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  • From: Pam Twin Oaks <pam AT twinoaks.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Starting Onions in the Ground
  • Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2013 15:22:02 -0500

Chris, I'm unsure how to answer your questions. When did you start your flats? And then when do you transplant them in the field? Exactly what happens Feb 1st?? Transplanting in the field? Or are you moving the tunnel off the onions, as Jay is?

We sow bulb onions directly in the soil in the hoophouse, 11/10 and 11/20. We don't add potting soil on top. We weed them and look at them all winter. We transplant them out in the field March 1st or as soon as we can after that. We harvest in early June. We like Frontier, Gunnison, and Patterson for storing. Seed companies keep pulling the onion-variety-rug out from under us. Frontier is at Osborne Seeds, but not many other places that I've found. Johnny's just discontinued Gunnison once we'd learned to like that. We liked Olympic for a quick-growing non-storing kind, but that got pulled too.

Before we started on this method, we tried sowing in plug flats in January, we tried sowing in coldframes in September and over-wintering for transplanting in the field in spring. Neither of those worked well.

Richard - On the question you asked about day neutral varieties, let me know if you succeed in harvesting in September. I'm not sure if it will work. I did grow Candy years ago, and they finished up the same date as others. But that was from January sowing. I do think the daylength effect is very strong. Do you have much humidity to deal with, where you are? Candy isn't a good storer, I do remember that.

What about Walla Walla which takes 125 days? It doesn't store at all, but it does take longer to get to (large) final size. . .

No wonder there's that phrase about "knowing your onions" - sure is a tricky crop. At our latitude anyway.

Chris said:> I should have include more specifics. We are farming in central Iowa.
> Last year we started the seed in 200 cell flats and we started over 400
> flats.  We just purchased a movable high tunnel and I would I would like to
> do some in ground transplants and onions seem to be a good choice.
>
> Pam we usually start about the same time maybe a week earlier ( feb 1st).
>
> Should you start earlier or later than usual ( feb 1) with this method?
> Are you planting directly into the soil or adding potting soil to the top?
> We use row cover in the fall do you do this for the in-ground
> transplants?
>
> thanks
> Chris Corbin
> Tabletopfarm.com <http://tabletopfarm.com/>

Pam
--
Pam Dawling
 
Author of Sustainable Market Farming, Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres
http://www.sustainablemarketfarming.com/
http://www.facebook.com/SustainableMarketFarming
http://www.newsociety.com/Books/S/Sustainable-Market-Farming




  • Re: [Market-farming] Starting Onions in the Ground, Pam Twin Oaks, 01/04/2013

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