Posted: 3/24/2013 1:47:11 PM EDT
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One year I had a pretty good bunch. Next year not so. I have a small garden. Never done a soil test. Just the little one you can buy from a seed store.
Anyway I use raise bed with compost. I buy the compost. I added fertilizer. Chickity Doo Doo. It says its been aged in the bag. But I smelled ammonia. So it might be strong. I watered it in good. Planted later and watered again. I used onion sets of the Vidalia variety. I think they are short day as I live in Va. Now for the second season in a row they are doing poor. I moved them to another bed this year. And still not so good. We have had cold weather lately. Not a hard freeze but an over all overcast cold day with some rain. Nights drop to close to 34. We did have one night around 29 or so. But above freezing mainly. Just not warming up very well. The sets went on sale and I grabbed them before they sold out. Usually they sale out quick and don't get in another shipment. I would like to learn to grow and not to kill the things. Its frustrating. But I keep on trying. |
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Root crops usually like a fertilizer higher in phosphourus and low in Nitrogen.
I personnaly would not add the chic manure. It is very high in N. Is your soil OK on the acid/alkaline scale? With the cool/cold weather here in the East, the sets will start off pretty slow. The vidalias may be a little hard to grow compared to the standard yellow onions that you see for sale. Also, try to not plant them in the same place each year. Last year I tried a variety called Candy. Very mild and sweeter. They come in a dirt pack, maybe 50 plants. They turned out well. Not the best of overwinter keepers, but great for use during the summer and fall. Good luck. |
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We tried growing Vidalia onion sets a few years ago. I don't know why, but it did not go well.
It may have been the way I tried to grow them, or it may have been that the sets we got from Gurney's were not optimal. Whichever, I am done with sets. We never have much trouble planting bulbs. Last year my wife insisted on trying a new method to grow onions that I thought was too much work. She hoed a series of trenches (rows), and planted onion bulbs in the hills created by making the trenches. Whenever she weeded or hoed, she would hoe the trench and cover the onions (not the greens). She watered the trenches, not the onions. She said it would make the onions stretch their root system, and prevent the onions themselves from being water logged. The result was the largest onions we have ever grown. Not record breaking onions, but of a size you would buy at the store. Enough crop that we are still using them now. White and yellow onions. Not Vidalias. Has anyone else here used this method to grow onions? |
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onions like very loose soil, Vidalias are grown in South GA. where it is sandy so historically vidalias don't do very well in other places. you may want to try Texas sweet, pretty much the same as Vidalia just suited to more different soils (you still need a loamy soil and not much water). keep the bulb only half covered with soil.
BTW: I spent a day in Vidalia, Ga. watching how they did their onions, very interesting. |
Onions generally:
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