My leeks weren't doing anything in a grow bag, until I hit them with Fish Fertilizer for a month about 60 days after transplanting, then they started really building up their greens to start growing.
@@Dirt-Fermer I haven't been able to find any seeds to grow those.. I'd like to have a patch of walking onions.. or maybe a trail around the border of the garden..
I followed the advice from an onion gardener. She keeps the greens cut back to about 4 to 6 inches. Produces a bigger onion. Thought I would try it this year. I incorporated a time released fertilizer into soil before planting. After greens were about 4 inches I fertilized the onions with a high nitrogen fertilizer. Worked like a charm. My onions have never looked better and the size is larger than ever.
@@karileonard9239 that should read. I followed. I keep the onion tops cut back to 5 to 6 inches. It doesn’t stop the top growth. Have them a haircut about ever 7 to 10 days
I used trench for years in ground and feel that is the best, spacing in everything. Now have high grown beds and really love them and they preform very well. 77.5 year old lady still happy gardening. Especially in grow bags and Raised grow beds. Just get out and garden in what you have. Best food for you fresh!
My advice comes from competition onion growers. When you transplant the onion, only bury the roots and not the bulbs. Some of your transplants might fall over on the first day but that's normal. Water really well and in a week they will be straight and the soil will not restrict their growth, soil won't enter the onion bulb and only the roots will be constantly wet, exactly what you want. Works great for shallots too, I had a good harvest this year from the allium family.
I love these experiments! I wish he had kept the fertilizer variable constant though. It seems totally unsurprising that fertilizer + more space will do better. What most home gardeners would love to know is whether fertilizer can make up for more dense planting…
I live in very hot Las Vegas and started a garden this past Spring. I started with organic chives from the grocery store. I cut 2 inches frim the tiny bulb and stuck them in water to see if they would sprout roots. I've been cutting the exposed greens all Summer, to use in salads and soups. I can't believe how HUGE the greens are; plus the stock (that started the size of my pinky) is the diameter if a quarter now. The green stalks keep coming back up too. Now I'm rooting brussel sprouts. They have rooted and I'm ready to plant them in dirt. Fingers crossed that they grow!!!
Record rain during winter here and still wet in the spring. Got 20 out of 50. Zone 6b. East Coast. USA. We are new at onions. First year yield was a much bigger harvest. We did trenches and put them too close. Live and learn. Thanks Kevin.
If you want to keep onions all winter long, start with 'keeper' varieties; the nursery should mark the start as a 'keeper' or long shelf life onion, or you can look up the best keeper varieties for your area. After harvest you simply brush them clean and hang/place them somewhere warm and dry with good air flow to 'cure' them, drying out the outer skin layers and the tops. After curing for a couple of weeks you can braid the onion tops together to make an attractive onion braid that will look good enough to put on display in your kitchen or even gift to good friends. ETA- you don't even have to cellar keeper onions, just keep them hanging in an airy location. They will generate ethylene gas just like apples, don't store them with your potatoes or they'll make them sprout. You can of course use this to your advantage next spring to sprout your seed potatoes.
@@MrKoobuh I always purchase Patterson onions. Mine keep around 12 months. Can’t remember what the name of my shallots are but they have a long storage too
I have been growing onions for 15 years, in raised beds, as I live on a rock. I start my onions in Feb, I buy 3 varieties, white, red and Walla Walla. I sprinkle all the seed of each variety on top of a 6” pots and put a fine layer of soil over the seed and water. Do not let the soil dry out on top. First week of April they are about 4-6 inches high and I plant them out, 5” apart. My soil is entirely composted materials and drains well, I feed the soil with a 4 part fertilizer of alphalpha meal, lime, bonemeal and kelp meal before planting, in May/June I usually give them a dose of nitrogen rich liquid fish fertilizer once they start to bulb. I am harvesting now, average size 4-5” in diameter. The red and white store very well, Walla Walla last until November or so, (they start to sprout) I then dry what ever is left of them. The other last until spring
hey kevin thjanks so much ironnicly I was just looking for a onion video on your channel because yours are always the most helpful and go into every detail ( and before this the cucumber video came when I was looking for that) thanks so much your videos helped me get my garden going, Keep up the good work!!!
The nice thing about onions is that there are so many options for growing them. You can buy the little bulbs in a bag, partially grown slips banded together, and even trays of little grassy onion starts from nurseries. It's super easy to grow them from seed too, especially if you've collected those little 3x5 nursery trays, or even in rectangular pots. Whatever you do, get FRESH seed. Yellow and white onions seem to last a couple years, but the red onions I had from last year had 0% germination. Sprinkle seeds on top of your soil, sprinkle 1/4" soil or less over the top and keep moist in a warm, light area. I've never trimmed my starts but that will probably help them to grow bigger. Fertilize them with half-strength organic liquid fertilizer or miracle-gro after the greens start showing up. To plant, I gently remove the soil and plants from the pot, then place them in a few inches of water to soak. After a few minutes I gently start agitating the water to break up and remove the soil from the roots, and then can start pulling individual starts out of the bucket to plant in rows. Don't forget Phosphorus for your root vegetables, a healthy dose of bonemeal in your onion bed makes them super happy!
my onions in my small containers did best. they were well spaced. Like 4 onion slips in planter similar size to that growbag in the video. The ones in my raised planters did pretty well, but got stressed out by raccoons and flowered pretty early. very rewarding plant to grow.
