Want Onions for Spring?

By Dr. Francis Gouin

Short-day onions generate their bulbs when daylight hours are less than 12. If you are going to plant onion plants this fall, make certain that you purchase only short-day varieties. Short-day varieties can be successfully transplanted as late as mid-December and still produce a normal crop.
    Many of us will be planting almost that late, as Dixon Dale onion farm, one of the nation’s largest producers of onion plants, did not have plants ready to ship until mid-November.
    To assure good bulb size, plant them in full sun. If your land slopes to the south, all the better. Soils are generally warmer on southern slopes because of greater exposure to the sun.
    Darker soil is better, too. To make your soil darker, amend it with a one-inch-thick layer of compost. The compost is best when only lightly incorporated into the upper two to three inches of existing soil. In addition to darkening the soil, the compost supplies important slow-release nutrients to the onions come spring when the soil warms.
    To conserve space, plant your onions at a four-by-four-inch spacing. I like planting my onions in a bed with a maximum width of two feet. Uniform spacing makes easier weeding with an onion hoe.
    Within a week after planting your onions, feed them with a liquid fertilizer such as 20-20-20. Since the soils are already cool, there are only limited amounts of nutrients available from the compost and the existing soil.
    By late April, you will be eating onions fresh from the garden. That’s about the same time that you’ll want to plant long-day onions.

Another Strike Against ­Commercial Mulch

Q:     –Larry Woodburn, Calvert County