Leeks - Bury deep and forget about them Onions - Variety selection and short/day-neutral/long day is most important decision Garlic - Softneck in warm climate, hardneck in cold, can fake winterize hardneck by storing in fridge for 2-3mo then planting
My onions weren’t forming big bulbs until I learned to move some soil away from the bulb. I learned that from watching Jason from Cog Hill Farm. I wait till I see the bulb start to form above ground, then I move some soil away to give it less resistance. It actually helped a lot! I suspect the timing of this might be a factor.
In my families commercial onion growing experience, they should PUSH things out of the way as they grow. Things in the way will give you bent carrots but onions should push stuff out of the way. This is in HEAVY CLAY I'm talking about...
My husband complained about grocery store garlic and asked me to grow some but he asked at the end of February which is too late for Central Texas 8b. I have my calendar marked in September to start thinking about garlic. Varieties, sources, etc. Your video has helped me understand terminology and get prepared.
I live on the coast in San Diego. I grew small onion plants, the variety Red Candy Apple from Gurneys. They are 95 day, day-neutral. They came with 55-75 bunches x 2 bunches. They actually did best in a very large plastic pot probably because I was able to control the water better; I placed them in full sun most of the day and watered them daily. Super pleased with the final outcome and flavor. I gave away a lot of plants because I just didn't want 150 onions. What I would do differently is maybe plant them deeper or put tomato cages around them. They fell over before they were super large. It also helped to trim the leaves, but unfortunately I did not know this tip until most of them had flopped over. A great onion for coastal San Diego.
I've been burned one too many times growing onions from sets...way too many flowers & not enough bulb production. Another down side with onion sets is the varieties are extremely limited vs. what you can get with seeds. For my main onion crop I start seeds indoors Jan-Feb, then plant them out in the Spring. I also direct sow seeds in the Fall & let them winter over, so I get an early crop while my main crop is maturing. By doing this I haven't had to buy onions from the store in years.
I am growing both hard neck and soft neck garlic varieties that grow in warm climates. I had some success with one variety (Spanish Roja) last year and are trying 5 new varieties this year. They are in 10 gallon grow bags this year. So far, they are doing very well. Fingers crossed.
Are you growing them from a set of bulbs or seedlings? I bought some Walla Walla onions which - bc I'm a noob - are long day/hard neck onions (I'm zone 9b in socal) & I'm scared they won't bulb up. I need some reassurance 😅😅
This video shows your channel having 1.57M subs. The one I watched just before this one getting the new Chicks show only like 95K subscribers maybe it's nothing. Hopefully your content isn't being stolen 🙂
Three words of advice: Garlic Scape Pesto. YES the scapes of hardback garlic are edible and ***delectable***. Garlic Scape Pesto is simple to make, just substitute the basil for the scapes from hard neck garlic.😊
To add to this, don't harvest the scapes too late. If you do, the scapes tend to be rather hard and stringy. Phyllis, when do you harvest the scapes? I've heard the best time to do this is when they first start to curl over.
@@phylliscraine What kind of garlic are you growing? Mine are the hardneck variety so I wonder if a softneck scape is less stringy and more suited to the pesto.
I grow a ton of onions just so I can make onion top pesto every year. I trim the tops twice during the growing season and I'm able to freeze the pesto to have all year round!
@@user-di6cn2ne7u it's seriously the highlight of my growing season! Acre Homestead on TH-cam has a video on making onion top pesto, check it out. So good!
Nitrogen fertilizing will get you bigger onions and garlic, but taste gets bland and storing gets worse. Too much water = it doesn't store well. Also for the watering, they need water when the bulb starts to form, so about 2 months before harvest. But yeah, never put nitrogen fertilizer it's useless. I plant allium small bulbs under 10 cm of wood chips, it's absolutely fine. For me it is completely counterprductive to grow alliums without mulch. Why would you ? Mulch gives you longer whites for leeks, and it's easy to add some. And for all alliums, it keeps water in, and weeds out... It's a myth that they will rot under the mulch, only if you use something like grass clippings. But with wood chips ? Perfectly fine to put a thick mulch. Regarding soil requirements, there is a HUGE difference between leeks and the other alliums. Onions, shallots and garlic love a well draining soil, and don't like heavy clay. They're best grown on a little mound. However, leeks don't mind heavy clay, they don't mind water logged soils, at least for most varieties.
I grew leeks last year, they were tall and spindly. Put the pot in the greenhouse for the winter with the soil untouched... Just opened up my greenhouse for the first time this spring and what'y'know I have a whole container of leeks growing 😂
Here in the desert, my best alliums are green onions and chives. They seem to be perennial here and grow continuously and spread a bit. Next I would say are garlic, though I am still working on getting bigger bulbs. However, our climate is so extreme that it is possible my small bulbs might be it. They taste wonderful though. I keep trying onions and leeks. Leeks keep dying in summer, though I have only tried the last 2 years. I am trying again - they are super easy to sprout, even though my seeds are from 2013. Onions are great as green onions but they also seem to really dislike the summers; I lose a lot of bulbing onion plants in summer. I am trying again with a bit more shade and mulch. I am seeing more survive but so far, not much bulbing. Still alliums are gorgeous and everything love their flowers, which are also interesting as garden snacks or salad topping. Just have to blow off any small insects lol.
