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Post by 12540dumont on Jan 21, 2012 17:34:46 GMT -5
#4, Joseph's Onions are doing well. #69 Which is a late pale purple storage onion "Colrado de Conservar" did not do well in the winter trials. 21 of 30 seeds germinated and were planted out. Only 3 survive. #3 Tropea Rosa Tondo is doing great as well. Of course Area 51 is doing superbly. Area 51? Yep, lost a tag when we were planting. Sigh. We planted the middles with radicchio and endive and we've been eating it and feeding it to the chickens since October. I keep cutting it back and it grows again. The red radicchio is just about ready to head. Attachments:
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Post by richardw on Mar 3, 2012 15:01:41 GMT -5
Garlic is up and looking good. It's so dry, I'm having to irrigate. Look at these crazy beans. It's December and we've only had one frost. You are certainly growing a wide range of onions and leeks Holly Since this post have you had enough frost to knock the beans back
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 4, 2012 0:58:52 GMT -5
As to that frost, we sure did, everything eventually died. However, it's almost Spring here (or close darn to it) Here's the onion trial today. Attachments:
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 4, 2012 1:01:20 GMT -5
Leeks on the left, Onions in the middle, garlic on the right.
I spent a pretty long day out in these beds weeding. No other varieties have died..however, there is a gopher eating radicchio.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 4, 2012 1:03:03 GMT -5
forgot the photo. Whew, I'm tired. time for supper. Yep, 10 pm that's what happens when you have an early spring. Attachments:
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Post by ferdzy on Mar 4, 2012 9:50:30 GMT -5
Between the gophers and rampaging sisters-in-law, not too many fatalities there I hope.
It's looking good. I thought we were going to have an early spring since there wasn't much winter to speak of but if finally decided it had better get cracking and we have had a foot of snow in the last week. Mind you, it's supposed to be back up to 9°C by Wednesday so who knows?
I'm getting quite interested in onions. I'm thinking I need to follow Joseph's lead and develop two herds of onions, a sweet one and a storage one, and just grow the odd independant variety for fun. Unfortunately I'm definitely in long-day territory so the varieties that work for you will probably not grow here. Still, after 3 years I'm starting to get an idea of what looks good for us.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 4, 2012 12:32:29 GMT -5
Luckily the sister-in-law was not in the the trial beds, but in the new onions, I started another tray to fill in...
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 8, 2012 0:01:01 GMT -5
This evening I planted the following onions in a flat inside. There were approximately 15 seeds each of the GRIN onions. (Thanks Holly.) After doing the math on how many seeds I thought would fit in a flat, and how many I want to plant, I understand why I buy sets or plants. (Thanks Minnie.) I could aspire to growing my own specialty onions from seed, something like Walla Walla, but with limited greenhouse space I'd rather grow peppers than plain old Utah yellow Spanish onions. I think that I'll solarize a patch of soil this summer, and weed it vigorously several times during the summer so that it will be ready for a solstice planting of onion seeds. It really would be clever to grow my own sets. Last year one planting of seeds got too big to use as sets, and the solstice planted seeds got lost in the weeds. I'm still eating the first planting, they got to be a bit larger than walnuts. Very nice size for using around the house. PI 264310 Very Early Globe Purple Short storage, NE Spain 1960 Sangre de Buey PI 264312 Medium, Purple, France, Long Store, Sub Globe, 1960 Colorada de Conservar PI 264314 Very Early Globe Purple & Yellow, Flattened Bulb Short storage, Barcelona, Spain 1960 Campeny PI 264324 Medium, Straw yellow, flat, poor keeper, Spain 1960 Amarilla Achatada PI 264325 Early, pale purple inside, Globe, Long Storage, Spain 1960 Colorado de Amposta PI 264311 Early, red, pear shaped bulb, medium storage, North of Barcelona, Spain 1960 Viguetana PI 546118 - Cal Early Red Short Day Onion, non-bolting adapted to Central California, 1961. Thick flat bulb, Light Red, Not for storage PI 546119 - Eclipse Short Day Onion, 85 days, Early Crystal wax type, non-bolting. Thick flat bulb, White, Bermuda type. California 1961. Yellow Bulb Onion ( Joseph) Yellow with a touch of purple. Yellow long day with +/- 5% purple onion pollen.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 8, 2012 17:18:39 GMT -5
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Post by nuts on Mar 8, 2012 17:19:00 GMT -5
I think you can have about 5000 seedlings a square meter,that's 500 plants a square foot,maybe even more if you plant them out when they are much thinner than a pencil. They can be quite crowded.
