Onion Problems

[Jonnyhat]

so I started about 300 onions in a 10ft x 4ft raised bed that held carrots and garlic last year, I started them from seed indoors in Feb here in zone 6B and planted them outside in early April. Things looked good in the beginning with a good amount of growth, then May came and we had 3 weeks of rain... alot of them are dead and rotting now, fallen over, and just look horrible.

What do I do, pull them, till and replant sets? My garden is pretty full as it is, could it be an infection?

[Worth1]

Yep I bet they are done for.
It happened to me too just as they were bulbing up.
Do you have enough time for growth before the day light hours make them bulb up?
If not all you will get is big bulb green onions.

Looks like you have about 30 days that isn't much give a week for the roots to take and you have about 3 weeks.
Once they start to bulb up they dont put out anymore leaves no more leaves no more rings.



Worth

[Jonnyhat]

i am kind of a novice when it comes to my onion research, last year I started them inside, moved them outside and harvested them into mid fall. Right now my garden sees full sun from 7AM until 8AM then 10AM until 7:30PM

[Jonnyhat]

do you think I can pull them, and start sets, or should I just scrap that bed and throw something else in there?

[AlittleSalt]

I think it is too much rain too.

I have found that with raised beds, what type of soil or whatever it is sitting on is at actual ground level matters a lot. = You can have a raised bed with a well draining friable soil/medium, but if the raised bed is on top of clay or solid rock/concrete/boards - it still holds too much water. there's no place for the water to go but stay in the raised bed. I found this out the hard way.

I would get the rotting plants out no matter what.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Jonnyhat

do you think I can pull them, and start sets, or should I just scrap that bed and throw something else in there?

It is up to you but the daylight hours is what makes them bulb up.
If you plant long daylight onions they will need from around 15 to 16 hours of daylight to make them bulb.
That is coming up for you real soon.
Once they start to bulb up as I said they stop putting on leaves.
The leave make the rings the amount of rings make the size of the onion.
The trick is to get as many leaves on the onion before it starts to bulb.
I can grow long day length onions here and get 20 some odd leaves but they will never make a bulb.


It matters not on the direct sun just the daylight hours.
Try a few and see what happens and use the rest of the space for something else.
Not telling you just what I would do.

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

I should have added, onion sets are pretty cheap and worth trying. You could also plant radishes which grow really fast.

[Jonnyhat]

not a big radish guy, but thanks for all the input, probably going to try sets. and yes, eventhough my raised bed soil is the stuff dreams are made of, the clay they sit on is about as solid and my noggin.

[Worth1]

This is why mine are off the ground with a big gap.
We got the storm of all storms here one night and it broke every one of there necks.
It spelled doom for us.

I mean the rings were there as many as 13 but they just stopped growing and started to die.
This is how you kill onions so you can harvest all at once.
When the stems start to get soft and fall over just tramp the rest down.

[Jonnyhat]

would it be good to start from seed now for a fall harvest? Or maybe to some sets and some seeds?

[Worth1]

I dont think you will get a fall harvest of onions of any size at all.
Big green plant with no onion.
June 20th is the longest day of the year this year then the days start getting shorter.

[AlittleSalt]

I'm not a big radish fan either.

For raised beds there is something called a weep hole. It's something you see in masonry but can be applied to any raised bed. Here's what it is in pictures https://www.google.com/search?q=weep...y-AbEQ_AUIBigB

For masonry, it lets water out in case of a pipe burst and other debatable reasons. A brick/stone house cannot pass FHA and VA loans without them. For a raised bed - It lets water out. Cut a few weep holes at the bottom of raised beds to drain them when it rains too much. If there is a lower area in the raised bed, cut out weep holes every couple feet. It helps a lot.

[Jonnyhat]

thanks. I am still learning to think like a farmer (even though I am now working both my garden and a 250' x 40' plot)

[greenthumbomaha]

Originally Posted by Jonnyhat

would it be good to start from seed now for a fall harvest? Or maybe to some sets and some seeds?

Still plenty of time for peppers squash cukes etc. Use the bed for something else if you need the space. You won't get any onions bigger than a golf ball if you plant now. If you like scallions, go ahead and plant the sets. I am actually doing that every few weeks with my leftovers for green onions in summer salads.

- Lisa

[Douglas14]

Personally I'd go with onion sets myself. I planted some onions early last year, and some later, as I decided I needed more, and had sets left over. The second planting was around this time, I'm guessing. They got decent sized, but not large. My early planting produced some nice sized onions. I only grew the yellow sets that were offered at a local garden center. I have onions from last year's crop that are still edible. That's why I like the yellow sets. They keep well.