You can also start garlic in November. I had excellent luck with the purple and red varieties in the Arizona low desert winter.(lower than 3500feet, hardiness 10a). They tell you when they're ready by drying and falling over. Some did flower and set seed. Also delicious on eggs.
I’m trying onions, shallots, chives, garlic this year in the desert. Planted the garlic last September and November. Just put out seeds a month ago for chives and shallots. Nothing yet. Onions are from bulbs and just hoping for the best. Good luck everyone. I’m also in the high desert.
The quality of your videos is superb. Video clarity, clean narration, overlaid music and background environmental sounds are subtle and not overwhelming, camera angles, and focus are all spot on. The editing is perfection. Impressive. I have learned a lot from your videos over the past few years. Thank you for passing on your knowledge. I throw a lot of appreciation your way.
I love growing alliums. I’m near San Francisco and experimented with short day onion. They’re are showing signs of bulbing but not much. It’s too cool here during the bulbing phase, which ends this month (March) when day length exceeds 12 hours. I have had abundant success with intermediate and long day onion, which gives me a spring and summer harvest. I only trim away green parts for what I eat. But I don’t make it a habit of trimming my onion. I find it counter intuitive to what the plant needs-especially during the bulbing phase.
I can't thank you enough for these videos. 🙏 My only gardening experiences prior to starting my new green thumb journey was basically just throw the scraps in the backyard and hope for the best lol! In Louisiana because of the rich humidity and rain it made that process pretty lazy and easy all year around. We had potatoes, onions, garlic, peppermint, and lots more! I moved to California a couple years ago and now live in an apartment and I have been STRUGGLING, killed almost every single plant I bought when I first got here. 😭 I just picked it back up with the extremely easy insight and guidance from you through these videos and I just got my first harvest of lots of different easy growing herbs and veggies after only a month or so! Thank you!
I just ringed in my onions here in zone 9B. I've found it helps with getting larger bulbs by breaking up/loosening the soil around the bulb. LOVE the Video! :)
Hello friend I grow garlic here in zone 7a in N.C. and definitely recommend a pre soak for your garlic cloves but instead of a fish product use a seaweed. Your garlic bulbs have been setting on a shelf in sleep mode for several months and will break that dormancy two weeks quicker after planting I'm the form of root growth. I intently said seaweed earlier due to the natural growth hormones it contains and already plant available nutrients absorbed by the once living kelp plant. So ditch the stinky fish stuff you gotta the kelp. One more thing I've personally had to leave the cloves soaking in the solution up to 3 days (weather related delays) and had no loose in germination after planting. Though personally I wouldn't wait that long. One more thought on the soaking process. If you notice any damage to the clove under the wrapper it could be mite's (you can do your own homework on that) the long soak can drown them. Thanks for the great content my friend and happy gardening.
To me garlic especially is my favorite crop ever, it surfaces when all other crops die down in October-December, so it feeds off my summee crops like peppers and tomatoes. Its also extremely hardy for some reason and it grows while its freezing (thank god the winters are very mild here) Usually tips get kinda yellow quite early on tho, probably because of the very wet soils that i get during winter from all the rain. Thats why the bulbs arent the largest but what i mainly just love about it is that it is a 0 care crop for me that keeps the ground alive during the dark winter months. And it all happened because i once just dumped in a few garlic cloves in the ground for fun and they survived ever since. (Usually one or 2 bulbs stay behind in the soil without me noticing and then pop up later in fall. Maybe I should look into getting a better suited variety one day soon)
I live in an area that has huge garlic farms around it, and I am able to chat with lots of very experienced garlic farmers. Each one I've asked has said to NEVER soak your garlic before planting. It promotes rot, and if there is a harsh freeze after you've planted wet cloves, they will likely not survive it.
I forgot about the garlic seed I put in the fridge. I thought it was done for (over three months), but I planted it about three weeks ago and already have nice green stalks about six inches tall.
Is it normal for an onion to sprout a 2nd neck? Brought one from the store and after a while it sprouted on the counter and I decided to plant in the garden… now its got 2 thick healthy necks
What are your thoughts on trimming alliums as they grow? I read that I should keep my leeks trimmed shorter to prevent them from getting wild and tangled, but I'm also wondering if that is allowing them to put more energy into the whites I plan on eating. Since I started trimming them they do seem to be bulking up, but that could be a coincidence in timing.
Planted garlic this month because my seed didn’t arrive until mid winter. Crossing my fingers but I doubt it will bulb. Any recommendations to do with the bulbless garlic I am expecting?
