We love onions. A gardening book of ours suggests that the number of onions to be planted should be around 40 per person. We're guessing that no less than 100 per person will do.
A total of 200 is being very optimistic. We have yet to have any harvest worth weighing. Past plantings were done with sets. The greens looked promising, but the bulbs at harvest time were either rotten or only slightly larger than the set that was planted. This year we are planting from seed as opposed to sets. I've gotta say that this little onion sprout has me about as excited as the first time one of our tomato seeds sprouted. Our goal this year is to make a few big batches of vegetable stock with every ingredient coming from the garden. We've had every part going except for the damn onions; but this little fella's giving me hope.
27 February 2008
There's Hope
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I've only just received my onion seed, so I am off to a late start!
Looks like I better get the kids busy making the paper plug-pots.
Oh boy, onions. My experience is yes 40 per person would be great if they were the size of softballs. You can never have enough onions. What I do is I plant them like you are but I also resort to planting a row in the garden and moving them around (these will be harvested in Sept.)
At this point I have only 60 or so onions left until the ramps and perennial scallions come in: not enough!
Don't forget to cut them.
100 per person? That's what, two a week? That seems pretty reasonable to me.
I did sets last year and was disappointed as well. I wonder if I'm dooming myself by not starting my seeds inside like you are...but I couldn't bear the idea of individually transplanting 200 tiny plants. We'll see, I guess.
Awww, man!!! There ARE other onion lovers out there. I just knew I wasn't DIFFERENT. :-) My husband *hates*, despises, and can't tolerate onions in any form....this leaves me, sadly, onionless most of the time, unless of course, he (or I) goes out of town on business - then look out- it's an onion free-for-all!!
Good luck with your onion babies...I'll be sending them good thoughts!
Onionless-in-Oregon
I've started a few onions in our kitchen window. I need to find other spots to start them. Not nearly enough in that window. Someone mentioned cutting them. I'm not familiar......
Oh my, 100 per person... that is a lot!
Beth
Tech_Samaritan, Good luck with the new seed. Maybe we can compare notes at the end of the season.
El, I'm sure we'll use half our harvest on soups and sauces alone. Garlic and onions are two ingredients Meg and I just can't live without. We have our fingers crossed for both.
Jenny, I agree that 100 each is more than reasonable.
I don't think you should have anything to worry about if you wait to direct seed. The only bummer is that you'll have to wait a little longer to get some decent sized fruit.
Danni, No onions!?! I honestly think I would have to be committed if I had to live without them.
Thanks for the positive vibes for our little ones.
Mia, Meg is planning to post about cutting later this evening.
Beth, As I said to El, we'll easily use at least 100 or so making soups and sauces. It's amazing how fast they go when you make everything from scratch.
I don't have a yard big enough to grow the amount of onions I use. I believe I use almost one onion every day. Almost every meal I make starts with chopping an onion.
Home grown onions really are worth the effort though if you can get a good size on them. My plan is to eventually talk to some people who have property around here and see if I can enter a serf sort of situation where I grow onions (and other things) and give the property owner a portion of the crop.
Wait, that's not really serfdom, that's crop sharing, isn't it?
Anyway, my best onion luck has been from transplants (not the "sets" and not the seeds) and I wonder if that's because of the climate I used to live in (Northern CA) and I wonder if it will be different in northern OR.
All seedlings make me ridiculously happy.
Angelina, Sorry for the delay getting back to you; mid terms are coming up and my students are getting a little needy.
I firmly believe that anything planted in California would do well. However, a friend of mine, who once lived in Oregon, got a crazed look in her eye every time she shared horror stories about the sandy soil.
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