Onions: spring vs fall planting
Comments
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It definitely matters whether your day length supports short day, intermediate day, or long day onions. If you have the wrong type, you will not get a good onion crop. Short day is for regions like the southern United States, long day is for regions like my own northern USA area that get very long hours of sunlight during summer, and intermediate fall in-between.
But don't think that that is the only issue with getting commerical bulbing onions to grow in your garden. Having the right kind of onions is "necessary, but not sufficient" as the mathematicians like to say.
You need loose, fertile soil, little competion from weeds, and so on. Onions are a difficult crop to do well in a home garden, and definitely not a place for new gardeners to start. They may work for you, or may not.
Any gardener who wants to try onions for the first time should try multiplier onions (potato onions, shallots, walking onions, etc.) They are much easier to grow.
Unfortunately the onion types that are most readily available are the hardest to grow, and the easiest to grow are harder to purchase. :-(
Unlike heirloom vegetable seeds, the available onion varieties are heavily dominated by commercial varieties aimed at farmers or market gardeners, not home gardeners.
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I have never heard of multiplier onions or potatoes; I hope someone will explain. I have not had much luck in growing regular onions here, but I suspect that is because I have poor soil. So I am making my own soil mix and have bought fertilizer to ensure better crops. I have started onions from seed but have no idea if they will grow properly. In Pennsylvania I had no trouble growing onions from seed, which I am pretty sure I planted in the spring. I have looked for information on the internet but not found much. I am curious to see how well I do this year. And yes, you do need to plant the right onion for your zone so here in Alabama I plant the short-day onions.
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Last year I bought starts for Cipollini onions. I had such a fight with the slugs that I ended up ignoring them and leaving in the ground over winter. The survivors are now tall or taller than they were last summer and looking lush and green.
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@MissPatricia "I have never heard of multiplier onions or potato [onions]; I hope someone will explain."
See the earlier thread:
https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/846198/experiments-with-onions
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My spring-planted potato onions and shallots finally came up 3 days ago. The fall-planted onions of the same variety are tall and already diving, while the spring-planted ones have barely started.
This will be an interesting experiment. Will the fall-planted bulbs be larger or smaller, with more or less bulbs per plant? Will the fall-planted ones flower? (Potato onions and shallots rarely flower or produce seed.)
We are about 2 weeks away from a safe planting date to avoid frost. At that point, I will put the I'itoi outside at the same time that I plant the tomato starts.
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@frogvalley Thank you for mentioning ramps. I'd forgotten all about them and will get them in the ground this fall. Must they winter over or can I plant them in the spring?
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