Red Onions- long not bulbus.

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Hey all, It's my first time planting onions. I could never understand why you would plant an onion just to get an onion. But this year I decided to go ahead. The only problem is, after some encouragement from a friend, I dug around one. It is not bulbus at all. Copmpletely strait down. The green tops look great in the garden, but really not the onions I was hoping for. Do any of you know why this has happened? Can I correct it? and When do I harvest these things anyhow?

Thanks so much!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know what variety of onion you planted. Different onions require different amounts of daylight before they bulb up. Up in Maine, I'd expect you to be getting some pretty long days, so I would think they would bulb up pretty soon. I'm kind of surprised they have not already. It is possible heat during the day makes a difference too, but I don't know about that for sure.

 

[lesa]

I planted white and yellow onions- and they are bulbed out and just about ready to harvest...Not sure why yours would be so far behind. Are any of the tops, flopping yet? If not, I would just let them go, for another month or so. If you would like to, you can use those onions anytime- the greens have a very "oniony" flavor.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Some of the greens flopped right over when they got about a foot tall. Most however are straight up. I did notice that one of the greens has a flower on the top forming now. Lesa, if I use the green part, can I still keep the onion in the ground and wait for it to do something? Ridgerunner, my garden does get a bit of shade. Everything else look phenominal, but I wonder perhaps if that shade is hindering the onions. (not enough sunlight as you say) I will leave them in and see what happens.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Stubbornhillfarm - here's something that I learned just this year. I've been a gardener for many years but I've also been the kind of gardener who plants and harvests veggies without too much digging into what specific kind of plants I have planted. However, over the past 5 years I have gotten into heirloom seed collection and propagation.

The onion sets (tiny bulbs) that come in a mesh bag with no green tops are "green onion type" and are not supposed to turn into large round bulbs.

The teeny-tiny onion sets that come in a bunch (usually tied with string) with 3" to 5" long green tops are the ones that are supposed to get very big and turn into round bulbs.

I always thought it was the other way around.

I hope someone who knows more than I do about onions will jump in here and straighten me out if I have mis-spoken.

 

[i_am2bz]

The onion sets (tiny bulbs) that come in a mesh bag with no green tops are "green onion type" and are not supposed to turn into large round bulbs.

The teeny-tiny onion sets that come in a bunch (usually tied with string) with 3" to 5" long green tops are the ones that are supposed to get very big and turn into round bulbs.

I always thought it was the other way around.

Me too!!

I always planted the little bulbs when I gardened in VT & had terrific "globe" onions. Here in NC - nuffin'!

The green-top "bunching" onions I alway planted from seed with a lot of success.

 

[lesa]

I was thinking you would just pull the entire onion and use it and the greens... I would definitely cut that flower off- all the plants energy will go into seed making and stop the bulbing. You planted these in the spring, right?

 

[vfem]

Stubbornhillfarm - here's something that I learned just this year. I've been a gardener for many years but I've also been the kind of gardener who plants and harvests veggies without too much digging into what specific kind of plants I have planted. However, over the past 5 years I have gotten into heirloom seed collection and propagation.

The onion sets (tiny bulbs) that come in a mesh bag with no green tops are "green onion type" and are not supposed to turn into large round bulbs.

The teeny-tiny onion sets that come in a bunch (usually tied with string) with 3" to 5" long green tops are the ones that are supposed to get very big and turn into round bulbs.

I always thought it was the other way around.

I hope someone who knows more than I do about onions will jump in here and straighten me out if I have mis-spoken.

I always buy the sets in the mesh bags and end up with big fat onions? So I'm not sure how they would only be green onions. When I first plant, I remove some of the greens and we eat those when they're young, and in spring we harvest the onions when they appear to look more like leeks and those are 'spring onions' but June they flop over and you see the bulb bulging out of the ground by the surface.

If you bury onions too date they will get LONG and not form a bulb, they need to be planted closer to the surface. They doesn't mean that's what happened. Onions are tempermental and depending on where you live you have different requirements. Do you know if you needed long day or short day varieties for your area? I need short day here. Some people have a long cool spring and summer and can plant then, I don't and with the short day I have to plant in Fall and cover my onions in winter. Its a long wait to harvest, but they are less likely to bolt on me this way.

Flowering garlic is ok... flowering onions... not good!

I hope some of that helps!

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

Stubborn Hill, where did you get your onions from this year? i bought last year from Home Depot and i realized after reading up about them after i had them in the ground that HD had 'short day' varieties with the exception of the Walla Walla onions. this year i ordered from Dixondale out of TX and the onions are doing much better at forming bulbs! here in our area we need to look for 'long' and 'neutral' day onions in order to get them to bulb.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Chickie'sMomma, I got all of my seeds and onions from Gurnsey's with the exception of tomato and pepper plants. To be honest with you, I can't even remember what type they were other then "Red Onion". As far as day length????

vfem, I am thinking that planting too deep may have been an issue. As I had never planted them before. I think that I planted about an inch to 1 1/2 inches deep. I actually moved some of the dirt from around most of them yesterday. A little experiment I guess as I don't know if that will help or hurt at this piont.

lesa, OK, I'm with you now. I will do that. I just hate to use now if they will be better later. I guess that is why I planted them though...to use, right? I did plant everything the weekend before Memorial Day Weekend.

smiles and i_am2buzy, That is some good info. I will shoot for the bunching onions to plant for next year.

Learning, learning, learning..... Thanks all for your help!