Terry,

Most years the only thing that I'd do would be to turn about half the onions so that the "tops" hang over the front edge of the bench seat. The "windrowing onions" in the bed normally means that the tops of one plant row lay over the bulbs of the next row to avoid sun damage. Your porch takes care of most of the sun so all you have to do is keep the tops from staying/getting too damp.

I remember an August when I piled onions too high on a too small table and the tops 'slimed up' and diseased the onions. Ventilation to dry is the most important. This summer we've had the advantage of the dry weather so I've gotten by with just a few days of plastic cover.

With good weather, the best system I've seen used a picket fence and stuck onion necks between the pickets. 1-2 tops to the left and the same to the right side of slot in the fence. I couldn't find a photo of that but I think that you can visualize the view.

We can't always count on the dry weather so your roof allows us to still do the drying outside.

Terry, I am sooo inspired by your onions!! Hopefully I too can grow such wonderful and tasty looking onions!! I am just chomping at the bit to get my garden started. I hope to at least plant garlic and broccoli and a few other winter things this year and then in the spring really go gung-ho here at my new house with a veggie garden!

thanks for sharing!
Kristal

Gary,
The onions in picture are Copra. This was my first year growing onions; I grew Walla Walla sweets and Copra. Started seed Jan. 19 indoors and transplanted March 30 (read and reread the postings on Rainyside on daylength and sowing onions). I still had some bolting, in both the Walla Wallas and Copras- the non bolted Copras are going into long storage, but we'll use the Walla Wallas in the next month or so, or they'll get chopped and frozen. I planted walla walla and copra seed in a raised bed 2 days ago; if they don't look good going into the winter, I'll also start seed inside on Jan. 1.

Kristal,
Get your kale, broccoli, chard and spinach in quickly; my overwintering broccili and kale went in July 5, spinach and chard August 1. Here in Bellingham, we can get frost as early as September 10, so I like to get the winter crops up and growing before fall really cools us down. My garlic will go in late September.

Edited by silver_ creek

Guess I better try and find copra seed before January if my rows don't sprout well this month!

Your new toy looks like a sheep shears! I think I planted my onions a little too densely- I have a hard time spacing my rows out as I should- it looks like wasted space to me. The bed I just seeded was planted pretty densely; I plan to thin the seedlings and transplant the thinnings to another area. I must remember to discipline myself to give each onion space....

Terry,

Do not transplant until next year. Walla Walla is a notoriously poor germinator. Transplant growers have lots of trouble with it's size because they space 'tight' to give us 'non-bolting' sized plants and then the germination percentage gives them unevenly sized plants. In our 'often' cold springs, 'too' larges seedlings mean lots of bolted onions. Some years ago, I got some extra bunches from Dixondale because too many of the March 1st shipped plants were 'oversized'.

'Oversized' means about 0.50" in diameter. The same thing applies to the onion sets that are on sale every spring. Years ago the Brits advised not to use 'sets' that were 3/4" or bigger.

The problem is that as a biennial, onions can be fooled into thinking that they've been through two winters by cold Aprils after a springtime March. The Brit's spring is more reliable than ours. I don't go above 1/2" sets and prefer, when I can, to use no transplants larger than a pencil.

I agree on the storage onion needs. I don't know that the time for your overwintered onions will make much difference since they will be acclimated and sized by the weather between now and spring. That is part of the secret of timing for sowing this year. You might want to limit your use of the larger transplants.

The ship date we used this year was Mid-March. Instead of planting potatoes, we were putting in onion transplants on St. Patrick's Day. We've been burned with March 1st and they seemed small one year with a 3/31 ship date. We had no scientific 'control' plants in those years so who knows.

With your own supply, you could always try some on two week intervals. Especially with your foothills location, I say mid-March, April 1st, and April 15th. The plants will take frost as they will/may have been out all winter. As I said above, sowing timing will be your criteria. Trav recommends this same 3-date cycle method to find your best dates. He used 8/1, 8/15, and 8/31 to determine that he needed to get them in by August 15th.

This year two of our sites had a 28F and a 25F night in the 1st four days after they were planted. As recent immigrants from SW Texas, they didn't like that very much for a few days but they quickly recovered.

That friend told me today that out of 120' row feet of onions he expects 150# and only had 3 or 4 bolters all season. But he's also from Texas, who knows.

Good luck on yours and report back next spring (or your back up Copra sowing in January).

You might note that we combine needs to order from Dixondale. The shipping is the killer in small quantities. You'll note on the price list link below that you can buy 18 bunches for just twice the price of five. Buying boxes of 30 bunches from them is likely what your local nursery is doing.

"Dixondale Farms Price list and Ship Dates"

Edited by gary