Seedmama, dropping the check at the PO today.

Keith, great leg work!

Here's the list of people whose payment has arrived. If you think yours should have been here by now, please email me.
lizgyrl
Ihv2gratkids
justsaymo
daleok
miraje
aikimikey
p-mac
trees4ok
soonergrandmom
carsons_mimi
momfryhover

Seedmama, I mailed you check today only, sorry for delay. Regards -Chandra

No worries, Chandra. We'll be fine.

BTW, for anyone who is counting, we're at 113 bunches!

Keith, Your payment arrived. Thanks!

Here's the list of people whose payment has arrived. If you think yours should have been here by now, please email me.
lizgyrl
Ihv2gratkids
justsaymo
daleok
miraje
aikimikey
p-mac
trees4ok
soonergrandmom
carsons_mimi
momfryhover
jcheckers
draej
tigerdawn

Also, I've volunteered to pick up for those in the Moore/Norman and other southern areas. So post here or send me an e-mail thru this site and I'll let you know where/when we'll meet. If I pick up on Friday like I did last year, I'll meet you all Saturday morning. I'm just guessing that I'll be meeting the same 3 as last year plus maybe a few others? Just let me know so that I pick up the right ones, k?

Paula

Paula, since I'm in Blanchard it might be closer for me to meet up with you on Saturday morning. Is that ok?

I would like to order the following onions: (as long as it is not too late)
2 bunches of short day samplers
2 bunches of intermediate day samplers
2 Big Daddy bunches
2 Ringmaster bunches

Sharon B.

Mrs. B.

It is not too late. Payment sent today should be here in time.

Be sure to check back and let us know how your long day selections perform in Oklahoma. I'll be very curious to know. I'm growing both types of cippolini. I don't expect them to get more than an inch or so big, but oh how perfect for shish kabob. We'll see.

Does anybody correspond with okfella? I haven't heard from him, and last year he was johnny on the spot. I hope everything is okay.

Thanks,
Seedmama

That' great. Could you send me your address and total and who to make the check out to.

Thanks,
Sharon B.

Thank you again Paula, I look forward to hear about the location and timing. I guess Saturday 11 at 10am at the same location? We still have lot of chapped versions in our freezer from the last year's harvest. Cheers -Chandra

I'm optimistically going to leap into the unknown with:

(1) Intermediate Day Sampler
(1) Short Day Sampler

I have no garden started at the new abode, and only the vaguest idea of where it will eventually be, but hopefully by the time they get here I will have dug something! Emailing you through GW now, Seedmama. Thanks!

Hi, Paula, I tried to email you from this site but kept getting an error message. I am in Norman and I have ordered one Intermediate Day Sampler. Just let me know where and when to show up for pickup. Thanks!
Donna

Donna and miraje - I've got you on my radar!!! Like Chandra mentioned - I'll probably try to co-ordinate with all of you on the Saturday after I pick up on Friday nite. We've still got a couple of days so maybe we can catch the Garden Gnomes napping and get an e-mail thur. I'll try from my end also.

(Mirage - I think I may have yours from last years spring swap so watch for my e-mail)

Paula

Short day sampler (2)
Intermediate Day Sampler (1)
1015Y Texas Super Sweet (1)
Red Candy Apple (2)
Candy(2)
Red Creole (1)
thank you seedmama mailing payment tomorrow
leava

Paula, I wasn't at the swap last year, but seedmama has my email address if you want to try to get it from her. I wonder why Gardenweb isn't letting me send you one. That's weird!

Heather

Here's the list of people whose payment has arrived. If you think yours should have been here by now, please email me.
lizgyrl
Ihv2gratkids
justsaymo
daleok
miraje
aikimikey
p-mac
trees4ok
soonergrandmom
carsons_mimi
momfryhover
jcheckers
draej
tigerdawn
Chandra

For my own audit trail, I am posting Chandra's revised order here:
1 bunch 1015
1 bunch Texas Early White
1 bunch Yellow Granex
1 bunch Hybrid Southern Belle Red
1 SDS
1 Red Creole
1 Candy
1 Superstar

My own order is
1 bunch 1015
2 bunches SDS
3 bunches Red Creole
2 bunches Candy
1 bunch Superstar
2 bunches IDS
1 bunch Borettana Cippolini
1 bunch Red Marble Cippolini

My kids are already complaining about how the house will smell when these babies arrive. MMMMmmmmm! We now have the equivalent of 4 1/2 crates!

