onion report and question.

11 years ago

Last year I planted 6-7 varieties (160 total) of onions from Dixondale Farms. I estimate that 30 percent bolted, 40 percent were of decent size, and that the other 30 percent were on the smaller size. The onion blades grew well, upward of 3 feet tall

This year, I planted ~ 100 onions. None have bolted, but non have really grown to more than the size of a tennis ball, of which only 2-3 got that big. Additionally, they've only grown to about 18 inches high.

I grew them in a new bed, last year I had tomatoes there. Prior to planting I added ~ 3 inches of compost and dug it in. After planting out ~ the first of April I didn't see any appreciable growth for 6 weeks.

I am assuming that the compost (~ different varieties including home made) didn't provide enough nitrogen. I didn't fertilize as I thought that the nitrogen supply would be sufficient considering how much compost I added.

Any other thoughts or suggestions for next year?

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Comments (5)

bcomplx
11 years ago
I think you are right, that stepping up the fertilizer would help. And since you don't know what those field grown plants have been though, you might consider growing your own seedlings over the winter months.
Peter (6b SE NY)
11 years ago
I want to grow my own onion seedlings this winter myself. Can anyone give me advice on this? I have a T5 grow light. Seems I need to start really early as they grow slow, but I don't want them to get too big before transplanting or they will bolt from cold exposure after transplanting. I was thinking of maybe trying the Ailsa Craig onions, as none of the Dixondale sampler did spectacular.
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lola8325 zone5KS
11 years ago
Onions do like to be fertilized several times during their growing season. The more big healthy leaves the larger the onion bulb can grow.

Watering in some nitrogen might help your onions produce for you.

Onions don't start bulbing up until the summer daylight hours reach "x" number of hours. (sorry i don't remember how many hours of daylight.)

There are Long Day, Medium Day, & Short Day onions. Make sure you are planting onions appropriate for your day-length location. Find an onion growing map to figure out what day length will grow in your location.

http://www.dixondalefarms.com/online_guides

Keep trying, don't give up!
dalia bush
11 years ago
My husband and I grow huge onions in our zone 5 garden in Northern Nevada at just over 38 degrees latitude. Because onions are day light sensitive it’s important to choose the right variety for your latitude. We buy all of our intermediate day plants from Dixondale Farms and have never had a problem of any kind. We regularly grow 3½” to 4½” ‘Candy’ and ‘Superstar’ onions. They’ve been doing it for over 100 years and raise more onion plants for growers than any other producer. Take a trip to Corrizo Springs, Texas and see for yourself!

Dixondale has a very comprehensive growing guide on their website, http://www.dixondalefarms.com/online_guides that we’ve been using for the last 8 years. We fertilize every 10 days to 2 weeks with Dixondale’s 10:20:10 product. It’s reasonably priced and they ship for free. Once the weather heats up we water every 3 to 4 days with soaker hoses we install at planting.

The attached picture is of one of the 3 wheel barrows we harvested in 2014.
nugrdnnut
Original Author
11 years ago
dalia,
thanks for sharing... and phenomenal onions!!!