An old timer gave me sweet italian red starts. He said use triple-16 fertilizer , keep watered, and to "nip" the tops off. Had pretty decent size bulbs, but I also had competition fron the rats. It was a so-so crop this year.
Trick to large good flavor onions is, 21-0-0 fertilizer every week for 6 weeks to grow large green tops with 9 to 12 leaves. Then switch to 0-20-20 fertilizer every week for 6 seeks to grow large bulbs. My onion bed is 32" wide 30 ft long. 7 rows with 4" spacing = 630 onions. 6 rows with 5" spacing = 430 onions. Total weight of each crop, 630 onions weight about 10% heaver than 430 onions. Large onions in the kitchen are often too large for a recipe so left over onion has to be saved in zip lock bags. Zip lock bags of saves onion are very handy is smaller recipes. Plant onions 6 weeks before last frost that is March 1st of us. We are at 34.3 degree longitude our longest day is 14 hrs 20 mins June 21. Our last frost is April 20, onion harvest is June 20.
I love a good garden experiment. From a data nerd I would consider simplifying your test to just one different factor. Example: Fertilizer vs no fertilizer. Space vs no space. Because there were multiple differences in the growing practice we can't say for sure was it the fertilizer or the spacing that caused the size difference? I would bet the lack of fertilizer is the major reason for smaller bulbs but we wouldn't know for sure unless it was tested. Also gives you more content as you can test each in separate episodes. I enjoyed this thank you!
I would love to know a few things > Which produces more in the same square foot: pole beans or multiple plantings of bush beans? > Is it better to pull up and replant bush beans or should you wait for their 2nd/ 3rd harvests? > does directly planting kitchen scraps produce similar results to store bought compost, home made compost or just fertalizer? > if you could only buy one would it be better to get compost or fertalizer with a small budget and/or small space
Hi Kevin, today I have put together, my 1st Birdie Bed. I actually bought 2 at the same time. 1 do have around 17 other beds already pumping out my winter food. Big fan of your channel and I just needed to tell you about finally having a Birdie in my garden. Blessings from Australia 🇦🇺 🌏 🦘 💖
I find good spacing and a high nitrogen fertilizer is what makes my onions grow even in less than full sun. Someone pointed out that the bulb is actually just the bottom of the onion leaf so for healthy bulbs you need lots of nitrogen. It's not a root like a carrot or beet.
I wonder if adding the fertilizer a couple weeks after planting would be more fruitful than adding at planting? Wouldnt a lot wash away before the roots could get to it?
Yes, next year's experiment needs to isolate variables. Maybe well spaced and fertilized, well spaced and not fertilized, and tightly spaced and fertilized, so you have the best result from this year against the two possible contributing factors. It could be that both are important. It could also be (and seems to be) that the size of the impact depends on the variety of onion. It would be really interesting to learn that some varieties are affected more by one variable and others more by the other.
@@blet73 i also recommended up top to test another variable for NPK. i know that means 4 more test rows but would be interesting. The general recommendation is a high nitrogen based fertilizer so would be interesting to test that vs something more balanced like a 10-10-10
l learned alot from this onion vid. But time and again: fert, fert, fertilizer . . . At what fertilizer analysis? From 16-16-16 to high nitrogen. Kevin. Please respond.
I think my dog is y'alls biggest fan. I watch your videos a lot, and she always stares very intently, longer than her normal attention span and sometimes the whole video. Even if she hears Kevin or Jaques from the other room, she'll come in for a cuddle and watch with me.
Awesome video. I’m hoping to grow some nice big onions this year. So far I’ve only grown a few small ones and lots of green onions. This year I want to grow lots of carrots potatoes and onions. I also want to try growing edamame and African horned jelly fruit this year for the first time. Very excited to get started this season
I would love a video on garden plants/varieties that do better in shaded areas. I live in an area where it is surrounded by massive trees so the sunlight is minimal for me.
I'm jealous.. I'm in the solid south, lower Georgia, and from about 1PM on, I need shade and don't have much.. The west side of the property is a pond.. no trees in it. The afternoon UV is 9-10.. unless it's stormin' out there.. sometimes in the triple digits too.
It would be nice to see some experimentation with strawberries in the same patch. You can test the three varieties. Dappled light to full. Straw mulch to no straw mulch. Clay soil, to loamy, to sandy and maybe even in straight up hay. Lots of folks say get strawberries, they're easy. I've found, yeah, after 2-3 seasons of making mistakes, they are easy. My initial problem was getting the soil, right so that the water and sun wouldn't be so much of an issue in my near-alpine desert climate.