2 bunch - Candy (yellow)
1 bunch 1015Y
1 bunch - Super Star
1 bunch - Red Candy Apple

Thank you.

Seedmama,

Dropped the check in the PO box this morning. Crossing my fingers that it will get from Warr Acres to OKC to Harrah by Monday. If it doesn't make it, just drop my order- that will teach me to not wait until the last minute!

Andria

Thanks Andria! I will watch for it!

Mrs. B. Your payment arrived today. Thanks!

THE OFFER IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED AND HELPED US SECURED A GREAT PRICE. I'LL SEE MOST OF YOU IN FEBRUARY.

If you missed the fun, watch the forum in December for next year's posting. Or, send me an email and I'll try to remember to notify you when the posting goes up.

Seedmama

Here's the list of people whose payment has arrived. If you think yours should have been here by now, please email me.
lizgyrl
Ihv2gratkids
justsaymo
daleok
miraje
aikimikey
p-mac
trees4ok
soonergrandmom
carsons_mimi
momfryhover
jcheckers
draej
tigerdawn
Chandra
mrsb73122
mrsfrodo
leava

I'm going to check my work one more time, but just had to share preliminary totals.

This year, we collectively purchased 138 bunches of onions, up 42% from last year's 97 bunches.

Below are the varieties ordered, followed in parenthesis first by the number of bunches ordered 2011, then the number of bunches ordered 2012.This group clearly likes Candy, showed great interest in the new Red Creole offering.
1015Y Texas (12,18)
Texas Early White (n/a, 2)
Yellow Granex (1,5)
Hybrid Southern Belle Red (6,1)
White Bermuda (3,4)
Short Day Sampler (9,15)
Red Creole (n/a, 14)
Red Candy Apple (18,19)
Candy (17,35)
Super Star (12,10)
Intermediate Day Sampler (11,9)
Borettana Cippolini (0,1)
Red Marble Cippolini (0,1)
Big Daddy (0,2)
Ringmaster (0,2)

Yikes...I just had a bad thought...did Katie contact you to order 3 Intermediate Sampler bunches? She would be under Katie King, Flying Ace??
We had discussed this, but I'm afraid (now) that she may have thought I was going to order (I thought she was...etc.) and she's in Dallas for a conference this weekend so I cannot get a hold of her to ask.
I see you have closed the list...if there is any way to put 3 more in there, I can e-mail you the money today through my bank.
Please let me know if she's already done that, or not, and if we're "toast"...thanks,

Sharon

Hmm, mailed mine Thursday night - let's just hope it gets there tomorrow.

I have sent a test email to all who ordered. This is meant to confirm that I have a working email for you. If you did not receive the test email, kindly post here so I will know, then send me another email so I can check my work.

Once I have a sound distribution list, I will notify you of the pick up location.

Thanks again,
Seedmama

It appears we have a number of blonde joke afficionados who moonlight as gardeners.

LOL. I was totally gonna email you back with some bit of blonde wisdom (I feel entitled: my roots are blonde!) but didn't want to mess up your mojo or any system you had in place... hahaha!

This was also the reason I didn't round up on my check for my order - you don't mess with an accountant. They'll cut a @$@!

As we eagerly await our onions, take a look at dixondalefarms.com to learn more about how to prepare for your onions, and how to grow them. I have ordered individual printed onion planting guides as well. The first two paragraphs of the printed guide say:

While the enclosed plants may appear dry, don't be alarmed; they're simply dormant. Don't worry if you can't plant them immediately, even if the roots and tips begin to dry out. the onions can live off the bulb for approximately three weeks.

DO remove the plants from the box immediately. Keep them n a well-ventilated, cool area until you can plant them. Do NOT put them in soil or water.

Mia, You are funny. It's true. Mess with an accountant's system, lose an appendage.

If anyone is local to the Tulsa/Broken Arrow/Jenks/Sapulpa/Glenpool etc area....I stopped at Farmer's Feed in Sapulpa this AM and they were expecting a shipment of Dixondale sets to arrive TODAY. IIRC they were $1-$1.40 per set last year.

I am going back within the next several days to pick some up. If I can grow nothing else this year, I can still grow onions.

Jo

I don't know if I mean bunch or set or if there is a difference. Last year I bought bundles (50 or so tiny baby onions in each bundle). Each bunch gave me dozens of onions for $1 (ish) initial cost and no labor.