In the UK, most people I have seen use a dibber to make a hole drop the leeks in and then water to fill up the hole and that’s that. Great success and nice big white leeks.
Nice to get my gardening fix in while we are still in volatile weather here in -the frozen craphole of Hoth- northeast Ohio. I'm going to try doing my root/bulb/tuber plants in a Ruth Stout patch this year.
You think you're in a frozen wasteland? Try gardening in zone 3! We had temps of -36 degrees C for a few days and our average was around -24 Celsius. That's -32 Fahrenheit by the way. My first year gardening here and I suspect it will be a bit different than the zone 8 where I used to live.
Wow fantastic tips! I'm planting onions from seed for the first time so very useful information thank you! Love seeing Jacque the garden hermit randomly in the background 😄
I'm in 5a/b (on the line). Tried 2 years of garlic in containers and even with extra mulch and wrap, they froze solid. This past fall, went totally in ground, a LOT of extra mulch, and I have garlic sprouting. Stoked! I currently have long day onion seeds starting, hopefully will have a harvest there too. No space for leeks. Summary - this is a great vid. Thank you!
Thanks for reminding me! I need to check when to plant my onion seeds! 7a. We had a week of 80 degree weather and then got hit by a snowstorm with a hard freeze. The wild daffodils almost died. Crazy weather here in the South lol. Not like Los Angeles where I moved from. Totally different lol.
Always heard that carrots and onions go well together and strawberries and garlic. But maybe that is mostly for the benefit of the carrot/strawberry as the alliums have a strong smell that most insects don't like
Harvest wild allium ... great for beginner foragers ... if it smells and looks like garlic, it is and it’s safe to eat ... if it smells and looks like onion, it is and it’s safe to eat! Sooooo many wild varieties grow naturally all over CA and North America and the whole Earth!! WHY spend money on fertilizers, seeds, grow bags, soil, et al when you can forage from nature ... ??? This guy is a giant commercial for the companies who sell all of the above ...
Given the unpredictable nature of gardening I wonder how many tips like that (garlic soaking) are essentially superstitions a la skinner's randomly-reinforced pigeons. You do this, you have a successful season, you fear not doing it in every following season because what if it was the thing that worked? Baseball players are notorious for this.
Two Qs: I thought I had planted some onions, but there’s a chance that they are garlic! Is there a way I can physically distinguish from leaves alone? Or perhaps even the flower head that’s beginning to form? The ones I’m wondering about have flat leaves, and they are just beginning to form an extended peak which makes me think of the beginning of a scape. I do have onions growing too and the leaves are tubular.
First year doing leeks in zone 5. Started the leeks a few weeks later than the onions in January from seed (wish I had started with the onions). The leeks were growing fine in a small tub with about 3" of potting soil. Decided to transplant them into a deeper container, burying the plant a few inches. Hopefully this will give me a head start when time to plant in about a month.
My issue has been the germination rate of allium seeds and getting them from seedling to adult when they do successfully germinate. Maybe I need to buy some trays to start them and then transplant to the garden…? I’ve never experienced this kind of difficulty with growing seeds before and I dunno what to do. 😢
I was wondering about the cardboard tubes you put around the leeks, and sometimes use to make seed starting pots. Is it okay to use the white ones? I would think they are bleached and brown would be safer. But I currently have more white TP tubes, so I'd love to use them.
Ok, I’m curious about growing green onions. I’m in OC California area and know it’s perhaps not the best time of year to grow onions, but is it possible to grow green onions around the year?
Hey, how deep of a container for onions and leeks? I have Alison Craig (the big one) as well as smaller red onions. I also have leeks, which I wish to place in containers as well. Both the onions and leeks are currently in small pots ready to be transplanted. I live on the west coast of Canada.
Thanks for sharing this Kevin! I've tried various growing options...seed, sets, micro bulbs, soak not soak. One thing is for sure they need proper drainage and plenty sun.
I have a question, I have onion seed and it's late spring and I wanted to plant for onions this year, my question is will the seed make an actual onion this year or do I have to overwinter them to get onions for next year. And also I plan on saving some seed from my onions for future harvests and I needed to know basically what the process is for that. I'm afraid with the food shortages fresh onions might be hard to come by soon, and I prefer fresh onions to dehydrated even though I have those. So a very detailed tutorial of just onions for the purposes of homesteading and seed saving would be very much appreciated. I'm in central Oklahoma zone 7. We get fairly hot summers, mild-ish Winters except for a couple of months from January to March we have the opportunity for some severe cold weather. Even though we don't usually get a lot of it
Thanks for the info! I have a pretty big/ deep indoor plant pot that's sitting empty bc my cat was destroying the plant in it by digging, even through the cage I put around the plants, lol. The digging behavior has been addressed & accommodated now, and she doesn't do any more damage to any of the other plants that survived her initial onslaught, so I've got some free real estate that I'd like to use for something. I'll have to do further research on just how toxic alliums are to cats, see if it's safe for me to grow it, but it seems like *if* it's safe, then it might be a decent candidate. Won't be really using it for eating, bc one pot doesn't make for much in the way of produce yield, but if nothing else it's a bit more practice.