My Grandfather used to grow his leeks with old copper tubing. As the leeks grew through the tubing, with the absence of light, the leeks had longer whites than greens parts. My father did the same with green onions. The green onions grew twice as long but longer whites. Just an idea to make life easier. Peace
I can see where the spacing might help get bigger onions but as far as the fertilizer part of it goes what difference does it make if you broadcast it all over the place if you put it in the trench just fertilize the onions
Interesting video just planted my seeds in the Uk. One thing I couldn’t understand was that the closer spacing should result in more onions in each row so a better harvest of smaller onions. Your results ended up with the same number (or less?). How does that work?
I saw on another video where someone commented they used washing soda as fertilizer and had done so for many years. Of course they didn't leave any info other than that, so no idea how much they used or how often they applied.
Thanks for this video. Will definitely try some of these tips when I eventually tried to grow onions. I've heard they can be really finicky, so this helps.
Hi Candace, I’m Muriel. I think I connected with you in Bumble. Don’t know if you’re the same Candace or not but was trying to connect with you and the account is now deleted. Thanks for referring me to Epic Gardening’s channel! Yes I have seen many of his videos and enjoy his content very much. Please reach back out to me if you get the chance.
My neighbor keeps growing sets and I keep telling him... I mean I show him the onions I grow every year but he just refuses to get it. Grow from seeed!! it's so easy, onions are probably the most reliable, consistent crop I grow and I do the same thing every year, 100+ per square yard is possible.
Trying seed method for the first time...certainly can't complain about the onion tops....waiting for zone 6 to 'flop the tops' now. I did the 'slob' method...bunch of seeds with not pattern at all.
Planted onions for the first time this year. Started them indoors around February in one big pot. Around April I took the whole bundle out of the pot and separated them individually as best as I could by hand. My spacing was very tight as I am tight on room and a small onion can still be used. I’d say it was a success just harvested last week and I’m gonna have more then enough for the rest of the year.
@@kenshinhimura9387I’ve never had issue with them sprouting. I start them in early winter in pots. Just sow the whole seed pack in a relatively wide and shallow pot such as a mum pot and just barely cover the seeds. Keep moist and they’re sprouted in about 10 days. Grow them on for several weeks and transplant straight into the garden as early as possible.
quick question - what was the NPK and brand of the fertilizer that you used? Would be interesting to test different NPK values as well(10-10-10 vs something like 15-9-12 etc) Would probably need to compare more onion to have more data. Onion typically need a lot of nitrogen
waves from 54°N. At a guess, all of our onions we can buy work because we are all long day!! Mine grew amazingly well and were ready very early this year. Lots more rain than usual. I used sets and some seed (Alisa Craig). All types set bulbs, no flowers. The ones from seed were smaller. I had a prefertilized compost from my local shop.
Currently growing some onions from seed and they are all very small and tiny bulbs at best. Might have to try and save them as sets for next year. What was the NPK of the trench fertilizer? Did you add other fertilizer through the season?
I need serious help with my onions. I tried in the last years using grow bags because I have a gopher problem. I only get a few that actually bulb up to a decent size. As soon as my summer crops are done, I’m going to try setting up a couple of birdies beds and plant them in there.
Just figued it out Needs some shade roughly 6 hours of sun before they start wilting time lapesed it on my phone i put a grow table for shade nd it kept them from wilting
Every single year here in the UK my onions are eaten by slugs and snails. They fail every sigle year. Where i live its just to wet and cold. Summer just means the rain gets warmer.its a paradise for slugs and snails
Hi Jt, I also live in the UK, I grow my onions in plastic troughs which I then place on top of some galvanised steel shelving (IKEA). I also, as an extra protection, put copper tape around the plastic troughs, this method has reduced the number of slugs and snails attacking the onions, also use this method from lettuces too.
I have a so-so onion year so far. What i noticed is that the onions toward the edge of the raised bed are much smaller. I give them some extra water (to offset any drainage) and all the same. How can I even the growth through the entire raised bed surface?
The problem with adding fertilizer in an experiment is we don’t know what the fertility was before. You might have had enough. Either way it was an informative video and I wish my neighbor’s tree wasn’t directly over my garden because it definitely reduces my harvests.
How would you fertilize them in a self wicking container? I’m changing out my wood raised bed for IBC tote beds, and I’m wondering if I should top dress or add the water below. No i’m not transplanting onions, but i do have leftover bulbs from the start of the season that are still good. The onions i have planted now haven’t don’t anything, and i mean nothing. I used organic compost mixed with finished rabbit dropping, every 2 weeks i add fish emulsion, and they haven’t grown, they haven’t died either. Just wondering what i can do better with a new start.
