by Chris Winslow
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 over in Kinney County, I’m in my backyard plant-
ing 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 dur-
ing 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 impor-
tant to know that the earlier you plant them, the larger they will
grow.
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My top five onion choices for the Hay and Travis counties:
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 you can eat it like an apple!
2. Texas Early White A new, sweet, white onion that has won
awards 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 is the sweetest of the red short
day onions.
4. White Bermuda A flat, sweet, white onion that grows to 3 to
4 inches. This is 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
works well for Cajun cooking.
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These onions need a sunny garden location with loose, well drain-
ed 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 works 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 har-
vest every other onion as they grow.
Rows should be at least 8 inches apart so there are enough nutri-
ents 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 is 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! (At the moment these
onions should be available in most local nurseries.)
Happy Gardening everyone!
(Onion sets in stock: 1015 supersweet, southern bell red, and Ber-
muda: 1 set: $4. / 2 sets $3.75 / 3 or more sets: $3.25. (Each set
has approx 25 - 30 onions.)
