What did you do in your garden today?

R2elk

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Ailsa Craig is not a storage type. It's a novelty onion because they can get HUGE.
This is the biggest Ailsa Craig that I grew. I was not impressed with them.
20211002_151557.jpg
 

Trying2keepitReal

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An onion this large would be a miracle in my garden! :lol:
Same here! I get some maybe the size of small red potatoes ;)

@Hinotori, I have family in WA and we drive out every couple years and we always drive home through Walla Walla and get a bag of onions for the trunk. They are so amazingly sweet
 

R2elk

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I'll be happy with anything larger than a pearl onion. :gig But this is encouraging! Do you remember your growing conditions when you grew large onions?
I live on a sand dune. I use azomite, 10-10-10 or 16-16-16 if available and lots of water. If I keep the weeds out they all grow nice big bulbs. I just made ham & bean soup with a Redwing that was about one lb. They are a mild red onion that keeps very well.
 

flowerbug

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I'll be happy with anything larger than a pearl onion. :gig But this is encouraging! Do you remember your growing conditions when you grew large onions?

starts of known varieties that will get larger, good soil quality (i use worms as my fertilizer), regular watering, keep weeded, space far enough apart that they all have enough room. i space them far enough that i can get the stirrup hoe between them without getting too close to the bulbs.

if you do start from seeds you have to thin them out if they get too crowded.

my onion growing experiment the past few years gave me about a third of a bucket of pearl onions. i'll eat some of them and plant some of them come this spring. the larger ones will bloom and give me more seeds to work with for the future. i also will have plenty of volunteer onions in the garden where i grew the seeds. i didn't harvest all of them, those tiny bulbs can hide pretty good in the dirt if you don't have an easy way to screen them out.

it's working perfectly as far as i can tell. :)
 

tortoise

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starts of known varieties that will get larger, good soil quality (i use worms as my fertilizer), regular watering, keep weeded, space far enough apart that they all have enough room. i space them far enough that i can get the stirrup hoe between them without getting too close to the bulbs.

if you do start from seeds you have to thin them out if they get too crowded.

my onion growing experiment the past few years gave me about a third of a bucket of pearl onions. i'll eat some of them and plant some of them come this spring. the larger ones will bloom and give me more seeds to work with for the future. i also will have plenty of volunteer onions in the garden where i grew the seeds. i didn't harvest all of them, those tiny bulbs can hide pretty good in the dirt if you don't have an easy way to screen them out.

it's working perfectly as far as i can tell. :)
my plant is to grow some onions for bulbs/eating (the seeds I started this week), and to direct sow seeds in spring for onion sets for the next year.
 

R2elk

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my plant is to grow some onions for bulbs/eating (the seeds I started this week), and to direct sow seeds in spring for onion sets for the next year.
I find that onion plants do better that onion sets. The onion sets have a tendency to form double bulbs and to go to seed rather than forming nice big beautiful bulbs.

For what I can get onion plants from Dixondale Farms, it isn't worth it to do all the work required to gets seeds started, thinned and going good.

It also helps to plant onions that are appropriate for your area. I can grow long day onions here. The people in Texas should plant short day onions. Dixondale Farms has good growing guides available on their site.
 
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