Mmmmm.....I Love Onions

Remember that Turtles Chocolates commercial from the early 1980's with the jingle that goes “mmmmm….I love Turtles”?  I have a feeling this may have been a Canadian commercial, so if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can see it HERE.  Yes, I know – it’s horrible – but the tune stuck with you – back then, anyhow!

The jingle was based on a song that was called – you guessed it – “I Love Onions”.  And the song did in fact go – “Mmmmmm, I love onions” – and just in case you don’t believe me, take a gander at THIS.

How do I even know about this obscure (or so I thought) onion song, you may ask?  Because my Dad was a BIG fan of thrift shop records back in the day and one of his “finds” had the “I Love Onions” song on it.  I still can’t believe that both of these songs are on You Tube.  Is there anything that ISN’T on You Tube these days?  Apparently not.

I do LOVE onions but have never grown them.  I’ve always been kind of intimidated by the thought of getting this teeny, tiny seedling to swell into a large bulb.  Well, this year, I decided to give it a go.  What’s the worst that can happen?  Even if they don’t bulb up, I’ll still have me a whole mess of green onions, right?

I chose two varieties of globe onion – Copra (THE yellow onion every onion gardener seems to grow) and Rossa di Milano (a red onion).  Both are supposed to be very good storage type onions.  I also decided to try Ailsa Craig, a large sweet onion.  For green onions, I am growing “He-Shi-Ko” which are perennial bunching onions.  And lastly, I am trying out potato onions, which are multiplier globe onions.  There is a bit of a story behind the potato onions but I will talk about that on a later post.

Onions Seedlings - Waiting to be Transplanted
 
I did my research on how to grow onions and, as usual, different sources gave differing advice.

So I took a little information from here & there, based on what sounded reasonable to me, and proceeded to sow my onion seeds in early March, about 10 weeks before my last frost date of May 10th.  I had noticed that many vegetable gardeners out there sowed their onions back in January or February.  But they are often in warmer zones (I’m in zone 5b which I believe is the equivalent of 4b in the US), so I went ahead with the “10 weeks before last frost” recommendation on sowing indoors.

Whenever I grow a new crop, it seems I always end up making a few goofs along the way.  I sowed the onions just below the soil surface in a 72-plug tray.  I realize now that I sowed them way too shallowly – in a few cases, the bottom of the onion seedling even ended up on top of the soil, and you could clearly see the roots sticking down into the soil. I also messed up when watering them.  I had topped each plug with vermiculite (to help with damping off) and so it was difficult to tell when the tray needed watering.  For my other cell packs & pots, I simply lift them up to see how heavy they are.  If they are light(ish), I water.  But since the tray was so large & I had never used one before, it seemed heavy, even when it was relatively dry – so I let the soil dry out a bit too much a few times.  Both of these errors cost me a good number of onion seedlings.  Thankfully, I miscalculated how many seedlings would fit into the beds and sowed many more than I needed.  As to the impact of these mistakes on the remaining onion seedlings?  Only time will tell, I guess.

When I transplanted my seedlings in early May (they should have gone out in April, but the bed wasn’t ready at the time), I wasn’t overly impressed with their size:

Onion Seedlings All In A Row
 
When I compared my onion seedlings to Daphne’s at Daphne’s Dandelions, mine are little wispy things while hers are huge & stout.  Long day onions (which all of mine are) start to bulb up once days start to lengthen.  Apparently, the larger the onion plants are at this time, the larger a bulb you will get.  Bottom  line - I have a feeling that I will be sowing the onions much earlier next year, just like the majority of other gardeners.

Onion Bed Today
 

The only onions that I did not start indoors were the perennial bunching onions.  I decided to seed these directly into the bed as I didn’t have enough room under the grow lights to accommodate them. Perennial bunching onions (also known as Japanese bunching onions) are supposed to multiply at the base – essentially you plant them once, then you simply harvest as needed, leaving some in the ground to continue multiplying.  And they are also supposed to be winter hardy.  I may not be able to get much in the way of a harvest from them this year, but that’s ok – I’ll just consider this the year that I establish the perennial bunching onion patch…..and then pray that they do indeed overwinter the way they are supposed to.

Till next time...

Comments

  1. That is what I need. Some perennial bunching onions. Though I suppose I could always eat my townhouse mates' multiplier onions. I haven't a clue what they are, nor do they. But I'd guess potato onions. They are just taking over the area they are in.

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    1. I never seem to have enough onions - if I had a patch taking over an area, I'd be one happy camper!

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  2. I need to get some perennial bunching onions as well. I've never been able to grow decent sized conventional onions. Where did you get your seeds?

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    1. I got the seeds from Cottage Gardener (www.cottagegardener.com) which is a small heirloom seed house in Ontario - they call them "Evergreen Bunching Onions".

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    2. Thomas - Just noticed that Baker Creek also has this variety: www.rareseeds.com/he-shi-ko-bunching-onion/

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  3. Your onions look wonderful. I do agree that Daphne's are splendid this year but I have grown a very successful crop with onion seedlings that were much smaller as well. I have even procrastinated and planted really late and they still produced a good quality crop. Let the onion grow until the tops begin to flop over.

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    1. Thanks Rachel - I have no idea what to expect in terms of what they should look like at various stages, so that is reassuring!

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  4. We have an onion aficionado in our town and he sends in a bulk (very inexpensive) order to Dixondale Farm. My Copra's didn't come through, but I have a cippolini and a red onion, and shallots. I just do what Rol tells me to do at any given moment and things always come out great. He's the garlic king, too, but I'm catching up. I wish I had thought about scallions.

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    1. Boy, I wish I had an onion expert close by - lucky you!

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