How do I get bigger onions?
- Thread starter wiswash
- Start date
sparkles2307
Garden Ornament
Anyone know what kind the white onions in the grocery stores are? They're less sweet than yellow's and we dont like sweet onions...
lesa
Garden Master
WOW, Steve!! Those are some beautiful onions! Not familiar with the bunching onions. Do they store well?
curly_kate
Garden Addicted
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,452
- Reaction score
- 141
- Points
- 217
- Location
- Zone 6A - Southeast Indiana
I LOVE bunching onions. They are the same as scallions, or green onions. I think they call them different things in different places. You use the green parts, and they have a nice, mild oniony flavor. And they are super easy to grow. Yummmmmmm!! 
digitS'
Garden Master
I know that there are hybrids between bunching onions and bulb onions but the "bunching" part of the equation should mean that they won't bulb.
If I understand right, a "Welsh" onion is a bunching onion and has nothing to do with Wales. . . we might not be getting away from Wiswash's question -- which may have just been on onions in general.
Sparkles, I had a very nice white onion from Dixondale Farms in 2009, where it is sold as a plant. Sterling grew well, kept a nice looong time and wasn't too hot. But, the only place I find it is as a plant from Dixondale.
I will probably have Sterling again this year. So you see, I grow onions from seed, sets and plants. I don't sow the seed outdoors much anymore - the weeds just get ahead of me amongst those puny onions. But, seed is a very inexpensive way to have lots of onions and lots of varieties to transplant out.
Other than tomatoes and peppers, the onion patch must be where I have the greatest collection of things in the veggie gardens. Especially, if we are counting shallots . . . chives, I've even got those Egyptian onions again. I like onions! . . .
Steve
If I understand right, a "Welsh" onion is a bunching onion and has nothing to do with Wales. . . we might not be getting away from Wiswash's question -- which may have just been on onions in general.
Sparkles, I had a very nice white onion from Dixondale Farms in 2009, where it is sold as a plant. Sterling grew well, kept a nice looong time and wasn't too hot. But, the only place I find it is as a plant from Dixondale.
I will probably have Sterling again this year. So you see, I grow onions from seed, sets and plants. I don't sow the seed outdoors much anymore - the weeds just get ahead of me amongst those puny onions. But, seed is a very inexpensive way to have lots of onions and lots of varieties to transplant out.
Other than tomatoes and peppers, the onion patch must be where I have the greatest collection of things in the veggie gardens. Especially, if we are counting shallots . . . chives, I've even got those Egyptian onions again. I like onions! . . .
Steve
hoodat
Garden Addicted
I've noticed lately that it's getting hard to find the Spanish yellow onions. They have a strong onion taste and less sugar than the sweet yellow onions. IMHO they are the only onions fit to cook with. At one time they were the onions sold as yellow onions and the sweet onions like Walla Walla were the exception.sparkles2307 said:
- Thread starter
- #17
Last spring I got a bundle of Walla Walla Sweets that were large to small. I sorted them out and planted the big ones together 4 inches apart in the row and the little scrawny ones, I just put in little clumps of 4. The big ones grew well until the peas I had planted on the cattle pannel behind them decided to reach out and grab on to the stems. Well once the stems of the onions are bent they quit growing, so I really messed up some of them that way. the ones that didn't get hugged by peas grew into lovely onions by late June, baseball size and even a coouple of softball sized ones. The small ones in groups of four, I just separated them this fall and left them to overwinter. WW sweets are overwintered from seed that is planted in the fall.
digitS'
Garden Master
Welcome to TEG, Gyp-c 
.
Walla Walla are grown commercially from seed planted in the fall but, you don't need to do it that way. I failed so often planting seed in late August that I gave up on that. If you live where sub-zero temperatures aren't common, you can grow Walla Wallas like that.
My plants usually bolted to seed as soon as warm spring weather arrived after those cold winters. So, I start seed in the greenhouse early. And, you can buy plants from Texas . . .
I don't really know when they are planted in Texas.
Peas are not supposed to make good companions for onions. Or, it is the other way around: onions stunt the growth of peas. That's supposed to be true, however, I think vining plants are NOT usually good neighbors for much of anything . . . kind of rude, climbing over the top of the little guys, like they do
.
Steve
.Walla Walla are grown commercially from seed planted in the fall but, you don't need to do it that way. I failed so often planting seed in late August that I gave up on that. If you live where sub-zero temperatures aren't common, you can grow Walla Wallas like that.
My plants usually bolted to seed as soon as warm spring weather arrived after those cold winters. So, I start seed in the greenhouse early. And, you can buy plants from Texas . . .
I don't really know when they are planted in Texas.
Peas are not supposed to make good companions for onions. Or, it is the other way around: onions stunt the growth of peas. That's supposed to be true, however, I think vining plants are NOT usually good neighbors for much of anything . . . kind of rude, climbing over the top of the little guys, like they do
.Steve
RickF
Deeply Rooted
Hoodat .. Are your Spanish Yellow Onions different than (to quote) Yellow Sweet Spanish" onions? If I do a google search sweet almost always is in the name.. Thx!hoodat said:
