Growing Onions

[aggieterpkatie]

I'm not a great onion grower. Apparently they need a weed-free zone, and I'm just not that diligent to weed around them. My typical garden plan is this: plant and then forget about it for weeks. So anyways, I just went and weeded the garden bed for the first time since they were planted in late March. The tops are looking pretty weak. They're flopped over and not looking great. Are they done? Should I try to water them and hope they'll keep growing, or should I just pull the onions out now?

 

[BarredBuff]

 

[Wannabefree]

Ours flopped too. I just pulled mine. What zone are you? We got too hot too quick for them to do well. We hit triple digits heat indexes last month :/

 

[pinkfox]

alot of our onions have flopped too, but there not wilted (just too top heavy lol) and growing just fine. we dont realy keep ontop of weeds either ...

they dont "look pretty" from above ground, but they are still growing well and taste good...

 

[FarmerDenise]

Onions are usually done by midsummer. At which time it is ok for them to flop over. Onion are daylength sensitive plants. They won't keep growing much after summer solstice.
We haven't dug ours up yet, but ours are still very green, we want to let them dry out a bit, before we dig them up.

Try digging some of yours up and see what they look like. They don't have to be that big to be eaten. Don't forget, you can also eat the green tops, if any of them are still green.

If you are going to harvest them, they need to dry/cure for a few days before you store them in a cool place.

We often leave some in the ground to make green onions for us.

If you got any seed out of them, save the seed for planting next year's crop. Onion seed is good for only one year.

 

[Marianne]

If you got any seed out of them, save the seed for planting next year's crop. Onion seed is good for only one year.

Oh no kidding. I never even gave it a thought to let some seed for next year. I didn't buy as many sets this year as I have in the past, and now I'm sorry.

I did get some multiplier onions from a buddy of mine last year, but they didn't get as big as hers. I used a couple this morning in salad, and was going to re-plant the littler bulbs that were with them. Should I wait until next year to plant those? I'm in zone 5B, triple digits some days already, sigh.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I did pull a couple up and the biggest was maybe golf ball sized. I'm in zone 7. How early should I be planting them? Maybe I'm just putting them in too late? I should have watered them more too...it's been incredibly dry.

 

[FarmerDenise]

We plant onion sets in November. We are in zone 8/9.

Last year I planted the seeds from our own onions shortly after we harvested them. In November we transplanted them into the onion bed and some we planted in a shady spot for green onions.

I always experiment with stuff. I have left onions in the ground and happily harvested the green tops, especially if the onion is too small to bother with.

Some years our onions do fantastic, other years they are whimpy and we are lucky just to have the greens. Some years they keep fairly well and others they rot by christmas.

I like making sure I at least have green onion tops year round, so I an always get some onion flavor.

If I had little onion bulbs, I would probably plant them in November (or October, if your ground is frozen by then) and let them winter over, just like garlic.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I did pull a couple up and the biggest was maybe golf ball sized. I'm in zone 7. How early should I be planting them? Maybe I'm just putting them in too late? I should have watered them more too...it's been incredibly dry.

Just consider it a learning experience. Last year most of our onions did not get much bigger than golf balls either. They still taste good, just a bit more work. At least they are from your own garden.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

If I had little onion bulbs, I would probably plant them in November (or October, if your ground is frozen by then) and let them winter over, just like garlic.

I'm going to try that! Perhaps I'll mulch over them with straw too.