Do you have any varieties of onions that are STRONG and make one CRY? Those are the onions that I want. Zone 6b, southern MO. I have Egyptian onions and two kinds of garlic, they do fine, but no one around here has anything except those old blah sweet onions. That seems to be all I can find online also. We used to pull wild onions/garlic out of the ground and brush it off and eat it right on the spot when we were kids. Yummy. (that was before you two were born)
I'm in zone 4 so can't overwo.ter onions for seed. I have one grown from seed that has a flower stalk. Do you think if I save seeds from that one the plants grown from it next year will be more likely to bolt? Waste of time or worth trying?
Did you grow these from seed in seed trays and then transplant? I tried direct sowing onion seeds and none came up this year, wondering if bugs got em?
A couple of years ago I grew some fantastic onion and this year with a lot of rainy days and humid days my onions just flopped over. Strangely though most kept growing. What do you think was up with that? As a long seasoned gardener I am befuddled. I understand about the life of the onion in depth when it comes to timing and the solstice. The onion transplants were healthy and were spaced 6 inches apart in all directions. They grew big tops and later fell over even though I trimmed them some. What should I do next year? I plan to fertilize more after seeing this.
Onions are 1 of the best "No Waste" vegetables you can grow. Green leaves chopped for salads/garnish's, chopped and frozen, dehydrated and ground for granulated, or ground onion in the pantry, and of course whole. No Waste, Period!
Is the day length based on general light, or light they are in full sun? In example, I planted sets, but they only barely started to bulb out around the solstice and then stopped. But they are in the shade in the afternoon. So should I be planting short day onions or planting them in the front yard since that is the only place I have full sun?
It is based on daylight, not hours of full sun. That said, onions require a lot of direct sun and water to grow their largest. I never had good luck with sets, but I do with starting from seed. Get them started early (January or February for me in zone 5) and transplant as early as you can in your area. One of my issues with sets was that I didn't get them planted early enough, but I also sometimes experienced flowering which isn't supposed to happen but it frequently does from sets because it is a very unnatural process for the onions.
@joeellerbach2095 I've tried seed a few years before finding sets. That was actually a worse turnout. Think I got 2 shallot sized onions after 2 years? 2024 was my first year trying sets. Still planning, but will try somewhere with more sun in a few months. And thank you! Overall I think I'm somewhere around year 7 or 8 trying, so fingers crossed.
Would have been interesting to have a comparison with intercropping leafy greens, strawberries or flowers and see the difference that makes on a total harvest.
Have a pro onion tip that's worked for you? Let us know... 👀⬇
Mainly just growing hydropnically.
Just plant Egyptian walking onions everywhere and forget about them.
My leeks weren't doing anything in a grow bag, until I hit them with Fish Fertilizer for a month about 60 days after transplanting, then they started really building up their greens to start growing.
@@Dirt-Fermer I haven't been able to find any seeds to grow those.. I'd like to have a patch of walking onions.. or maybe a trail around the border of the garden..
@@HealthyDisrespectforAuthority look for bulblets I think that’s what they’re called anyways
I followed the advice from an onion gardener. She keeps the greens cut back to about 4 to 6 inches. Produces a bigger onion. Thought I would try it this year. I incorporated a time released fertilizer into soil before planting. After greens were about 4 inches I fertilized the onions with a high nitrogen fertilizer. Worked like a charm. My onions have never looked better and the size is larger than ever.
Very interesting!
Q; are u saying u cut them back? And if so at what length. Thanks for your post.❤
@@karileonard9239 that should read. I followed. I keep the onion tops cut back to 5 to 6 inches. It doesn’t stop the top growth. Have them a haircut about ever 7 to 10 days
I am also experimenting using this method on my shallots
How do you know when they’re ready to harvest? Aren’t the tops supposed to fall over?
It's really helpful to see the full season (with results) in a single video!
I used trench for years in ground and feel that is the best, spacing in everything. Now have high grown beds and really love them and they preform very well. 77.5 year old lady still happy gardening. Especially in grow bags and Raised grow beds. Just get out and garden in what you have. Best food for you fresh!
My advice comes from competition onion growers.
When you transplant the onion, only bury the roots and not the bulbs. Some of your transplants might fall over on the first day but that's normal. Water really well and in a week they will be straight and the soil will not restrict their growth, soil won't enter the onion bulb and only the roots will be constantly wet, exactly what you want.
Works great for shallots too, I had a good harvest this year from the allium family.
I love these experiments! I wish he had kept the fertilizer variable constant though. It seems totally unsurprising that fertilizer + more space will do better. What most home gardeners would love to know is whether fertilizer can make up for more dense planting…
I grew a ton of onions this year, I put 38# in the freezer, dehydrated a gallon jar worth and still have onions in the garden. 😮
I live in very hot Las Vegas and started a garden this past Spring. I started with organic chives from the grocery store. I cut 2 inches frim the tiny bulb and stuck them in water to see if they would sprout roots. I've been cutting the exposed greens all Summer, to use in salads and soups. I can't believe how HUGE the greens are; plus the stock (that started the size of my pinky) is the diameter if a quarter now. The green stalks keep coming back up too. Now I'm rooting brussel sprouts. They have rooted and I'm ready to plant them in dirt. Fingers crossed that they grow!!!
