PNW: July 2013

Southern Gardener,

For a while there, I was able to post pictures.... eventually.

Since I began using Chrome rather than IE, however, I've had many problems.

02645
Growing Degree
Days (GDD):
2013 = 460.0 GDD
2012 = 416.5 GDD
Average** = 376.5 GDD

I tried reading up on this and I understood that different plants need different temps, so I thought that the calculator would tell me about how many days I'd be at or around the temp I need. But there aren't 460 days in June. What DOES it mean?
 
CC

CC,

There are various formulas used to calculate GDDs.  A common, simple one looks like this:

High temp of the day plus the low temp of the day divided by 2.  (the average)

Subtract 50 (a baseline temp for warm season crops) from the answer above.

The result is GDDs for the day.

Example:
High temp: 90
Low temp: 60
Average: 75
75-50=25 GDDs for the day


This chart is from another website that is for the PNW.  It shows the GDD accumulation on a daily basis.  The total is a little different than what I posted above for me, because they make the calculations differently.

CapeCoddess wrote:...I tried reading up on this and I understood that different plants need different temps, so I thought that the calculator would tell me about how many days I'd be at or around the temp I need.  But there aren't 460 days in June.  What DOES it mean?   CC

I found that what confused me the most about Growing Degree Days was the name!  So maybe this will help you as well: Another name for Growing Degree Days is Growing Degree Units, or even Heat Units.  More than one unit accumulates per day!

Actually CC, we've talked about this before.  See my post on the bottom of page 3 of this thread and see if it rings a bell.

Here's my GDD accumulation for the year-to-date.

What was your start/end date Boffer?

For the graph?
1/1/2013 to 6/30/2013

FamilyGardening wrote:...
am I a hottie like GWEN?  

hugs
rose

Sorry Rose, it looks like you and I are frigid compared to everyone else!   

Donna is lagging at the moment, but I expect her to zoom past us very soon.

I may be lagging in GDDs, but not in growth!

Is it silly to be this jazzed about onions?

 New York Early from Uprising Seeds

I know it isn't harvest time yet, but I am excited about growing onions from seed! Seriously! I always have to buy sets or plants to get onions, but the cost was too much for me this year.

March 31, after 2nd "hair" cut


July 11 (these are happy tears....grin)

Lavender Debs wrote:Is it silly to be this jazzed about onions?

 New York Early from Uprising Seeds

I know it isn't harvest time yet, but I am excited about growing onions from seed! Seriously! I always have to buy sets or plants to get onions, but the cost was too much for me this year.

March 31, after 2nd "hair" cut


July 11 (these are happy tears....grin)

WOW! those are some beauties! I've been toying with the idea of making my own "sets" but have NO idea how...can you give me some ideas? Congrats! You got BULBS too!! wahoo1

southern gardener wrote:

Lavender Debs wrote:

July 11 (these are happy tears....grin)

....snip.... I've been toying with the idea of making my own "sets" but have NO idea how...can you give me some ideas? Congrats! You got BULBS too!! wahoo1

 I do not know how to make sets, I went with plants BUT I bet you could google it. You Tube is my favorite place to learn. Good gardening to you!!

ok..your picture that says "hair cut"...were those from plants too? they look like small plants. We planted some dried out "sets" we got from clearance. I never dreamed they'd work, and they have been the best onions we've ever grown!

SG.... I believe what you call onion sets is what Deb calls onion plants  

the *hair cut* is when you keep trimming the baby onions tops off so the energy of the plant can be put to good use making a strong root system & helps the green part of the onion to get thicker and not so stringy and crazy.... you keep doing this until you are ready to plant out into the garden.....you can eat the *hair cuts* too  

Deb's..... your onions look amazing....congrats!!....our Walla Walla that we started last year have small bulbs on them...they are in a container so not as much room to grow....I wasn't even sure we could get them to a bulb state as this is our first year using our own seed instead of sets/plants/start  too......we have some more starts waiting for a place to go.....have you had a taste yet of your New York Early ??...oh... Im all jazzy for you as well!....I do not think its crazy I think its wonderful  

hugs
rose...who is off to the garden  to work on how, what and where to plant for our fall harvest and over wintering veggies....its a work in progress  

southern gardener wrote:ok..your picture that says "hair cut"...were those from plants too?  they look like small plants. We planted some dried out "sets" we got from clearance. I never dreamed they'd work, and they have been the best onions we've ever grown!

 The "haircut" were the plants in the making. I started seed in the four-inch pots (on a heat mat) in late January. I wanted the thready plants to get stringy and tall. When they did I cut off about half of their height. In addition, shortly after sprouting, I moved the flats out to the green house.

Looks a lot like pots of dirt

 
February 5, before the first "haircut" (maybe pruning is a better word?)

March 11 after the 2nd haircut. It might be difficult to tell in the pictures but clipping back the tops encourages the plants to get thicker, stronger.

April 15; these sweet red torpedo's were started at the same time as the new york's. I honestly did not think they would amount to much. They just seemed too small. I've been pulling sweet red torpedo's to use for summer meals. YUM

June 26: you can just see the torpedo onions behind the potato tower. The new yorks are in a box sort of on the left in this pic. They just do what God commanded them to do. My husband was helping me add a tier to the potato tower and stepped on a bunch of the poor babies. Gram'ma used to say you cannot kill an onion with a hammer..... apparently men's size 12.5 can't kill um either.

I'm fixen to start over winter sweet onions (Walla Walla) and am thinking about starting them the same way. For me it is much easier to space the plants then the seed. Good gardening to you.

