Have you ever checked out all the onion info available on the Dixondale Onion Farms website? It is one of the primary suppliers of onions plants and provides a wealth of info on varieties, types, how-to grow and fertilize pre-planting, etc.

http://www.dixondalefarms.com/

For storage I sure wish I could grow Copra and Yellow Sweet Spanish. But you can. Texas legend works great for me but then we also dehydrate and freeze many of our onions so really long term storage isn't an issue.

Dave

Dave - wow! What a wealth of info at the Dixondale Farms website!

Thanks!

Here’s my concern, Lone Jack. You said in my other thread that your intermediate day onions start bulbing in late May. So, that’s about two weeks from now. I might be a week earlier since I’m about one degree further north. My plants have about 6 leaves (most do, some have 5, one has 7) each if you count the tiny one in the middle emerging. If # of Leaves = Size then I’m looking at some SMALL onions, since it’s my understanding that once bulbing starts, they don’t add any more leaves. It took from March 14 to today to grow four leaves per plant, on average. I thought they were supposed to be faster than that.

So, do I need to start my seeds earlier next year? Maybe by Jan 1 instead of Feb 5?

My seed started plants are a little behind this year compared to last year as well. The plants that I started from seed on New Years day didn't get transplanted until March 18 and are quite a bit behind the Dixondale plants that I planted out on March 5.

Your plants still have time to add several more leaves and more importantly for the existing leaves to get bigger (bigger leaves equate to thicker bulb layers). I think you were a little late getting them properly fertilized which might cause the bulbs to be smaller than the varieties potential but I bet you will still get some decent onions.

Yeah, I would start a few weeks earlier next year. I like about 12 weeks from seed to transplant. It really doesn't make much difference in the number of leaves the transplants have but the size of the stem at soil level is the important factor.

You plant out that early? You're in a colder zone than me. The middle of March we were frozen solid, with some nights in the teens...I couldn't have planted if I wanted to.

Doesn't exposure to that much cold risk bolting when it warms up again?

Do you use low tunnels or row cover or anything?

I covered my onions once with doubled up Agribon 19 when we got down to about 20. I waited to plant my own starts until after that cold blast. I have raised beds that warm up much earlier than the ground does which helps a bunch on getting things out sooner. I planted out about the same time last year and did have a few that bolted but not many. I just use those first.

The far bed has my onions as of April 23. The far left row is Red Marble Cipolinni and the 2 rows on the right are Ponitac both of which I started from seed. The 3 rows in the middle are Red Candy, Candy, and Superstar from Dixondales.

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Nice looking garden. My garden isn't that photogenic. Not that the plants are bad, it's just not well laid out and haphazard. First year...

Next year I'll plan better.

Next year consider trimming the onion plants you grow from seed like many do - Jack and I included. Giving them a 3" haircut once or twice stimulates new leaf growth. Then trim again right as planting.

In MD do you get the late February-early March thaw most of zone 7 gets? Assuming you did Fall bed prep you can plant onions then and lay on row cover to gain a couple of weeks of top growth. Sure it gets cold again but they are very cold tolerant. Mine are normally planted out same as Jacks - early March.

Dave

Part of my issue this year, was I just hadn't prepped the ground yet that early. It was lawn before back there.