I have decided to call 2024 “The Year Of The Onion”
In terms of time and energy, my focus is to learn how to finally grow a large onion in my garden.
This is not just a passing fancy.
I have actually been on a mission for several years (10 at least?) to consistently grow large onions. And year after year, my best attempts have ended in failure.
I have had multiple one on one conversations with fellow gardeners.
Watched countless YouTube videos… (about how to consistently grow large onions)
And I think this year may be the year that I finally pull it off.
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Tip #1. Know your grow zone.
Onions are either Long day,
Short day,
or Intermediate day (based on where you live.)
Mini quiz : I live in Iowa and according to this map I need which type of onion?
Tip # 2 Plant onion plants/ not bulbs! (Took me quite a while to understand the difference) The onion “bulbs” we see for sale in most garden stores in the spring time are “bulbs”. It (the onion bulb) thinks it’s in its year #2 of life when you put it in the garden. Onions have a 2 year life cycle. It isn’t until the 2nd year, that they produce their seed head which is where it’s energy is going.
An onion plant on the other hand is an onion in it’s 1st season of growth. It has been started from seed and is what you need to plant if you want a large onion. You can either buy the plants or start your onion plants from seed, (in my area, that is sometime in January)
Dixondale Onions are where I bought my onion plants.
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Stay tuned, as I document 2024 The Year Of The Onion, here on Ialsoliveonafarm.wordpress.com
I also live on a farm 
Maybe my husband should try onions. Because of deer, raccoons, squirrels, and squinnies, he’s about to give up–after more than four decades of gardens. (central Iowa)
I can relate!!!!!! especially with the rabbits and deer. About the only thing that works 100% with deer is a physical fence, and those darn rabbits..don’t get me started. (not to mention those squash bore bugs that decimated my beautiful pumpkin and Futsu squash again last year. It’s like we’re in hand to hand combat with the rest of creation.
The deer leap over our fences and even nap in the garden. My husband has put cages around the tomatoes, but the deer nibble the tops. He’s thinking about growing them in buckets up in a little trailer, but I’ve watched deer leap up with their “front paws” on the neighbor’s bird feeder and help themselves. Oh, that’s also why we don’t feed birds anymore. This year we’re fighting a mole!
I found out the hard way a deer fence has to be 8 ft minimum in order to keep them out. Depending on how hungry they are, they will do exactly what you’re describing. I lost about 40 newly planted apple trees in 2 nights due to the deer. they ate them right down to almost nothing. Fortunately, they didn’t kill them, and they did recover..but yep, I can feel your hubby’s pain.
On the next street over, a house has a couple of new trees with protective net, but also two cakes of Zest soap tied to each. Hey, maybe one per tomato plant?
I would vote for 100% netting and maybe motion activated sprayers/ light/ something. Deer are creatures of habit. Once the word gets out, they’ve found food, I think they tell their buddies.
Oh this makes me happy to hear the trees recovered. Whatever became of the ones that had the snow wells (I think it was snow) develop around them and something girdled the bark- that was fairly recent right?
those two, I had to lop off, below the area the rabbits chewed…I’m “hoping” the trees will generate some new growth…..everything is still dormant, so too early to tell. Yep, that happened just a couple of months ago, that I discovered that. Wolf River variety. New variety for us. Supposedly they produce softball size apples/ make a pie out of just one or two….
Wow, those sound like huge apples. I am all about the right balance between sweet and a bit of tang. They have to be crisp for sure and juicy but I do like a smaller to moderately mid size apple. Softball size may be a tad too much for me 🙂
I only planted them because several people were asking for them. We shall see…I don’t think they are a very long keeping apple.
I will be really curious as to what you think when you can actually cut one open, taste and use it!
Well this should be fun, sort of like when you began the bee adventure, although that was fraught with issues and still makes me sad at times. The only thing I know about growing onions is that I vaguely remember my dad ages ago talking about onion “sets”, buying those sets and never really seeing an onion come out of his garden. He was great with pole beans and he was a huge fan of “Early Girl” tomatoes…and he could grow potatoes as well. I don’t remember anything else doing very well at all. His green manicured lawn was gorgeous though 🙂
Oh my…good luck, Doug. I enjoyed reading the comments from Deb and Joy…and your thought about battling with wildlife: “It’s like we’re in hand to hand combat with the rest of creation.” 😉
Good afternoon Vicki! thanks for stopping by. Are you guys getting a dose of Winter this afternoon too? Everything here is covered with white.
We sure are! Looks like December! 😉
I hope you’re able to grow onions so large that you’ll become the Onion King, know hither and yon for onions so wonderful they make you cry.