The SFG Journey: Onions. How To Grow, When To Harvest, How To Harvest, Storage. The life cycle of an onion.

I thought this was a simple video on the journey of growing simple onions.

Nice video. My onions are only at the swollen finger stage, but they have to come out. I pulled 2 for tonight to saute with pork chops. My mother put green onions in salads and i hated them. But sauteed green tops and "fingerlings" from the garden are soooo good. Has, when you plant the seedlings? In the fall? early or late?

sanderson wrote:Nice video.  My onions are only at the swollen finger stage, but they have to come out.  I pulled 2 for tonight to saute with pork chops.  My mother put green onions in salads and i hated them.  But sauteed green tops and "fingerlings" from the garden are soooo good.  Has, when you plant the seedlings?  In the fall?  early or late?

This will be my next SFG Journey, growing giant to mid giant onions. My onions were small because i always got the buttons. I found out this year the correct ones for average onion like in the store, should be slips onions. I planted them in feb. should have done it in jan, but the garden project required completion, if I was to have the different foods I wanted for some needy person/families, friends and ourselves. In Texas, I believe we do it twice, spring and fall. Someone might want to chime in for more accurate info. I'm still learning.

I don't care if they are large or huge, just round and suitable for storing. Anyone else in a temperate/ hotter Region like Has and I are in?

Thanks Has, that was really informative...soooo, is it too late to plant onion sets?

ralitaco wrote:Thanks Has, that was really informative...soooo, is it too late to plant onion sets?

In texas, yes. It too late. I don't know about your area. Maybe someone will step in with the answer.

Has, glad to see this video - my onion tops were blown over by heavy wind storms and many are beginning to brown.  SOooooo - this video came at the right time to help my gathering and storing of healthy onions.  THanks!!

Very helpful! I have only 3 green bunching onions in, but would love to grow some bulb type!

Very helpful I think.  I was getting a bit worried as my tops have been growing good but there is no sign of bulbing.  I guess I just have to wait longer.  Patience is not my virtue.  I guess the same will be for my garlic as that is not producing any bulbs yet.

The onions know better than you when its time.

I had been told by many conventional gardeners to push the tops down on such and such a date, or x weeks before frost. Never got good results that way.

Then an old school Mennonite farmer we buy produce from told me they, literally, leave theirs alone until the tops die off themselves, then pick and dry. We dry ours buy tying the tops of half a dozen or so together and hang them in the porch out of direct sun.

Last two years that has worked famously for us.

@sanderson wrote:Well, that's depressing.  I looked up a US latitude map to see why the sun isn't rising there until after 7 AM.  California has lats from Mid GA up to CT.  From short day up to almost long day.  I'm in the mid day zone and still looking for appropriate onions to try.

Have you tried this site.  Using this map should help.  Look at the description of the three types of onions and it will give you the latitudes for each type.  This is a very reputable company so the information should be accurate.  Master Gardeners here in FAYETTE county recommend buying onion transplants from Dixondale and they buy a large order from Dixondale that they share every year.

http://www.dixondalefarms.com/category/onion_plants

Depending exactly where you are located it looks like you may be Intermediate Day zone.

http://www.dixondalefarms.com/category/intermediate_day_onions

A lot of the reviews for the Intermediate Day Sampler were from Ca.

I have always tried to grow onions/chives from seed and I've always failed miserably -- not a single sprout. Right now I have Walla Wallas and Lisbon Bunching onions not sprouting. My chives are doing fine because I bought a plant and gave up on the seeds.

I think I've seen that video...and another that describes how to trim the greens a couple times to grow big bulbs.  I tried the clipping method and bulbs became twice as big as non-clipped onions...but I made the mistake of not harvesting before we went on vacation.  I pulled them when we got back and they looked gorgeous...until I found that the middle was soft in about 95% of them.  stupid me.

Yolos, Thanks. I bookmarked that site. The onion sites I have checked are out of stock/season right now.

Here is another site I found that lists the different latitudes that work best with the different day length onions.

 http://www.johnnyseeds.com/assets/information/onions-full-size-comparison-chart.pdf


Don't know how accurate this is.  Atlanta has a latitude of 33*+ and it says intermediate day for that latitude.  I thought shortday was what I should grow.

Fresno's latitude it 36*+ so that makes it intermediate day also for the varieties listed.

I also found this tidbit and maybe I am in shortday area.
http://www.harvesttotable.com/2012/11/bulb-onion-growing-day-length-and-temperature/

• Because location or latitude determines day length, some onion varieties are not suited for some locations.
  
