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Old 12-10-2017, 04:03 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
T[_4_] T[_4_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jan 2015
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Default What is a good overwinter onion?

On 10/11/2017 11:53 AM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
...
By "over winter", I mean to plant them in the fall.
To me "over winter" is CHEATING!!!


that is actually how many onions would grow
naturally, if you notice how they set seeds
and drop them. they start growing in the fall
when the rains come and then wait under the
snow until it warms up enough to keep on growing.
if they get big enough from the previous season
they will flower the next. if they aren't large
enough then they just form a bulb and wait until
the following year.

this is why when buying onion sets you don't
get ones that are too large.


What do you mean by "cure them"?


after harvesting, i take the roots off and
then leave them to air dry for several weeks
so the bottoms won't rot if they get stacked
together. pretty much the same approach is
used for garlic (but the garlic doesn't like
being left in the sun, onions don't seem to
mind as much). note though that we do not
get really hot here in the fall normally so
leaving them in the sun is ok, but because of
rains i usually just keep them set out on a
table in the garage until they get used.

the squash are pretty much the same too.
we set them out so they can cure before we
stack them in a bin for storage.


songbird



Thank you!