Jo

Jo, a bunch is the bundle of 50 or so. A set is the individual plant.

I think of sets as those little dried bulbs that you plant in Spring for green onions and are sold in a mesh bag. On the other hand, a number of 'plants' tied in a bundle makes up a bunch and they are planted for bulbing onions.

The way I remember it is this: The sets were onions grown last year, then dried, and held for Spring planting. In my mine, when planted this year, that makes them a second year onion which is fine for green onions but more likely to go to seed if grown longer, which is the nature of an onion in it's second year. A true BIENNIAL plant.

I think it is important to plant 'plants' as early as you can after receiving them although they will keep for awhile and still grow. Although the growth is briefly interrupted when we order them from Dixondale, it is a short interruption and we can still get them into the ground quickly while they are still a green plant.

Although Dixondale sells plants to many retail stores, you never know how they were handled after they reached the store and how long they have been in stock. I have seen them when there was very little green left on the onion. It is hard enough to grow onions in Oklahoma and keep them from going to seed because of our crazy Spring weather, so I think a direct order is a good thing. Seedmama's order is handled so fast that is about the same timeframe as ordering yourself but we get the benefit of combined pricing.

So will I be concerned when I see bunches of onion plants in the stores for less money than I paid? Maybe for 30 seconds, but as long as the date of receipt of our major onion order works with my planting date, I feel like it is worthwhile to get them fresh and straight from the grower.

Carol,
Some good info and I agree with your thoughts. I went ahead and ordered a few bunches from Dixondale. I have most of what I'm starting up and growing well now. Just received a back order Thursday. Going out to start those seeds in a few minutes. I was thinking I would just wait and buy a few bundles from a local vendor when they came in. But you never know when they will come in and like you said what shape they will be in. I imagine about half of the onions I grow this year will be from Dixondale and the other half those I raise. I still plan on posting a list with most of what I will be growing in the garden this year. I will list the varieties there. When I ordered I moved the shipping date up 2 weeks. Guess I'm getting optimistic. I usually move it up a week. The soil temps keep rising and the geese keep going north so hope it is a sign of an early spring. I pay a little more especially when I order few bunches like I did this year. But if I figure the cost of gas to travel at least 60 miles just to find some and also know they will be here when I want them I don't mind. And it also keeps me out of the greenhouse/nurseries. I spent a around 3 hours in them in Amarillo yesterday. I won't say how much I spent. Basically ready for the year now. Will also be starting some greens and a few early tomatoes this weekend. Jay

Carol, you made me go look. And of course you are absolutely right. My gardening student is on his way here right now. I can't wait to tell him sensei learned something today!

Carol,

Thank you for clarifying onion terminology to me. I had no idea!

I din't mean to crap this thread or compromise the group buy. Onions at $1 or $2 a bunch are still a great deal. I just wanted to point out options to local people.

Farmer's Feed is a TINY Mom and Pop store, and last year their bunches were excellent and provided me with a ton of onions. I got a few bunches from the group buy through a friend, and the Farmer's Feed ones did as well as (or even better than) the ones bought directly from Dixondale and passed on to me.

Jo
Jo

Jo, I think it is great you can find Dixondale locally and I am happy for you and green with envy too. I wish I could find them here. I do think if you buy them when the store first gets them, they probably are fresh much like Dixondale's freshly-shipped onions are when we receive them at our homes. The first week I see bundles of onion plants in stores here they look pretty green and fresh, but that fresh look doesn't last long---maybe a couple of weeks.

Everyone around me has gotten to where they carry only Bonnie Plants, including BP onions. I miss the good old days when different stores had different plants from different wholesalers/growers....in one store you might see onions from Bonnie Plants, Brown's Omaha and Dixondale.

When I was a kid, the only onions we could find for planting were the sets in net bags (at Montgomery Wards, of all places), and they always went to seed. Part of the problem was that they usually are long-day varieties which never will form large bulbs here anyway. (Except maybe at Jay's.) They looked like little tiny dried oonions when you planted them and that weren't worth a nickle as they often didn't grow at all, or went right to seed as Carol described. I remember how excited my dad was in the late 1960s or early 1970s when a little Greek market near us started selling bundles of onion plants in January every year.