Record rain during winter here and still wet in the spring. Got 20 out of 50. Zone 6b. East Coast. USA. We are new at onions. First year yield was a much bigger harvest. We did trenches and put them too close. Live and learn. Thanks Kevin.
If you want to keep onions all winter long, start with 'keeper' varieties; the nursery should mark the start as a 'keeper' or long shelf life onion, or you can look up the best keeper varieties for your area. After harvest you simply brush them clean and hang/place them somewhere warm and dry with good air flow to 'cure' them, drying out the outer skin layers and the tops. After curing for a couple of weeks you can braid the onion tops together to make an attractive onion braid that will look good enough to put on display in your kitchen or even gift to good friends.
ETA- you don't even have to cellar keeper onions, just keep them hanging in an airy location. They will generate ethylene gas just like apples, don't store them with your potatoes or they'll make them sprout. You can of course use this to your advantage next spring to sprout your seed potatoes.
thanks for the sage advice!
@@MrKoobuh I always purchase Patterson onions. Mine keep around 12 months. Can’t remember what the name of my shallots are but they have a long storage too
I have been growing onions for 15 years, in raised beds, as I live on a rock. I start my onions in Feb, I buy 3 varieties, white, red and Walla Walla. I sprinkle all the seed of each variety on top of a 6” pots and put a fine layer of soil over the seed and water. Do not let the soil dry out on top. First week of April they are about 4-6 inches high and I plant them out, 5” apart. My soil is entirely composted materials and drains well, I feed the soil with a 4 part fertilizer of alphalpha meal, lime, bonemeal and kelp meal before planting, in May/June I usually give them a dose of nitrogen rich liquid fish fertilizer once they start to bulb. I am harvesting now, average size 4-5” in diameter. The red and white store very well, Walla Walla last until November or so, (they start to sprout) I then dry what ever is left of them. The other last until spring
Wat state u in?
hey kevin thjanks so much ironnicly I was just looking for a onion video on your channel because yours are always the most helpful and go into every detail ( and before this the cucumber video came when I was looking for that) thanks so much your videos helped me get my garden going, Keep up the good work!!!
The nice thing about onions is that there are so many options for growing them. You can buy the little bulbs in a bag, partially grown slips banded together, and even trays of little grassy onion starts from nurseries. It's super easy to grow them from seed too, especially if you've collected those little 3x5 nursery trays, or even in rectangular pots. Whatever you do, get FRESH seed. Yellow and white onions seem to last a couple years, but the red onions I had from last year had 0% germination. Sprinkle seeds on top of your soil, sprinkle 1/4" soil or less over the top and keep moist in a warm, light area. I've never trimmed my starts but that will probably help them to grow bigger. Fertilize them with half-strength organic liquid fertilizer or miracle-gro after the greens start showing up. To plant, I gently remove the soil and plants from the pot, then place them in a few inches of water to soak. After a few minutes I gently start agitating the water to break up and remove the soil from the roots, and then can start pulling individual starts out of the bucket to plant in rows.
Don't forget Phosphorus for your root vegetables, a healthy dose of bonemeal in your onion bed makes them super happy!
Wow this video was a really time consuming and hard work! What an interesting experiment! Congrats.
my onions in my small containers did best. they were well spaced. Like 4 onion slips in planter similar size to that growbag in the video.
The ones in my raised planters did pretty well, but got stressed out by raccoons and flowered pretty early.
very rewarding plant to grow.
Smaller onions are nice because can cook with fresh each time. Fresh tastes better than refrigerated left over.
An old timer gave me sweet italian red starts. He said use triple-16 fertilizer , keep watered, and to "nip" the tops off. Had pretty decent size bulbs, but I also had competition fron the rats. It was a so-so crop this year.
Trick to large good flavor onions is, 21-0-0 fertilizer every week for 6 weeks to grow large green tops with 9 to 12 leaves. Then switch to 0-20-20 fertilizer every week for 6 seeks to grow large bulbs. My onion bed is 32" wide 30 ft long. 7 rows with 4" spacing = 630 onions. 6 rows with 5" spacing = 430 onions. Total weight of each crop, 630 onions weight about 10% heaver than 430 onions. Large onions in the kitchen are often too large for a recipe so left over onion has to be saved in zip lock bags. Zip lock bags of saves onion are very handy is smaller recipes. Plant onions 6 weeks before last frost that is March 1st of us. We are at 34.3 degree longitude our longest day is 14 hrs 20 mins June 21. Our last frost is April 20, onion harvest is June 20.
I love a good garden experiment. From a data nerd I would consider simplifying your test to just one different factor. Example: Fertilizer vs no fertilizer. Space vs no space. Because there were multiple differences in the growing practice we can't say for sure was it the fertilizer or the spacing that caused the size difference? I would bet the lack of fertilizer is the major reason for smaller bulbs but we wouldn't know for sure unless it was tested. Also gives you more content as you can test each in separate episodes. I enjoyed this thank you!
