed as the sweet potatoes that got hit with frost). I was even surprised to find a big hornworm today. Guess I need to get out the BT again.

OK, I'll have another go at your mystery allium: how about some kind of giant scallion/bunching onion? I don't see a bulb per-se so if you want to do an experiment, leave one in and see if it keeps multiplying/bunching--also, I don't think scallions die back like "regular" onions, so that might explain why they're still green and growing.

Nice looking cherry toms, BTW!

I've neglected my raised bed since late September. I concluded the white fly fight was lost and let things go fallow. My sweet potatoes had mild scab and all were small, although I had prolific roots and greens. I'm guessing too rich of soil.

My tomato plant that I left to die has gone wild. Only two tomatoes on it both are split but I still have flowers. Plus, my bell peppers have bounced back.

The cukes finally gave up the ghost in the fight with white fly.

I've replanted a few containers. Onions, yellow and red in two. Garlic in a third and a few shallots in what was the sweet potato pot.

Working on a build up bin for potatoes which should go in a couple weeks.