Carol, One of my pet peeves is retailers that sell plants at the wrong time for planting, so last year I paid attention to when the local big box stores pulled their onions from the shelves in the garden center and stopped selling them. It was in May. Those bundles of unsold onions had set there in those wooden crates since February. I don't think they were getting in newer shipments periodically, but rather just leaving old, dried-up unsold onions out there for 3 months or more after the recommended planting date. I would look at those dry, dessicated bundles and wonder who in their right mind would buy them at that point, and would shake my head.

Jay, There is nothing that will keep you out of a nursery or garden center. Nothing. I understand it though as I am that way myself.

Dawn

p-mac

I live in Norman and would be interested in meeting you to pick up the onions. I tried to send you and email but for some reason it gives me an error. Just let me know how to contact you and a time to meet.

Thanks
Lisa

Hi Lisa! I'll be happy to pick yours up too. If you'll e-mail either Dawn or seedmama - they can forward it to me.
I'll be sending out an e-mail the first of the week to those I'm meeting with the time & place on Saturday, the 11th of Feb.

Paula

Bump!

The location and directions have been mailed to everyone individually. If you didn't get the email, send me a blonde joke.

A late, but sincere, thank you to pmac and her hubs for delivering onions to Norman last Saturday in the miserable cold. Gardeners are great people.

As Larry would say, "I mudded in some onions today." We haven't had much rain so far this year, but we have had just enough light showers to keep things wet since the cold days passed. We had light rain this morning and have a 20 percent chance of more tonight. I tip-toed between the rain showers and planted all of my Candy onions in a raised bed. We are going to have several cloudy days in a row so it seemed like a good time to get them out.

My husband was in Atwood's today and called to tell me they had Dixondale onions and asked if I wanted more. He read me the list and I think Candy was the only intermediate day variety they had and all the rest were short-day. Since I had ordered Candy with the group order, I told him I didn't need anymore of those and didn't want the others. Although I live in that lap-over area that Dixondale says will grow both short day and intermediate day types, I am at the very top of it, and feel I will probably be better off with intermediate day types. That is another reason why I like to order with the group order since the local stores don't seem to pay much attention to that.

Ack, Carol! You're killin' me! It was so blasted difficult to stay at work this afternoon! Here in the OKC area we reached a high of 65. I kept thinking this was PERFECT weather to get the onions planted!!! Unfortunately, my bosses had other ideas like me earning my pay. Dang it. My look at the forecast tells me Sunday will be my next opp to get them out. I think they'll be fine until then, but I'll beel better when they're in the ground.

A BIG thanks to Seedmama for all she did to pull this together. She has done an AMAZING job of keeping this all straight for 2 years now. Considering the numbers she's processed, that's no small feat. GO SEEDMAMA!!! (And special thanks to Seedpapa, Seedling #1 and especially Seedling #2 for their contributions!)

Paula

Yes, I must tell the tale of how Seedpapa and Seedling #2 helped fill the bags. Seedling #2 stapled the blue order sheets to each bag. Seedpapa helped me grab from the boxes scattered around the garage. Very early in the process, 3 year old #2 said, "Daddy, you aren't doing it right. That says 5 of that kind and you only put 1." Go Seedling #2!

It's my pleasure to do this small thing for the folks on the forum. If it continues to grow we'll have to rent a warehouse to sort!

Thanks to all who came to claim their onions or sent designated representatives. It really make my job go smoothly!

Thanks you Seedmama and family for all those hard work and patience! and Thanks to Paula, Ken and Lexi for delivering onions in cold morning.

Weather was great today, left office early and planted all onions in two raised beds!

-Chandra

Yes, thank you to both Seedmama and Paula! Since I only ordered one bunch I was able to get them in the ground yesterday after work. It was interesting trying to figure out where to put the 40 extra onions I had in my bunch. I guess I'll be eating lots of green onions this spring. :)

I really wish I hadn't created such an onion fiasco for myself! Does mrsfrodo get on here often? Just trying to make sure she hasn't gotten real busy or had something happen and hasn't been able to get my onions to me before I have to give up.

Thanks from me too, Paula!

Being that I'm a complete newbie at growing any kind of onion, I'm curious as to what I should expect to see from these transplants. By visual inspection, it doesn't look like the onions have done much of anything since I planted them a week ago. I remember reading somewhere here that they need to get the roots established first, so when should I start seeing new growth from them above ground? Also, most of the tops are curled over, so I'm curious if they're going to straighten out at some point? I just want to make sure this isn't a sign that the soil is too compact for them or something.