Neat. Next year you should try the other combinations (tight spacing with fertilizer and more space with no fertilizer).
I would love to know a few things
> Which produces more in the same square foot: pole beans or multiple plantings of bush beans?
> Is it better to pull up and replant bush beans or should you wait for their 2nd/ 3rd harvests?
> does directly planting kitchen scraps produce similar results to store bought compost, home made compost or just fertalizer?
> if you could only buy one would it be better to get compost or fertalizer with a small budget and/or small space
Hi Kevin, today I have put together, my 1st Birdie Bed. I actually bought 2 at the same time.
1 do have around 17 other beds already pumping out my winter food.
Big fan of your channel and I just needed to tell you about finally having a Birdie in my garden.
Blessings from Australia 🇦🇺 🌏 🦘 💖
I find good spacing and a high nitrogen fertilizer is what makes my onions grow even in less than full sun. Someone pointed out that the bulb is actually just the bottom of the onion leaf so for healthy bulbs you need lots of nitrogen. It's not a root like a carrot or beet.
Excellent tip!
Woah!
Thanks for this! I'm giving homesteading a try next year. I'm learning all I can to grow as much food for my family as I can.
I love these videos which span the plant lifecycle and show at various points throughout the growth process.
Freeze dry them. It's one of the best things I do with my freeze dryer. So convenient for cooling!
I wonder if adding the fertilizer a couple weeks after planting would be more fruitful than adding at planting? Wouldnt a lot wash away before the roots could get to it?
What was the fertilizer? This should have been stated in the video and in the description! At least the N-P-K ratio...
It would’ve been interesting to see if you fertilized the closer ones and didn’t fertilize the ones spaced out more
I was thinking the same.
Yes, next year's experiment needs to isolate variables. Maybe well spaced and fertilized, well spaced and not fertilized, and tightly spaced and fertilized, so you have the best result from this year against the two possible contributing factors. It could be that both are important. It could also be (and seems to be) that the size of the impact depends on the variety of onion. It would be really interesting to learn that some varieties are affected more by one variable and others more by the other.
@@blet73 i also recommended up top to test another variable for NPK. i know that means 4 more test rows but would be interesting. The general recommendation is a high nitrogen based fertilizer so would be interesting to test that vs something more balanced like a 10-10-10
And weight for space not comparing an even count
@@kerrytaylor939 I was really surprised that they didn't do this. I really want to know which got more lbs per area.
l learned alot from this onion vid. But time and again: fert, fert, fertilizer . . . At what fertilizer analysis? From 16-16-16 to high nitrogen. Kevin. Please respond.
I think my dog is y'alls biggest fan. I watch your videos a lot, and she always stares very intently, longer than her normal attention span and sometimes the whole video. Even if she hears Kevin or Jaques from the other room, she'll come in for a cuddle and watch with me.
My favourite gardening channel! Watching from England 😊🏴
Super interesting to see how long the roots are on the grow bag onions compared to the in-ground ones!
Awesome video. I’m hoping to grow some nice big onions this year. So far I’ve only grown a few small ones and lots of green onions. This year I want to grow lots of carrots potatoes and onions. I also want to try growing edamame and African horned jelly fruit this year for the first time. Very excited to get started this season
I love Epic gardening videos 🩷💚
Love you back - Kevin
I'm growing onions rn. Thanks for the tip. Please try planting 147 bean plants. Just a random request😐😶
this is the main gardening channel that i watch
I would love a video on garden plants/varieties that do better in shaded areas. I live in an area where it is surrounded by massive trees so the sunlight is minimal for me.
I'm jealous.. I'm in the solid south, lower Georgia, and from about 1PM on, I need shade and don't have much.. The west side of the property is a pond.. no trees in it. The afternoon UV is 9-10.. unless it's stormin' out there.. sometimes in the triple digits too.
I’d say definitely fall and winter crop, like broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, spinach, etc
It would be nice to see some experimentation with strawberries in the same patch. You can test the three varieties. Dappled light to full. Straw mulch to no straw mulch. Clay soil, to loamy, to sandy and maybe even in straight up hay.
Lots of folks say get strawberries, they're easy. I've found, yeah, after 2-3 seasons of making mistakes, they are easy. My initial problem was getting the soil, right so that the water and sun wouldn't be so much of an issue in my near-alpine desert climate.
You planted the onions in January - when did you sow the seeds?
My Grandfather used to grow his leeks with old copper tubing. As the leeks grew through the tubing, with the absence of light, the leeks had longer whites than greens parts.
My father did the same with green onions. The green onions grew twice as long but longer whites. Just an idea to make life easier. Peace
Love these garden experiments!!
I can see where the spacing might help get bigger onions but as far as the fertilizer part of it goes what difference does it make if you broadcast it all over the place if you put it in the trench just fertilize the onions
Interesting video just planted my seeds in the Uk. One thing I couldn’t understand was that the closer spacing should result in more onions in each row so a better harvest of smaller onions. Your results ended up with the same number (or less?). How does that work?
