What varieties of garlic and onions do you like to grow?

Honestly. There is a lot of trial and error in this endeavor!  Not just the first few years, either!  Live and learn..and take detailed notes!

OK, I want to look into bulb onions; do I have to plant short day here in Ohio?  There are some pretty blush varieties out, and a red would be pretty and I like to eat red onions.  Thoughts?

If you're above the 45th parallel, you probably should plant long-day onions.  If you're near that line, or south of it, you might want to try intermediate-day onions.

Scorpio Rising wrote:OK, I want to look into bulb onions; do I have to plant short day here in Ohio?  There are some pretty blush varieties out, and a red would be pretty and I like to eat red onions.  Thoughts?

We need the Long-Day or Day-Neutral varieties here in Ohio, SR.

"In the North (the area north of a line drawn from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.), summer days are long. This region encompasses zone 6 and colder. If you garden in this area, grow long-day onions."

From the article, Choosing the Right Onion For You

OhioGardener, great link, Thanks. I might have gone looking for Vidalia when I should have been looking for a Walla Walla. I think I will try and grow The Wethersfield Red again this year, while trialing the He Shi Ko perennial bunching onion. I have the Egyptian Walking onion here, it is basically growing almost wild among the Stinging Nettles but will put it in a raised bed with He Shi Ko. The Wethersfield Red onion and the Connecticut Field pumpkin are heirlooms from the Connecticut River Valley and they are from the time Wethersfield was the seed capital of New England. I will be going either this week or next to get seeds at The Comstock Ferre building which has the Baker Creek line, Chas. Hart seed Co. is diagonally across the street and will be getting a few things from them also. Here the time to plant onion sets is around the time of Trout Fishing Opening Day which is in April. Taught that by a gentleman that used to plant onion sets while sitting on the back end of a tractor as they planted the sets. The money he earned as a boy would buy the fishing tackle needed for opening day.

OhioGardener wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:OK, I want to look into bulb onions; do I have to plant short day here in Ohio?  There are some pretty blush varieties out, and a red would be pretty and I like to eat red onions.  Thoughts?

We need the Long-Day or Day-Neutral varieties here in Ohio, SR.

"In the North (the area north of a line drawn from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.), summer days are long. This region encompasses zone 6 and colder. If you garden in this area, grow long-day onions."

From the article, Choosing the Right Onion For You

Thank you!  I will be doing some diving in on this.  Long-day just sounds warm...?

Gonna try Walla Walla onions.  From sets.  Stupid Pinetree makes you buy 2 bunches.  Nope!  Thanks for the help!

I grew Walla Walla onions for a couple years, and they were nice, sweet onions. But, they didn't keep well and had to be eaten fairly quickly.  So, I try to go with better keepers even though they aren't nearly as sweet.

The reason I prefer to raise the onions from seed is because when I grow from sets they tend to try to go to seed rather than forming nice bulbs.  That, and the fact that we use so many onions for salads and green onions - some years we have a problem leaving enough in the garden to mature into bulbs.   I plant them really close together when transplanting them into the gardens, and then continually thin them as we pull them for green onions and for salads.

OhioGardener wrote:I grew Walla Walla onions for a couple years, and they were nice, sweet onions. But, they didn't keep well and had to be eaten fairly quickly.  So, I try to go with better keepers even though they aren't nearly as sweet.

The reason I prefer to raise the onions from seed is because when I grow from sets they tend to try to go to seed rather than forming nice bulbs.  That, and the fact that we use so many onions for salads and green onions - some years we have a problem leaving enough in the garden to mature into bulbs.   I plant them really close together when transplanting them into the gardens, and then continually thin them as we pull them for green onions and for salads.

OK, good to know!  I had a terrible time with germination on my green onions...not to be put down however.  Still thinking.

I've had horrible luck with onions.  In the winter, my beds get too much shade, once summer hits, i tend to get bolting.

Then I go to the grocery store and they're 5 lbs for $1.

Good thing, square foot gardening is not an economic endeavor because what I spend I could probably buy everything I grow and have a tidy some left over. I grow for the wonder, the enjoyment and the satisfaction. I also grow for the flavor. Maybe I am slightly prejudice but everything I grow taste a whole lot better than anything I have found at the supermarket and I believe slightly better than what I get from organic growers at the farmer's market because of the freshness factor which makes me 10 times the cook I really am and becoming almost a chef to some. My bottom line has nothing to do with economics but a plethora of other factors that bring me joy on so many levels. I never really tasted celery until I grew it, bursting with flavor. A just dug potato, scapes and carrots are just a few that have the flavors that become the impetus that will bring the sweat to my brow and a smile to my face as look forward to my best gardening year ever.

No_Such_Reality, you could take one of the onions from the supermarket, plant it and watch it produce seeds, onions are biennials. For less than a $1 it is worth the admission to that show.

Scorpio Rising wrote:. . . Thank you!  I will be doing some diving in on this.  Long-day just sounds warm...?

SR, I know it sounds backwards. Think of Alaska where summer days are almost 24 hours. That's a long day! The closer to the equator, it gets more like 12 hours on, 12 hours off, short days. It took me a bit to understand this, also.

No_Such_Reality wrote:I've had horrible luck with onions.  In the winter, my beds get too much shade, once summer hits, i tend to get bolting.

Then I go to the grocery store and they're 5 lbs for $1.

Bolting is normally caused by planting onion sets (small bulbs) instead of starting from seed.  Onions are biennials, and sets are already 1 year old so they are starting their 2nd year as soon as they are planted.  When I plant sets they always try to bold to seed, but when I start from seed they never do.

You're right about the price of onions in the grocery store, but we grow onions mostly for the green salad onions. The ones that don't get eaten for salads are left to mature for fall harvest, but we never have enough to last the winter. 

I always plant my onion seedlings really close together - a 2" spacing - and thin them as we pull them for green onions for salads. By the time they start forming bulbs, there are only 9 or less left per square foot.

There are always a lot of questions about whether to plant Long Day, Short Day, or Intermediate onions.  Johnny's Selected Seeds has a good document on the differences and options for these onions.

The Long & Short of Onion Bulb Formation

OhioGardener wrote:There are always a lot of questions about whether to plant Long Day, Short Day, or Intermediate onions.  Johnny's Selected Seeds has a good document on the differences and options for these onions.

The Long & Short of Onion Bulb Formation

Excellent info, but their prices are insane ($4.35 for the seeds + $4.00 shipping). Now at least I know my latitude.

Found this one at Baker Creek with free shipping. Really sounds interesting.

Round Tropea Onion

So, I ended up planting 20 Candy (Amish) onions this year, and they did great!  Nice medium (not big) sized bulbs, no hassles.  Cured, I ate one, sweet but not sugar sweet, still pungent.  I will do them again.  Got the sets from my local nursery.

Garlic, I grow German Extra Hardy (hardneck) and am trying Georgian Fire for the first time this year!  The German does very well, but our spring was so wet this year I only got 5 of the 16 that I planted they either didn’t come up or broke off to rot in the bed....

Grocery store soft neck garlic. Already have separated and replanted the perennial walking onions. This spring was the first time I planted Spanish yellow onion starts from HD. They were smallish but holding up great on the kitchen counter. I may try some more next spring.