Any experience with chives (traditional and garlic chives)? I'm growing both varieties from seed and they are taking such a long time compared to the 'days to harvest' stats online. Don't know if it's something I'm doing sub-optimally or just bad info on the internet.
I live in Sacramento, last fall i move into my new house and decided to just plonk some grocery store garlic cloves in the ground...no friggin clue what variety they are, but they're absolutely thriving.
I have an idea and I would like to know from an experienced gardener if it would work... If I plant leeks between say kohlrabi or broccoli that has big leaves, would the big leaves shade the bottom of the leeks and blanch them?
Hey, Kevin. Loving your channel! A friend and I purchased a bunch of the 6 cells last season, curious if you know when we can expect more stock of the 4 cells? Thanks!
I started growing 2 experimental onions from food scraps, using the lower 1/3 of the onions where the roots are. They're grpwing well, but do you know if they'll regrow the bulbs fully, or will they be used more as green onions?
Question: I read somewhere that for onions, that if you cut the leaves about half an inch or ⅔ of an inch, that more energy will taken to bulb development, is it true
i did put my garlic in water waited till i seen roots or leaves coming out the top and had great results within a weeks time but kept in frige for a month
I was struggling with my onions and based on this video I know the moisture was the issue. I lear t something new, didn't know the number of leaves affect the layer of these allium.
Lol. That's not a lot of garlic. Yes, it freezes very well for storage. Peel it, freeze it on a cookie sheet, drop it all into quart-size freezer bags and it will store in the freezer all Winter.
Leeks - Bury deep and forget about them
Onions - Variety selection and short/day-neutral/long day is most important decision
Garlic - Softneck in warm climate, hardneck in cold, can fake winterize hardneck by storing in fridge for 2-3mo then planting
My onions weren’t forming big bulbs until I learned to move some soil away from the bulb. I learned that from watching Jason from Cog Hill Farm. I wait till I see the bulb start to form above ground, then I move some soil away to give it less resistance. It actually helped a lot! I suspect the timing of this might be a factor.
This is a game changing tip. Much obliged.
Thanks I'm about to plant my first garden and onions are included and I'm glad I saw your post!! I'm sure I will need all the help I can get ❤️
In my families commercial onion growing experience, they should PUSH things out of the way as they grow. Things in the way will give you bent carrots but onions should push stuff out of the way. This is in HEAVY CLAY I'm talking about...
My husband complained about grocery store garlic and asked me to grow some but he asked at the end of February which is too late for Central Texas 8b. I have my calendar marked in September to start thinking about garlic. Varieties, sources, etc. Your video has helped me understand terminology and get prepared.
Good timing to plant, get your cloves ordered before and get in ground in Nov!
I couldn’t help but chuckle at Jacque in the background of every scene change lol. Hes just living his garden hermit life.
I live on the coast in San Diego. I grew small onion plants, the variety Red Candy Apple from Gurneys. They are 95 day, day-neutral. They came with 55-75 bunches x 2 bunches. They actually did best in a very large plastic pot probably because I was able to control the water better; I placed them in full sun most of the day and watered them daily. Super pleased with the final outcome and flavor. I gave away a lot of plants because I just didn't want 150 onions. What I would do differently is maybe plant them deeper or put tomato cages around them. They fell over before they were super large. It also helped to trim the leaves, but unfortunately I did not know this tip until most of them had flopped over. A great onion for coastal San Diego.
I would love to see a video where you and Chris grow the same varieties for a season to see the difference in challenges in different zones.
Great information. Wish you would have included information about fertilizing when planting and while growing.
I've been burned one too many times growing onions from sets...way too many flowers & not enough bulb production. Another down side with onion sets is the varieties are extremely limited vs. what you can get with seeds.
For my main onion crop I start seeds indoors Jan-Feb, then plant them out in the Spring. I also direct sow seeds in the Fall & let them winter over, so I get an early crop while my main crop is maturing. By doing this I haven't had to buy onions from the store in years.
I am growing both hard neck and soft neck garlic varieties that grow in warm climates. I had some success with one variety (Spanish Roja) last year and are trying 5 new varieties this year. They are in 10 gallon grow bags this year. So far, they are doing very well. Fingers crossed.
Yes, Spanish Roja did well for me as well!
I tried Mexican Red, but it never bulbed. I'm going to try chilling them in the fridge first this fall.
Are you growing them from a set of bulbs or seedlings?