If you plant them,I think you can put 5 plants a square foot, that's a ratio of 100. I mean you need 1square foot of seedlings for planting 100 square foot. ok,this is rough guessing,better make your own guesses.
I don't like the idea of sowing them directly because they are very long to start,very difficult to weed,and I don't like the soil to be uncovered for such a long time.
They are mostly coldresistent so sowing at the end of summer or fall should be doable without greenhouse,but I don't know what varieties are best adapted for winter.
A cold frame of a few square meters is the way to go to speed up the development and to protect them somewhat from the cold. I'm doing them in my greenhouse for now,but if I was a professional grower I sure would look for other solutions.
Growing onionsets from seed seems much better than buying sets,for economic reasons(you're best served by yourself). And it's the only way if you want to develop your own landrace.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 8, 2012 17:32:11 GMT -5
So, Round 3 of onions. I bought 3 of these trays, and when I plant one, I fill it again. Leo found some of these floating in a creek and brought them home to me. The round cells do a wonderful job on those tiny little onion roots. They are also easy to dislodge when planting. Note to self...do not dump tray while walking to the field. I like these trays as they do not flex or break. I have found them very rugged. These are 20 x 10 and plant 200 seeds at a time. One of these days I'm going to do a post on "Don't bother with these products." Trays are my pet peeve. Some of my old trays are 20 years old some of the ones I bought 2 years ago are already in the trash. Yes, I have a soil blocker and it doesn't work for everything. When I start the onions I use endo mychorrizae, and a shot of fish emulsion. I have to water sprouts every other day. Once a week, I hit them again with fish emulsion. Onions are heavy feeders. I think the most critical thing I have found is that they MUST be regularly and adequately watered during the season. Torpedo onions grow very fast here, so I start them now and transplant in about 4-6 weeks. I harvest them as soon as they start to bulb up. This is a photo of Mill Creek onions. A fine onion from Bountiful Gardens. Note, their packages contain a pitiful amount of onions. Stingy in my opinion. 75 plants normally costs me $15.00 200 seeds about $3.50 150 sets about $11.00 Of course only with seeds do I get what I want, when I want it. 200 plants is about what I need just for me. Attachments:
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 8, 2012 19:50:33 GMT -5
One of these days I'm going to do a post on "Don't bother with these products." Trays are my pet peeve. Some of my old trays are 20 years old some of the ones I bought 2 years ago are already in the trash. I'll join you on that thread... It irritates me that the tray manufacturers can't get their act together... I'd like a general purpose tray that could be used as a seed tray, and then later in the season as a tray to hold strawberry baskets, and as a basket later on for washing potatoes, and that could go right onto the table at market, etc....
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 8, 2012 20:09:14 GMT -5
I think you can have about 5000 seedlings a square meter,that's 500 plants a square foot, maybe even more if you plant them out when they are much thinner than a pencil. They can be quite crowded. If you plant them, I think you can put 5 plants a square foot, that's a ratio of 100. I mean you need 1 square foot of seedlings for planting 100 square foot. ok,this is rough guessing,better make your own guesses. I planted about 800 seeds in a standard 10"X20" seed tray, so that's about 600 per square foot. I'm hoping to post updates. I plant 3" apart in rows about 14" apart, and I plant about 1000 feet of row, so I'd need 5 trays like that. (This was seed grown in 2010, so we'll see how good the germination is.) I wonder how many plants per square foot I could plant and expect to get sets from them for next year? With very close spacing, I could aspire to grow them in a custom bed with imported weed free soil.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 10, 2012 19:51:08 GMT -5
Wow. The onions planted day before yesterday are already germinating!!! I put them in a flat, watered and put the flat in a plastic bag.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 16, 2012 16:02:19 GMT -5
Leeks today This is Bleu de Solaise, Scotland and Juane de Pitou Attachments:
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