onions!!!

potatoes aren't the only new thing in the garden this year, i'm also trying my hand at onions. i've done leeks before, but never the big round bulb onions. when the bell gardens had nice bunches of onion sets for $1 each, i though, why not? what do i got to lose? go big or go home. so i invested a whopping $3 and bought three different varieties;

• big daddy (110 days): super-sized with a tender heart. delicately-textured flesh good eaten raw or excellent in a french onion soup. yellow globes will last 8 months in storage. good disease resistance and bolting tolerance.

• red candy apple (95 days): glossy and deep red as an apple and nearly as sweet. flatten, globe-shaped bulbs grow to 4 inches across.

• copra (105-115 days): leader in storage varieties. medium-sized, dark yellow skinned globe onion with a thin neck that dries quickly. store up to 1 year.

i didn't do anything super special to the dirt where i put the onions. 

i just tilled it up a bit, mixed in some compost, and got to planting.

(4/5/2011)

for the bigger onions, i placed the sets about 4-6 inches apart, 1 inch deep, in two rows about 6 inches apart. since i still had extra sets, i then planted another row in between the first two rows, and put the sets about 2 inches apart. this middle row i will harvest early as "green onions," for salads and such, while waiting for the others to bulb up.

(4/11/11)

as you can see from the photo above, all the onions were looking pretty good the other day. we've been getting plenty of rain, so they haven't required to much care. but, i just went out to check on everything since learning this morning that we had some hail storms in the area last night (although i slept through the whole thing). some of the onions are looking great, and some not so much. i don't know if it's the particular variety, my planting technique, possible hail damage, or trauma endured from multiple doggie fence breaches, which have been a total of 4 so far. so, time to strap on the boots and do some damage control.

garden note to self: order of the onions, at the front to back: copra (long day),  big daddy (long day), then red candy apple (intermediate day).