I bought some Walla Walla onions which - bc I'm a noob - are long day/hard neck onions (I'm zone 9b in socal) & I'm scared they won't bulb up. I need some reassurance 😅😅
@@epicgardening trying Nookta Red soft neck Ga zone 7b
This video shows your channel having 1.57M subs. The one I watched just before this one getting the new Chicks show only like 95K subscribers maybe it's nothing. Hopefully your content isn't being stolen 🙂
That's my other channel, Epic Homesteading
Three words of advice: Garlic Scape Pesto. YES the scapes of hardback garlic are edible and ***delectable***. Garlic Scape Pesto is simple to make, just substitute the basil for the scapes from hard neck garlic.😊
Leek scapes are also very edible.
To add to this, don't harvest the scapes too late. If you do, the scapes tend to be rather hard and stringy. Phyllis, when do you harvest the scapes? I've heard the best time to do this is when they first start to curl over.
@@Fenimore.Cassidy I live in New England, so I cut and harvest the scapes when the garlic is ready to pull up and cure
They're incredible!
@@phylliscraine What kind of garlic are you growing? Mine are the hardneck variety so I wonder if a softneck scape is less stringy and more suited to the pesto.
I grow a ton of onions just so I can make onion top pesto every year. I trim the tops twice during the growing season and I'm able to freeze the pesto to have all year round!
Oooooooo that sounds SO GOOD . Have to add that to my list
@@user-di6cn2ne7u it's seriously the highlight of my growing season! Acre Homestead on TH-cam has a video on making onion top pesto, check it out. So good!
Your garden looks amazing. No surprise really, but you've only been at that house for what, a year? Well done!
Power of no-dig
Yup!
Nitrogen fertilizing will get you bigger onions and garlic, but taste gets bland and storing gets worse. Too much water = it doesn't store well. Also for the watering, they need water when the bulb starts to form, so about 2 months before harvest. But yeah, never put nitrogen fertilizer it's useless. I plant allium small bulbs under 10 cm of wood chips, it's absolutely fine. For me it is completely counterprductive to grow alliums without mulch. Why would you ? Mulch gives you longer whites for leeks, and it's easy to add some. And for all alliums, it keeps water in, and weeds out... It's a myth that they will rot under the mulch, only if you use something like grass clippings. But with wood chips ? Perfectly fine to put a thick mulch. Regarding soil requirements, there is a HUGE difference between leeks and the other alliums. Onions, shallots and garlic love a well draining soil, and don't like heavy clay. They're best grown on a little mound. However, leeks don't mind heavy clay, they don't mind water logged soils, at least for most varieties.
I grew leeks last year, they were tall and spindly. Put the pot in the greenhouse for the winter with the soil untouched... Just opened up my greenhouse for the first time this spring and what'y'know I have a whole container of leeks growing 😂
Here in the desert, my best alliums are green onions and chives. They seem to be perennial here and grow continuously and spread a bit. Next I would say are garlic, though I am still working on getting bigger bulbs. However, our climate is so extreme that it is possible my small bulbs might be it. They taste wonderful though.
I keep trying onions and leeks. Leeks keep dying in summer, though I have only tried the last 2 years. I am trying again - they are super easy to sprout, even though my seeds are from 2013. Onions are great as green onions but they also seem to really dislike the summers; I lose a lot of bulbing onion plants in summer. I am trying again with a bit more shade and mulch. I am seeing more survive but so far, not much bulbing.
Still alliums are gorgeous and everything love their flowers, which are also interesting as garden snacks or salad topping. Just have to blow off any small insects lol.
Try a shadow mesh, that helps a lot with sun problems without creating a solar cooker.
You can also start garlic in November. I had excellent luck with the purple and red varieties in the Arizona low desert winter.(lower than 3500feet, hardiness 10a). They tell you when they're ready by drying and falling over. Some did flower and set seed. Also delicious on eggs.
I’m trying onions, shallots, chives, garlic this year in the desert. Planted the garlic last September and November. Just put out seeds a month ago for chives and shallots. Nothing yet. Onions are from bulbs and just hoping for the best. Good luck everyone. I’m also in the high desert.
My onions grow at least halfway out of the ground because I use the “spoon method”. Before I started doing that I only got golf ball sized onions.
I have never grown garlic before. Why would Walmart sell garlic bulbs in the Spring when you should plant them in the fall? NC 7B
I think it would be cool if you gave these a try from seed.
Thoughts.
We did onions and leeks from seed in the patch you see!
The quality of your videos is superb. Video clarity, clean narration, overlaid music and background environmental sounds are subtle and not overwhelming, camera angles, and focus are all spot on. The editing is perfection. Impressive. I have learned a lot from your videos over the past few years. Thank you for passing on your knowledge. I throw a lot of appreciation your way.
I love growing alliums. I’m near San Francisco and experimented with short day onion. They’re are showing signs of bulbing but not much. It’s too cool here during the bulbing phase, which ends this month (March) when day length exceeds 12 hours. I have had abundant success with intermediate and long day onion, which gives me a spring and summer harvest. I only trim away green parts for what I eat. But I don’t make it a habit of trimming my onion. I find it counter intuitive to what the plant needs-especially during the bulbing phase.