I saw on another video where someone commented they used washing soda as fertilizer and had done so for many years. Of course they didn't leave any info other than that, so no idea how much they used or how often they applied.
Fishing at midnight in Alaska? That sounds EPIC!
Thanks for this video. Will definitely try some of these tips when I eventually tried to grow onions. I've heard they can be really finicky, so this helps.
But kevin, how do we know how much growth came from the actual fertilizer and how much from the extra spacing that you gave them?
No fertilizer you will get small bulbs, they need nitrogen
Could I ask what you started with? Seeds or plants?
Kevin, you have such a relatable approach. Thanks for sharing your methods!! 🐣🌱
Thanks so much!
Hi Candace, I’m Muriel. I think I connected with you in Bumble. Don’t know if you’re the same Candace or not but was trying to connect with you and the account is now deleted. Thanks for referring me to Epic Gardening’s channel! Yes I have seen many of his videos and enjoy his content very much. Please reach back out to me if you get the chance.
The nice thing about onions is even if you leave them in ground, they will pretty much keep until you need them (at least in my climate)
I’ve done that the last couple of years. We had a drought this year, so I thought they’d died. Nope. Already sprouting again. 🤦♀️
What do I get to grow onions - seeds, transplants, mini onions? Brand new to this. thx
My neighbor keeps growing sets and I keep telling him... I mean I show him the onions I grow every year but he just refuses to get it. Grow from seeed!! it's so easy, onions are probably the most reliable, consistent crop I grow and I do the same thing every year, 100+ per square yard is possible.
Trying seed method for the first time...certainly can't complain about the onion tops....waiting for zone 6 to 'flop the tops' now. I did the 'slob' method...bunch of seeds with not pattern at all.
Planted onions for the first time this year. Started them indoors around February in one big pot. Around April I took the whole bundle out of the pot and separated them individually as best as I could by hand. My spacing was very tight as I am tight on room and a small onion can still be used. I’d say it was a success just harvested last week and I’m gonna have more then enough for the rest of the year.
onion seeds usually never sprout. That's why most people use sets.
@@kenshinhimura9387 My seeds must have been in the 'sometimes will sprout' category...because they did well in a large rubber tub.
@@kenshinhimura9387I’ve never had issue with them sprouting. I start them in early winter in pots. Just sow the whole seed pack in a relatively wide and shallow pot such as a mum pot and just barely cover the seeds. Keep moist and they’re sprouted in about 10 days. Grow them on for several weeks and transplant straight into the garden as early as possible.
newbie here. can i use bone meal right away for better root growth or do i have to wait for the true leaves?
Epic gardening video is a most watch for me. Thanks for sharing
quick question - what was the NPK and brand of the fertilizer that you used? Would be interesting to test different NPK values as well(10-10-10 vs something like 15-9-12 etc) Would probably need to compare more onion to have more data. Onion typically need a lot of nitrogen
waves from 54°N. At a guess, all of our onions we can buy work because we are all long day!! Mine grew amazingly well and were ready very early this year. Lots more rain than usual. I used sets and some seed (Alisa Craig). All types set bulbs, no flowers. The ones from seed were smaller. I had a prefertilized compost from my local shop.
Currently growing some onions from seed and they are all very small and tiny bulbs at best. Might have to try and save them as sets for next year.
What was the NPK of the trench fertilizer? Did you add other fertilizer through the season?
Gosh i love this channel.. I'm a new gardener and trying to make it work on s right budget... Could use all the tips!❤
Good luck!
I’d definitely pick the yellow onions. Land race method says they are best adapted.
Thanks for the advice, I have difficulty growing onions so hopefully this will help.
Im trying Italian torpedo onions here in zone 9a West Coast Florida. I bought the seeds at dollar general so I'm not sure what to expect
Funny story: I had onion stems with roots sprouting from my compost bin! I transplanted them to the soil and they have been growing awesome since!
Other than watering, did you do anything else to these over 6 months (fertilize, add compost,etc…)?
im currently doing container, and im using vermicast as fertilizer 🙏 i hope ill get good ones
I need serious help with my onions. I tried in the last years using grow bags because I have a gopher problem. I only get a few that actually bulb up to a decent size. As soon as my summer crops are done, I’m going to try setting up a couple of birdies beds and plant them in there.
Just figued it out
Needs some shade roughly 6 hours of sun
before they start wilting time lapesed it on my phone
i put a grow table for shade nd it kept them from wilting
Every single year here in the UK my onions are eaten by slugs and snails. They fail every sigle year. Where i live its just to wet and cold. Summer just means the rain gets warmer.its a paradise for slugs and snails
Hi Jt, I also live in the UK, I grow my onions in plastic troughs which I then place on top of some galvanised steel shelving (IKEA).
I also, as an extra protection, put copper tape around the plastic troughs, this method has reduced the number of slugs and snails attacking the onions, also use this method from lettuces too.
jar lids filled with beer works well too…place a few in amongst the onion beds, the snails & slugs love beer…then they happily drown in it.
