planted onions in balmy Southern Indiana today

Ray IN · Mar 13, 2019

Here is what 7,000 onion slips look like. These are Candy variety for big slicing sweet onions. Supposed to be above freezing for several days, so they should be able to get a start. One upside to planting this early is that in case they all freeze and die, there is still time to replant. See that makes me an optimist, right?

larry@stinescorner · Mar 13, 2019

very nice!!!!

Brendon Warren · Mar 13, 2019

Very cool. Interesting to see.

Eldon (WA) · Mar 13, 2019

A couple of years ago we were able to plant our candies about this time...had a bumper crop of about 12,000 lbs on less than a half acre. It was a perfect spring, over 50% were 3 pounders. We are in a long day growing climate, so we fool the candies (which are an intermediate day onion) by planting early when the days are shorter. We harvest in July...still have a couple of boxes of them in the garage, even though they are only rated for 2 months storage. This year we got 3" of snow last night and have about 10" on the ground....

larry@stinescorner · Mar 13, 2019

I still remember the picture of you cultivating them with the AC g!!!

Delawaresurfman · Mar 13, 2019

So the hole in the plastic does not look that big. Does the onion build grow under the plastic? Or does it grow on top of it, thanks.

jm. · Mar 13, 2019

So Eldon what does one do with 6 tons of onions? If you sell them wholesale or retail and what does a pound bring. Just seems like a lot of onions for half acre. Just past 70 deg. here in Tennessee but we are predicted to still have some right at freezing nights yet.

Ray IN · Mar 13, 2019

Yea it grows under the plastic. It of course stretches. On many of them I will have to pull a weed or two and then I enlarge the hole and loosen the dirt around it some. Its sand so it pushes away easy as the onion grows.

4520BW · Mar 13, 2019

In my part of southern Indiana it's to muddy to plant anything!

Eldon (WA) · Mar 13, 2019

(quoted from post at 17:43:38 03/13/19) So Eldon what does one do with 6 tons of onions? If you sell them wholesale or retail and what does a pound bring. Just seems like a lot of onions for half acre. Just past 70 deg. here in Tennessee but we are predicted to still have some right at freezing nights yet.

We were selling produce roadside at the time, sold a bunch of them for $1 a lb, or 50 cents a lb for field run in quantites. We wound up giving a bunch to the food bank and I probably ran a ton of them thru the chopper when they said they had enough LOL! We cured a lot of them in the barn on hayracks until we ran out of racks.

Leroy · Mar 13, 2019

Do you start them from seed oe did you buy the plants? I know seed is a lot cheaper. And planting 10,000 seeds with a twezer is a lot of work as my friend did second year he raised them. First year bought the plants. Third year he and neighbor got together and bought a planter and no I have not seen it. had already sold his entire crop before I got the chance to get there to get some. Best onion ever for eating. He is close to Ft Wayne, In. raises other crops as well. has several hoop houses for tomatoes. And NO tractor power.

Ray IN · Mar 13, 2019

They come from Texas. Just arrived today, but they can be held for up to two weeks if necessary. Seed would be considerably cheaper, as these cost about $0.04 apiece. But I would have to heat a greenhouse starting in December or sooner to get them big enough. Not worth it unless I would do the whole greenhouse full then sell the extras, I guess.

Delawaresurfman · Mar 14, 2019

Thank you very much, we have clay loam. Would this work in my soil conditions? Weeding my onions is a real pain, the weeds grow much faster than the onions as we all know,

Ray IN · Mar 14, 2019

Yes it should work in your soil. Plant them just an inch deep, no more. There is also a drip tape under the plastic, and that helps keep the dirt from getting too hard and dry. Onions like a lot of water, and some ammonium sulfate fertilizer once they start growing good.

planted onions in balmy Southern Indiana today

Ray IN

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Brendon Warren

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larry@stinescorner

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Ray IN

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