Always good to test these things! I always try stuff "out of my zone" as well
I can't thank you enough for these videos. 🙏 My only gardening experiences prior to starting my new green thumb journey was basically just throw the scraps in the backyard and hope for the best lol! In Louisiana because of the rich humidity and rain it made that process pretty lazy and easy all year around. We had potatoes, onions, garlic, peppermint, and lots more! I moved to California a couple years ago and now live in an apartment and I have been STRUGGLING, killed almost every single plant I bought when I first got here. 😭 I just picked it back up with the extremely easy insight and guidance from you through these videos and I just got my first harvest of lots of different easy growing herbs and veggies after only a month or so! Thank you!
I just ringed in my onions here in zone 9B. I've found it helps with getting larger bulbs by breaking up/loosening the soil around the bulb. LOVE the Video! :)
Good to know!
Hello friend I grow garlic here in zone 7a in N.C. and definitely recommend a pre soak for your garlic cloves but instead of a fish product use a seaweed. Your garlic bulbs have been setting on a shelf in sleep mode for several months and will break that dormancy two weeks quicker after planting I'm the form of root growth. I intently said seaweed earlier due to the natural growth hormones it contains and already plant available nutrients absorbed by the once living kelp plant. So ditch the stinky fish stuff you gotta the kelp. One more thing I've personally had to leave the cloves soaking in the solution up to 3 days (weather related delays) and had no loose in germination after planting. Though personally I wouldn't wait that long. One more thought on the soaking process. If you notice any damage to the clove under the wrapper it could be mite's (you can do your own homework on that) the long soak can drown them. Thanks for the great content my friend and happy gardening.
To me garlic especially is my favorite crop ever, it surfaces when all other crops die down in October-December, so it feeds off my summee crops like peppers and tomatoes.
Its also extremely hardy for some reason and it grows while its freezing (thank god the winters are very mild here)
Usually tips get kinda yellow quite early on tho, probably because of the very wet soils that i get during winter from all the rain.
Thats why the bulbs arent the largest but what i mainly just love about it is that it is a 0 care crop for me that keeps the ground alive during the dark winter months.
And it all happened because i once just dumped in a few garlic cloves in the ground for fun and they survived ever since. (Usually one or 2 bulbs stay behind in the soil without me noticing and then pop up later in fall. Maybe I should look into getting a better suited variety one day soon)
I live in an area that has huge garlic farms around it, and I am able to chat with lots of very experienced garlic farmers. Each one I've asked has said to NEVER soak your garlic before planting. It promotes rot, and if there is a harsh freeze after you've planted wet cloves, they will likely not survive it.
I forgot about the garlic seed I put in the fridge. I thought it was done for (over three months), but I planted it about three weeks ago and already have nice green stalks about six inches tall.
Is it normal for an onion to sprout a 2nd neck? Brought one from the store and after a while it sprouted on the counter and I decided to plant in the garden… now its got 2 thick healthy necks
I would like to see you grow Egyptian walking onions! It’s an interesting plant that I would love to know more about.
Great timing Kevin!
Planning on putting some garlic and onions in my new no dig bed I made yesterday here in Auckland, NZ 👌🏻
Love all your hard work 😊
Too bad I can't eat alliums, they're the easiest thing for me to grow.
Radish are easy to grow.
What are your thoughts on trimming alliums as they grow? I read that I should keep my leeks trimmed shorter to prevent them from getting wild and tangled, but I'm also wondering if that is allowing them to put more energy into the whites I plan on eating. Since I started trimming them they do seem to be bulking up, but that could be a coincidence in timing.
I've noticed trimming back my onions has them growing back thicker and more clumped!
Thanks for the great advice. Beautiful garden! 💚🌱
Planted garlic this month because my seed didn’t arrive until mid winter. Crossing my fingers but I doubt it will bulb. Any recommendations to do with the bulbless garlic I am expecting?
Just harvest the tops as green garlic...it's delicious
In the UK, most people I have seen use a dibber to make a hole drop the leeks in and then water to fill up the hole and that’s that. Great success and nice big white leeks.
7:55 nice nails! I guess they helps dig! 😆
Spooning definitely works. Massive bulbs. Thanks for the tips.
Great video! The onions in the front and palm trees in the back are a Super Mario Bros 2 throwback. Such a good game too!
Can you still harvest a leek even though I should have harvest last summer? Would it still be edible?
It'll likely be pretty fibrous, but doesn't hurt to try
Nice to get my gardening fix in while we are still in volatile weather here in -the frozen craphole of Hoth- northeast Ohio. I'm going to try doing my root/bulb/tuber plants in a Ruth Stout patch this year.