Hello senior teacher🙂🌿
If a stem breaks or is cut by mistake, you can quickly glue it back together?
Is it okay to use masking tape as a bandage?
for a better results of those onions planted in a container you need to water them a little bit more because container dries a lot faster
I'm completely confused about the location of the fertilizer trench. Does it run between two long rows of onions?
did you spoon the bulbs?
What kind of fertilizer?
I would believe you can sacrifice a few onions to flowering to collect seeds❤
I have a so-so onion year so far. What i noticed is that the onions toward the edge of the raised bed are much smaller. I give them some extra water (to offset any drainage) and all the same. How can I even the growth through the entire raised bed surface?
The problem with adding fertilizer in an experiment is we don’t know what the fertility was before. You might have had enough. Either way it was an informative video and I wish my neighbor’s tree wasn’t directly over my garden because it definitely reduces my harvests.
Same.
Nice comparison, Kev!
tight space and fertilizer would be nice to know
How would you fertilize them in a self wicking container? I’m changing out my wood raised bed for IBC tote beds, and I’m wondering if I should top dress or add the water below. No i’m not transplanting onions, but i do have leftover bulbs from the start of the season that are still good. The onions i have planted now haven’t don’t anything, and i mean nothing. I used organic compost mixed with finished rabbit dropping, every 2 weeks i add fish emulsion, and they haven’t grown, they haven’t died either. Just wondering what i can do better with a new start.
Do you have any varieties of onions that are STRONG and make one CRY? Those are the onions that I want. Zone 6b, southern MO. I have Egyptian onions and two kinds of garlic, they do fine, but no one around here has anything except those old blah sweet onions. That seems to be all I can find online also. We used to pull wild onions/garlic out of the ground and brush it off and eat it right on the spot when we were kids. Yummy. (that was before you two were born)
the closer togather the roots join up and dont grow much, the ones spread further apart the roots dont touch and they grow more bulbs?
What type of fertilizer should I use for onions? Thank you for your help
Did you try to grow them first?
They did not grow to your desired size?
Why do you think you need a fertilizer?
I'm in zone 4 so can't overwo.ter onions for seed. I have one grown from seed that has a flower stalk. Do you think if I save seeds from that one the plants grown from it next year will be more likely to bolt? Waste of time or worth trying?
EG, I live in the UK, I have a small Victorian garden(House built in 1896), what was the yield per square foot from each of the 3 sections?
Did you grow these from seed in seed trays and then transplant? I tried direct sowing onion seeds and none came up this year, wondering if bugs got em?
A couple of years ago I grew some fantastic onion and this year with a lot of rainy days and humid days my onions just flopped over. Strangely though most kept growing. What do you think was up with that? As a long seasoned gardener I am befuddled. I understand about the life of the onion in depth when it comes to timing and the solstice. The onion transplants were healthy and were spaced 6 inches apart in all directions. They grew big tops and later fell over even though I trimmed them some. What should I do next year? I plan to fertilize more after seeing this.
How about how to start the onions? I bought a couple from botanical interests this year but can never get them past tiny seedlings.... Help
Love these comparison videos 😊
Onions are 1 of the best "No Waste" vegetables you can grow. Green leaves chopped
for salads/garnish's, chopped and frozen, dehydrated and ground for granulated, or
ground onion in the pantry, and of course whole. No Waste, Period!
Shouldn't there be more onions on the less spacing side than the more spacing side?
Did you start from seed or sets?
Have you looked into agroforestry and co-crops at all? It's just something I'm beginning to dive into and is absolutely fascinating!
Any idea how to get onion seeds for day length in aus? Good seed places in australia advice please?
Thankyou!!!!!!!!!!
This is awesome research. So how much weight of unions did you get per square feet? It seems about equal.
Is the day length based on general light, or light they are in full sun? In example, I planted sets, but they only barely started to bulb out around the solstice and then stopped. But they are in the shade in the afternoon. So should I be planting short day onions or planting them in the front yard since that is the only place I have full sun?
It is based on daylight, not hours of full sun. That said, onions require a lot of direct sun and water to grow their largest. I never had good luck with sets, but I do with starting from seed. Get them started early (January or February for me in zone 5) and transplant as early as you can in your area. One of my issues with sets was that I didn't get them planted early enough, but I also sometimes experienced flowering which isn't supposed to happen but it frequently does from sets because it is a very unnatural process for the onions.
@joeellerbach2095 I've tried seed a few years before finding sets. That was actually a worse turnout. Think I got 2 shallot sized onions after 2 years? 2024 was my first year trying sets. Still planning, but will try somewhere with more sun in a few months. And thank you! Overall I think I'm somewhere around year 7 or 8 trying, so fingers crossed.
Would have been interesting to have a comparison with intercropping leafy greens, strawberries or flowers and see the difference that makes on a total harvest.
What fertilizer are you using?
Omg how, do you get your nasturtium to gtow that big and beautiful???
My question is did you fertilize any more after the first time ?