For many of my friends, the arrival of November signals the start of

the deer and wild turkey season. For me, it’s onion planting time.

While Baker and Oliver hone their hunting skills over at the ranch

in Brackettville, I’m in my backyard planting this season’s crop.

 

 I am often asked about ‘the key to success’ with onions, and I

always tell gardeners that they first have to know which variety is

best suited to the area where they live. 

 

Here in central Texas, we plant short-day onions. These grow during

the short days of winter and are ready for harvest when the days

become longer in the spring.

 

Short day onions mature in roughly 120 days, and you can plant them

from the middle of this month through late winter.  It’s important to

know that the earlier you plant them, the bigger the onions will grow.

My top five onion choices for Hay County:

 

1. Texas 1015y “Super-Sweet”   Probably the most popular onion

in Texas. The 1015 is globe-shaped, yellow, and can grow up to 6

inches in diameter. It’s so sweet that it can be eaten like an apple!

2. Texas Early White   A new, sweet, white onion that just won the

2012 direct gardening “Green Thumb” award for its flavor, ease-of-

growing, and disease resistance. Matures in 105 days and is globe

shaped. Mature width: 5 inches.

3. Southern Belle Red   A large, globe-shaped, sweet onion that

grows to 4 inches in diameter. It’s the sweetest of the red short day

onions.

4. White Bermuda   A flat, sweet, white onion that grows to 3 to

4 inches. It’s an excellent onion to harvest early for scallions. This

heirloom onion originated in the Canary Islands.

5. Creole Red   A pungent, new red onion that is globe shaped and

reaches 3 to 4 inches across at maturity. A strong flavor that’s works

well for Cajun  cooking.

 

These onions need a sunny garden location with loose, well drained

soil. Mixing lots of organic compost with our native soils is a must.

For fertilizer, they like a lot of phosphate to start. Organic bone meal

(0- 10-0) mixed into the soil before planting work well. As they start

to grow, add a higher nitrogen fertilizer as a top dress. Blood meal

(12-0-0) or Ladybug organic fertilizer (8-2-4) is very effective.

 

Plant your onions 1 inch deep and 4 to 6 inches apart. If you like to

harvest green onions early, plant them 2 inches apart and harvest

every other onion as they grow.

 

Rows should be at least 8 inches apart so that there are enough

nutrients to go around. Onions like water, so keep up with a regular

watering schedule. (They will not grow in dry soil.) If the leaves

begin to yellow, that’s probably a sign of too much water.

 

You can harvest your onions in the spring when the tops turn brown

and begin to fall over. This should be somewhere between  mid-

April and mid –May.

 

Finally, onions are easy to store. My crop from May of this year is

still holding up well in the crisper.

 

Take advantage of the season and try your hand at being an onion

gardener.  I know that’s what I’ll be doing!

                               Happy Gardening everyone.