Hey Rose! If I understand SG correctly, sets are little mini onions (like a pearl onion..... if you are old enough to remember peas with pearl onions or martini's with tiny little onions in them). The difference between planting sets and planting plants is..... you put sets into the ground and push them in with your finger. .....plants you push your finger into the ground and set the trimmed plant into it.  (onions)

I don't know how sets are made but I'll bet that once you do know, they are easy. The trouble I usually have with sets is they go to seed way too fast. Still make great onions, but the different kinds I can grow... I'll be sticking to plants from seed.

Debs….who bought Rosa di Milano onions (aka Rosy) ‘cause they made me think of you!

I cannot seem to copy and paste the GDD's Calculator in so here is the data from zip code 97236
2013=459.0 GDD
2012=318.0 GDD
Average=431.0 GDD

Garden is doing well so far, we have probably started our usual summer drought as I have not seen rain in a few weeks (it started a little early here).
The canner is processing now and I am hoping for about 11 pints.  Here is a picture of some Kentucky Wonders I am canning for winter.

Zucchini is producing for me this year and all the squash are doing well.

I do enjoy this time of year.

Lavender Debs wrote:Hey Rose! If I understand SG correctly, sets are little mini onions (like a pearl onion..... if you are old enough to remember peas with pearl onions or martini's with tiny little onions in them). The difference between planting sets and planting plants is..... you put sets into the ground and push them in with your finger. .....plants you push your finger into the ground and set the trimmed plant into it.  (onions)

I don't know how sets are made but I'll bet that once you do know, they are easy. The trouble I usually have with sets is they go to seed way too fast. Still make great onions, but the different kinds I can grow... I'll be sticking to plants from seed.

Debs….who bought Rosa di Milano onions (aka Rosy) ‘cause they made me think of you!

OK...i've messed everyone up! lol. What I planted that did so well were little onion plants, not bulbs. I planted the tiny bulbs too, and they just did "OK", but the little tiny dried out plants ROCKED!!  Best onions ever! So, are those called plants instead of starts? That's what I'm trying to figure out how to get going. Sorry for the confusion. !! 

I read on here that you can plant Scallions after you ate the tops, and by golly I've got 8   of them now growing... (inbetween 2 tomato plants, lol) is it Scallions that you are after?

LittleGardener wrote:I read on here that you can plant Scallions after you ate the tops, and by golly I've got 8   of them now growing... (inbetween 2 tomato plants, lol) is it Scallions that you are after?

no. not scallions. they were Georgia Sweet "plants" I guess you call them. but they were DRY DRY DRY...about 4" long, looked like dried grass, but we planted them anyway. They grew into the most beautiful onions..bulbs and all.  Here's a pic of them braided. I would like to try and figure out how to do my own plants/starts/whatever you call 'em!  lol

YES southern gardener!! The plants are "put to sleep" for sale by letting them dry. They stay dry until they are in the ground. I just skip the dry, sleepy part.
Starts is correct, so are plants. But sets are mini onions that you plant.
Golly I am getting hungry for caramelized onions on some kind of sandwich!
BTW Rose, I have not eaten a New York yet. They are storage onions and it doesn't look like I will have leeks for winter.   (more happy onion tears)

 Deb's and SG.....I have learned so much here ....I love it!

just like SG I have always called the dried out bulk of walla walla onions starts ...as sets

and the small bulb onions that you get in a package as bulbs....( by the way the don't do much for us but grow green tops)

this just might answer a question that just came up yesterday with hubby.....LOL....

I thought I was transplanting leeks that we sowed from seed, but they had a tiny/med size white looking bulb ( like a small round pearl) on the end of them that looked like what Deb said you see inside of a martini glass and I thought what the heck is that bulb on the end of our leeks....but the leeks are not leeks but maybe the making of an onion bulb...

Deb when are you going to start your new Walla Walla starts? and are you going to keep them in the green house to over winter?......I want to do the same thing  Im finding that the ones we started from seed are doing pretty good and look forward to trying them again next year but out in the SFG instead of in a container....sorry to hear no leeks for winter  ......how come?...I know you love and look forward to them just as much as I do.....and I also think its sooo sweet that you have onion seed with my name (((hugs)))

hugs
rose....who picked another cabbage tonight and wonders if she can dehydrate it

HappyCamper its so awesome you are canning beans already  what kind of squash is that in your pic?....its huge!!
 
hugs
rose who hopes she is able to can a lot of beans this year as they were wonderful to have a bit of summer to eat in the winter

Rose I've never planted Walla Walla's before. My uncle grew them and was generous. That said, I will probably start them sometime next month in a tub the way MPH does in this clip. The 4 inch pots worked great but this looks like I can let them grow deeper. Then I'll move them to a garden I can cover with the kitty cover in early Spring. BTW, I also cut back the roots by more then half when I put onion plants out.



School took everything from me in early spring. Students and their parents suddenly realize that they would like to be done with whatever grade level they are in before the year is out and start pumping in the work. School is also the reason I couldn't stand to touch a computer for most of June. I am hoping to have it together this coming spring. When the days were short I usually had to decide if I wanted to walk the dogs before sunset or if I was going to dig in the dirt. If it was a real choice I would have got dirty but the poor pups needed to get out for a stroll after being home alone.

Debs ...who has also gotten those kind of leeks and doesn't know why.

ok...I think I've got it. So sorry for all the confusion! Our neighborhood started a veggie/fruit "swap". You set out what you have extra of in a tray, and take from the tray if there's something you need!