Tag Archives: onion

New stuff for next year

When planning the garden for this year, I thought I read that potatoes would only grow about 18 inches. Boy was I wrong! Mine are about twice that! Next year, I need to arrange to have these in the back, or perhaps in front of something early like peas or broccoli. Perhaps I could add a new bed of only onions and potatoes?

Onion flowers are bad?

Apparently they are if you are trying to grow onion bulbs. I didn’t know that and just tried to search the interwebs to find out how long after they flower I have to wait for harvest. I also learned that you are supposed to plant the smaller of the sets to produce onion bulbs as larger ones will bolt. I assumed the larger ones were better (obviously?).

Radish bug

Not a real bug, but I mean that I have spent the last few days planting more radishes in any little spot I think will support one without getting in the way of the pant that is or will grow into that space. I did that with the leftover onion bulbs as well. After eat those three radishes, I just can’t wait for everything else.

38 Degrees

…apparently is the low tonight. I covered the tomatoes and squash with buckets and then blankets or towels, and brought the peppers in since they weren’t planted in the ground yet. I think the rest (peas, broccoli, onions, lettuce) should be OK. Now we play the waiting game.

The potatoes (and onions) are in

Just came in from planting the potatoes and onions. I might have cut the potatoes too small, and planted them too deep, so tomorrow I may pull a little of the soil out so they aren’t so deep. According to various websites, the traditional way is to plant them in a trench or hill initially with 4 inches of soil on top and then add soil later, re-covering them as they grow. I planted them most of the way down (about 6 inches) and plan to harvest them before they get too big anyway so I might not need the extra piling on of soil.  The onions were a no-brainer. Looking back, I wish I planned to grow more than the 3 squares.

I got mail

The potatoes and onions arrived yesterday and look to be about what I expected. I’m going to have to do some research though on how to plant the potatoes. There are 10 mini-tubers, which the website says will plant a row 40-50 feet. If I follow the enclosed instructions, I think it would be less than half of that. From what I know, I should cut them up into pieces with 2 to 3 eyes and plant 4 per square since they are a smaller size potato. The onions I received are a 3-pack of red, white, and yellow. If it stops raining this weekend, I would love to get them in the ground.

Its in the mail

I just checked my email and received notification that my potato and onion sets have been shipped and should be here in two days. Woohoo! I ordered them in the very early spring from Burpee, but like I said in an earlier post, I think I could have gotten some for much less than what I paid if I went to one of the big box stores (mostly because of shipping costs). At least the ones I ordered are a little different than the standard types those stores sell.

More Seeds

Found a type of Jalapeno from Burpee’s website called a False Alarm Hybrid. Appears to be what I was looking for in a tame pepper. I also found an indeterminate Roma, as all of the one in the stores are determinate and I want vines to save space. I ordered those as well as onion sets and seed potatoes.

Seeds

While formulating my plan, I visited various stores to look at different varieties and picked up packets along the way. I haven’t ventured into anything too extravagant, mostly just straight out of the Burpee displays. I now have every seed I need except for the Jalapeno peppers (will get the starter potato and onion sets later). Looking for peppers that have flavor but not heat, and everything I can find right now is pretty much a standard pepper. Off to the Internet…