Onions

 

I am so excited about my onion harvest this year.  This is the first year I've had significant success growing my own onions, beginning with the seed.

Waaaaaay back in January, I sowed three teeny onion seeds each into peat plugs.  After making sure they were kept moist and warm atop heated seedling mats, they sprouted--with 92% success!  That was thrilling in and of itself, as 1/3 of my seed was from 2011.

After they started growing fine little green leaves, I kept them trimmed to about one inch long.  Each time I cut the little leaves, they grew another layer, which served to make thick stemmed green leaves that eventually looked like fat chives.  Water was critical to their growth, but after a week or so I removed them from on top of the seedling trays as onions are more happy with slightly cooler soil temperatures.  They were parked under bright lights, though, and continued to grow like mad.

When the ground finally warmed up enough to work the soil, I planted the little pods of plant in the garden, and mulched thickly with composted rabbit manure.  I swear, rabbit manure is like rocket fuel:  plant something in it and it takes off like it wants to head for the moon!  It was too long after putting them out in the garden that I had to thin them--I pulled two of the small green onions out of the pods, leaving the remaining one to mature throughout the summer.  As it was a pretty dry summer here, I put a hose on a timer to water the garden every other night, hoping that it would help the onions to bulb up to nice, fat roots.

As you can see from my picture, my plan was a success!  I haven't weighed them, but judging from how many are lining my shelves, I have over fifty pounds of lovely yellow Copra storage onions and about five pounds of smaller Red Baron onions.  The smell is spicy and delicious!  I plan to leave them to dry thoroughly, which will take about a week give or take, and then I'll bundle them away in a basket or two to store in a dark, cool spot (also known as the lonely closet in my house) for the winter.  With any luck, I'll have fabulous home grown onions well into the winter.