You think you're in a frozen wasteland? Try gardening in zone 3! We had temps of -36 degrees C for a few days and our average was around -24 Celsius. That's -32 Fahrenheit by the way. My first year gardening here and I suspect it will be a bit different than the zone 8 where I used to live.
Wow fantastic tips! I'm planting onions from seed for the first time so very useful information thank you! Love seeing Jacque the garden hermit randomly in the background 😄
I'm in 5a/b (on the line). Tried 2 years of garlic in containers and even with extra mulch and wrap, they froze solid. This past fall, went totally in ground, a LOT of extra mulch, and I have garlic sprouting. Stoked! I currently have long day onion seeds starting, hopefully will have a harvest there too. No space for leeks. Summary - this is a great vid. Thank you!
4:08 this was historically done to celery. At one point, celery was a cultural touchstone of autumn, and white celery was even more prized.
Once I harvested a green onion and the taproot was like two feet!!!Dont know why
Thanks for reminding me! I need to check when to plant my onion seeds! 7a.
We had a week of 80 degree weather and then got hit by a snowstorm with a hard freeze. The wild daffodils almost died. Crazy weather here in the South lol. Not like Los Angeles where I moved from. Totally different lol.
Always heard that carrots and onions go well together and strawberries and garlic. But maybe that is mostly for the benefit of the carrot/strawberry as the alliums have a strong smell that most insects don't like
Harvest wild allium ... great for beginner foragers ... if it smells and looks like garlic, it is and it’s safe to eat ... if it smells and looks like onion, it is and it’s safe to eat! Sooooo many wild varieties grow naturally all over CA and North America and the whole Earth!! WHY spend money on fertilizers, seeds, grow bags, soil, et al when you can forage from nature ... ??? This guy is a giant commercial for the companies who sell all of the above ...
Me coming here because I thought he was talking about “ornamental Alliums” LMFAO 🤦🏽♂️🥴🤷🏽♂️
Given the unpredictable nature of gardening I wonder how many tips like that (garlic soaking) are essentially superstitions a la skinner's randomly-reinforced pigeons. You do this, you have a successful season, you fear not doing it in every following season because what if it was the thing that worked? Baseball players are notorious for this.
Two Qs: I thought I had planted some onions, but there’s a chance that they are garlic! Is there a way I can physically distinguish from leaves alone? Or perhaps even the flower head that’s beginning to form? The ones I’m wondering about have flat leaves, and they are just beginning to form an extended peak which makes me think of the beginning of a scape. I do have onions growing too and the leaves are tubular.
First year doing leeks in zone 5.
Started the leeks a few weeks later than the onions in January from seed (wish I had started with the onions). The leeks were growing fine in a small tub with about 3" of potting soil. Decided to transplant them into a deeper container, burying the plant a few inches. Hopefully this will give me a head start when time to plant in about a month.
If you can get heat treated onion sets they won't go to seed 😉😁🌱☀️
;)
My issue has been the germination rate of allium seeds and getting them from seedling to adult when they do successfully germinate.
Maybe I need to buy some trays to start them and then transplant to the garden…?
I’ve never experienced this kind of difficulty with growing seeds before and I dunno what to do. 😢
My onion bubs are poking up through the surface of the soil...i kept topping them off with soil...should I not...should I just let them grow
I was wondering about the cardboard tubes you put around the leeks, and sometimes use to make seed starting pots. Is it okay to use the white ones? I would think they are bleached and brown would be safer. But I currently have more white TP tubes, so I'd love to use them.
Ok, I’m curious about growing green onions. I’m in OC California area and know it’s perhaps not the best time of year to grow onions, but is it possible to grow green onions around the year?
Hey, how deep of a container for onions and leeks? I have Alison Craig (the big one) as well as smaller red onions. I also have leeks, which I wish to place in containers as well. Both the onions and leeks are currently in small pots ready to be transplanted. I live on the west coast of Canada.
I tried to grow onion from seeds. Nothing come up after weeks. Does 30 C temperature affect germination?
Thanks for sharing this Kevin! I've tried various growing options...seed, sets, micro bulbs, soak not soak. One thing is for sure they need proper drainage and plenty sun.
im guessing your summer days are longer than 11.5 hours since they are longer than 12 hours now, and theyre only gonna get longer until solstice
I seem to get one or two middle layers of my onions that are brown and soft. Eventually making the entire onion bad.
Any ideas ?
I will be trying to grow onions for the first time soon in 5b, thanks for the info! :)
all my garlic died due to wind, any way to help mitigate that? should I plant more closure so they stand together strong?
Onions are biannual/perennials.
Shallots? They're easy and delicious.