  
• Short-day onions require just 12 to 14 hours of day light each day to form bulbs. This happens in the southern regions of the northern hemisphere to not greater than latitude 36°N.
  
  
• Intermediate-day onions require 13 to 15 hours of day light each day to form bulbs. Intermediate day onions grow best between latitudes 35° to 38°N–but many are adapted for production to latitude 42°N.
  
  
• Long-day onions require 14 to 16 hours of day light each day to form bulbs. Long-day onions do best north of the 36th parallel or latitude 36°N.
  
  

yolos wrote:Here is another site I found that lists the different latitudes that work best with the different day length onions.

 http://www.johnnyseeds.com/assets/information/onions-full-size-comparison-chart.pdf


Don't know how accurate this is.  Atlanta has a latitude of 33*+ and it says intermediate day for that latitude.  I thought shortday was what I should grow.

Fresno's latitude it 36*+ so that makes it intermediate day also for the varieties listed.

I also found this tidbit and maybe I am in shortday area.
http://www.harvesttotable.com/2012/11/bulb-onion-growing-day-length-and-temperature/

• Because location or latitude determines day length, some onion varieties are not suited for some locations.
  
  
• Short-day onions require just 12 to 14 hours of day light each day to form bulbs. This happens in the southern regions of the northern hemisphere to not greater than latitude 36°N.
  
  
• Intermediate-day onions require 13 to 15 hours of day light each day to form bulbs. Intermediate day onions grow best between latitudes 35° to 38°N–but many are adapted for production to latitude 42°N.
  
  
• Long-day onions require 14 to 16 hours of day light each day to form bulbs. Long-day onions do best north of the 36th parallel or latitude 36°N.
  
  

wonderful info. thank you.

landarch; About pulling your onions at the wrong time.  Please do not say you are stupid, it is a learning curve.

You will only be stupid if you do it again.  

Meanwhile I will watch the video as I have yet to plant decent onions up to now. I am fine with bunching onion and garlic so far.

I am in the same or similar boat.  I tried to germinate 16 Tokyo Long White heirloom bunching onions.  I got 2....and they are still out there...I need to pull them apparently.  No idea, what I am doing here!  Not happy with the germination rate under lights and hot pad....

Love onions.  Do not know how to to grow them!  Tutorial!?  Help...........

Scorpio Rising wrote:I am in the same or similar boat.  I tried to germinate 16 Tokyo Long White heirloom bunching onions.  I got 2....and they are still out there...I need to pull them apparently.  No idea, what I am doing here!  Not happy with the germination rate under lights and hot pad....

Love onions.  Do not know how to to grow them!  Tutorial!?  Help...........

I'm a total failure with onions and I think part of it is our insane climate. Everything I read is from mild 4-seasons climates. From now on, I'm going to plant them all year long, start them from seed and cut tops from the grocery store, stick them wherever I have room, and see if I can figure it out on my own. I WILL SUCCEED!

Ate our first Walla Walla. It was just a tiny bulb, but I wanted to know if it's really a sweet onion. NOT! Do any of you grow sweet onions that really turn out to be sweet onions?

countrynaturals wrote:Ate our first Walla Walla. It was just a tiny bulb, but I wanted to know if it's really a sweet onion. NOT! Do any of you grow sweet onions that really turn out to be sweet onions?

I could be mistaken, but I think that the issue was picking it when it was still small.  They tend to gain their sweetness the larger they get, also they need to be left to age a bit to finish sweetening up before use.  At least in my experience.  YMMV.

I have a note in my journal from something I read somewhere that onions are sweeter when grown in low sulfur soil (or MM), but because they lack the pungent sulfur-containing compounds they don't store well.
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I started my onions from seed back at the start in February in 128-cell trays inside, under grow-lights, using 2-4 seeds per cell to get about one plant in each cell. I didn't trim the seedlings leaves because they didn't get long and floppy this year like they did last year. I fertilized them twice with organic fertilizer while inside. I started hardening them off at the start of April, and transplanted them about a week after that. I meant to plant them with bone meal but remembered that I hadn't just after I finished transplanting all of them, and I wasn't going to dig them up again. I didn't get around to giving them blood meal early on like I meant to, either. This is the best square - the others are smaller, but still bigger than my first attempt at bulbing onions last year.

Thanks ST & Beetles. I planted more seeds yesterday. If/when these sprout, I'll be very careful what soil/mix I use for them. The one we ate yesterday was just lying on top of the ground, so I decided to try it. Won't do that again.