[wizardave]

😃 I'm so happy I could just spit! 😃

My onions appear to be about done and I can announce this is...

🧅 My Best 🧅 Onion Crop 🧅 EVER! 🧅

Without further ado, I will share my onions...

Failures

I planted seeds in January. I overseeded 6-packs. That means you plant a dozen or so seeds per cell. Great germination. They got to about pencil lead size and I lost them all. I bottom water all my seedlings by setting the 6 pack in water for about 15 minutes. Maybe I should have top watered some. ??? Maybe I should have only put about 6 seeds per cell. ??? The top layer of dirt with seedlings kind of pushed up and dried out the seedlings.

Some people give up after a failure.

• Not me.
• Next year I will plant onion seeds again to try to grow my own.
• I ended up getting 3 bundles of onion sets from the local Amish greenhouse.

The red onions are only about 1/2 the size as the yellow and white onions. I was hoping to get 1 slice per hamburger size like the yellow and whites. No problem. I'll just use 2 or 3 slices. They have a great taste!

Details (What I did)

I've been studying Gary Pilarchik's Videos for a few years now. Each year I get better at starting my seeds.

Sometime this year, I ran across Old Alabama Gardener's videos on growing big slicing onions. Lot's of good tips from his playlist.

• You will note from my picture that I planted in a raised bed.
  -- You could use traditional rows, but why waste all that space???
• I fertilized twice with Miracle-Gro All Purpose Fertilizer.
• I fertilized twice with a grass fertilizer. 21-0-0.
• I watered as needed during dry spells.
• I did a pretty good job of keeping them weeded.
• Most, but not all, needed the dirt removed around them as they starting bulbing.

I'm in USA Growing zone 5A, so I need long-day or day-neutral onions.

I planted these on April 11th, 2020. (3 months ago)

• All the next week temperatures dipped below freezing. 26F was the lowest.
• We got 1 inch of snow on the 15th, then 6 inches on the 16th.
• It was a fairly wet spring, so didn't have to water for quite a few weeks.

We've already eaten a few.

• Sliced and diced on salads.
• Sliced and added with cucumber slices to make refrigerator pickles. YUM!

Varieties Grown

• Candy Red
• Walla Walla
  • These don't store well, so we will eat them first...
    • They are VERY good!
• Spanish Gold
  • These are the best keepers.

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