I have a question, I have onion seed and it's late spring and I wanted to plant for onions this year, my question is will the seed make an actual onion this year or do I have to overwinter them to get onions for next year. And also I plan on saving some seed from my onions for future harvests and I needed to know basically what the process is for that. I'm afraid with the food shortages fresh onions might be hard to come by soon, and I prefer fresh onions to dehydrated even though I have those. So a very detailed tutorial of just onions for the purposes of homesteading and seed saving would be very much appreciated. I'm in central Oklahoma zone 7. We get fairly hot summers, mild-ish Winters except for a couple of months from January to March we have the opportunity for some severe cold weather. Even though we don't usually get a lot of it
7:58 I respect a man who keeps a spoon on him at all time LOL
Thanks for the info! I have a pretty big/ deep indoor plant pot that's sitting empty bc my cat was destroying the plant in it by digging, even through the cage I put around the plants, lol. The digging behavior has been addressed & accommodated now, and she doesn't do any more damage to any of the other plants that survived her initial onslaught, so I've got some free real estate that I'd like to use for something. I'll have to do further research on just how toxic alliums are to cats, see if it's safe for me to grow it, but it seems like *if* it's safe, then it might be a decent candidate. Won't be really using it for eating, bc one pot doesn't make for much in the way of produce yield, but if nothing else it's a bit more practice.
Green garlic is a good choice then - just eat the greens of the shoots that come up!
Never had any problem with my cats & any alliums before.
You would be surprised by how many onions you can grow in a large pot. But yes, it certainly won't feed you all year.
I see a discord mentioned in some older vid descriptions, but the links are all too old. Does anyone have an active one?
Got notification, clicked. Easy like that .... 😀
Klaus: Certified Epic!
I've been regrowing store-bought scallions in water; is it worthwhile to plant them out like leeks?
Give it a shot, yeah! You want the roots in soil not water for best growth
Any experience with chives (traditional and garlic chives)? I'm growing both varieties from seed and they are taking such a long time compared to the 'days to harvest' stats online. Don't know if it's something I'm doing sub-optimally or just bad info on the internet.
I plant leek seeds in cell trays and the transplant. This method of just burying the starts deeper for whiter stems is genius. Thanks!
Great info here, thank you!
I wonder if you bury green onion deeper into the soil, will it turn into long white green onion?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of planting onion leeks Indoor?
Any tricks to knowing when they're ready for harvest?
Sorry I can only believe the cardboard roll trick if you put it in a time lapse garden "hack" video. Lol, great video though thanks.
Hahaha
I live in Sacramento, last fall i move into my new house and decided to just plonk some grocery store garlic cloves in the ground...no friggin clue what variety they are, but they're absolutely thriving.
Hollis from Hollis and Nancy call that "ringing" the onions using the spoon. LOVE that you're doing it too!
I have an idea and I would like to know from an experienced gardener if it would work...
If I plant leeks between say kohlrabi or broccoli that has big leaves, would the big leaves shade the bottom of the leeks and blanch them?
Hey, Kevin. Loving your channel! A friend and I purchased a bunch of the 6 cells last season, curious if you know when we can expect more stock of the 4 cells? Thanks!
I started growing 2 experimental onions from food scraps, using the lower 1/3 of the onions where the roots are. They're grpwing well, but do you know if they'll regrow the bulbs fully, or will they be used more as green onions?
They're more likely to flower, so I'd use as green onions
@@epicgardening Alrighty, thank ya.
I've eaten garlic tops & never knew those were edible but hopefully my garlic I grew last year will come up this year
Question: I read somewhere that for onions, that if you cut the leaves about half an inch or ⅔ of an inch, that more energy will taken to bulb development, is it true
Thank you for explaining the difference in long and short day onions.
Bro, these are some of the best gardening videos on TH-cam ... easily one of my favorite channels out there! Thanks for the great work, keep it up!!
Nice and informative video! Do you grow any native plants? If not, a native flower section would be cool!
What were the results of your spooning attempt?
What does yellow tips on the leaves mean later in the season on plants? What type of leeks do you grow-short day or long-day in zone 10b?
Would love to see what kind of nutrients your using as well as anything you do for pest control. Love your videos !
In Portugal, we usually plant the onions with most of the bulb outside earth.
Thank you! Any tips for shallots?
Will do a vid!
i did put my garlic in water waited till i seen roots or leaves coming out the top and had great results within a weeks time but kept in frige for a month
When you did your 30 day challenge, did you eat canned salmon, tuna, rice, etc????
No
Please do video on allium pests and how to treat them or how to avoid them in the first place.
I was struggling with my onions and based on this video I know the moisture was the issue. I lear t something new, didn't know the number of leaves affect the layer of these allium.
Glad you picked something up!
whered you get that fence man im in love
Have you ever tried to grow shallots?
This is awesome, what do you do with all the excess? That's a crazy amount of garlic, is it freezable?
Lol. That's not a lot of garlic. Yes, it freezes very well for storage. Peel it, freeze it on a cookie sheet, drop it all into quart-size freezer bags and it will store in the freezer all Winter.
Freeze, oil store, dehydrate, etc!
How do shallots fall into your plan?