GA: White onions -- some are already going mushy in the ground!!

Yikes!  Some, but not all, of the white onions are already going mushy in the ground!  A few of those were lost completely; the others were partly salvageable as the insides were still good.

GA: First onions harvested -- the only "big" (relatively) ones so far?

The first onions I've harvested are from the SW bed's east section, which per my notes should be the New York Early onions that I started from seed (not sets), so that's exciting!  There are some decent sized ones (on the smaller side, but I'm happy with it) -- but the ones left in the bed look much smaller, sadly.  Not sure why I have trouble growing onions, whether from sets or seeds!  (Peppers too!)

The blog says I started the NYE onion seeds January 23rd (round one) and February 2nd (round 2).  Presumably these relatively larger ones that I harvested today are from round one.  So, that's 191 days, yikes!!  Seed stores say 98 days for this variety!!!

GA: Red onions are either very slow to start growing or maybe a bust? Other onions doing well

^^^

GA: Planted Carrots (readme for technique used), beets, rest of the red onions

CARROTS!  After the utter flop in my backyard from the May 4th sowing that yielded TWO seedlings, I changed my method.  Here's what I did:

- The usual breaking up of the soil.

- Raked it flatish.

- Used hand to break up little chunks on the surface.

- Used spacing square tool, used its orange "stick" to mark out 16 holes per square foot.

- Used finger to deepen/widen the holes.  (At first used the dowel, but it compressed the soil too much so I stopped and used finger instead.)

- Sprinkled amendments into each hole:  A mix of ~3 parts mrp, ~2 parts kelp, and ~1 part azomite (zero alfalfa).

- Put some vermiculite into each hole to leave a shorter hole and provide an easy-to-grow-through medium.

- Used corn starch gel method to place a few seeds in each hole.  I really liked this -- with a nice small cut in the bag and a nice firm gel it was easy to control the amount.

- Covered up with more vermiculite.

- COVERED WITH BURLAP (one layer) before watering.  Used bricks/rocks to hold down the burlap.

- After covering with burlap, then watered.  Do not water without the burlap because then soil ends up covering over the vermiculite which ruins the whole thing.  (I did it that way for the first bit at the east end of the bed before realizing it works way better with burlap on top before watering.)

That's it.  I used only one layer of burlap because (a) the forecast is very cloudy and rainy so not much sun to dry things up and (b) I didn't have a lot of burlap on hand.

So here's hoping this works!!!!  A one-and-done for carrot sowing is my goal!

BEETS:  This is another challenge for germination in recent years, so I used almost the same carrow-sowing technique noted above.  The exception is I didn't have the beet seeds in the gel (also didn't pre-soak them because they become annoyingly hard to handle when wet).  For some of them I put a dollop of plain gel and then put the seed on or in the gel; for others I didn't.  But for all I used vermiculate under and over.

And today I put in the rest of the red onions to fill out the east part of the leek bed.

GA: Open! Planted onions, leeks, parsley, celery, forget-me-nots, crimson clover

Day 1 of GA being open!

Sadly the weather this weekend and upcoming week is the pits -- cool and rainy.  But good for the cold-hardies.

So, today, these went in:

- Onions:  First, to the east are the ones from my home-sown seedlings consisting of New York Early, with a few Frontier in there; then the rest to the west are all from sets bought at Ritchies', consisting of (in no particular order) red, large white, normal white, and yellow.  All had some kelp, a few alfalfas, mrp, and az.  Leafs loosely scattered over top.  9 per square foot with a few leftovers tucked in throughout.  Covered right away using the short metal fences and a sheer curtain.

- Leeks:  All are from my home-sown seedlings.  I used the dowel to make nice ~6" deep holes, into which I added alf, kelp, mrp, and az.  Placed the seedlings, then when I watered them in the holes kind of filled up right away.  Leaves loosely scattered over top but then I decided I wanted to give them a few days so brushed most of the leaves to one side.  9 per square foot.  Covered right away using the short metal fences and a sheer curtain.

- Parsley:  ~5 seedlings.

- Celery:  ~6 seedlings.

- Crimson clover:  In the east part of the southmost bed.  Didn't amend the soil at all, just loosely raked it, scattered seeds randomly, raked to gently cover, watered.  More seeds were showing than I wanted, so scattered soil over top for better cover.

Put a few white onion sets in with garlic to fill gaps

In the gaps in the garlic bed, I put a few of the white onion sets bought from Ritchie's.  ~3 or 4 in total.

Started stevia round 2 and New York onions round ~3 or 4

(To fill in gaps.)

Started round 3 New York Early onions -- directly in mix

(To fill in some gaps in round 2.)

Started cauliflower, and round 2 of leeks and green onions

Cauliflower = Early Snowball.  First time really trying cauliflower.

And more leeks and green onions because the green onions had bad germination rate and not enough leeks.

Started round 2 New York Early onions -- directly in mix

I decided it's way too annoying to sprout so many onioni seeds in paper towel and then try to plunk them into mix when they cling to fingers etc.

So for round 2 of New York Early onions, I put them directly from the seed pouch into my mix, in the ~6x6 tray of cells.  Put only one seed in each cell.

Started onion seeds: Frontier, and green

And so it begins!

Started in PT:

•  Frontier onion seeds x 16 (left over from last year -- didn't realize so few seeds were left)
• Green onion seeds x a lot (from 2018 collected seeds)

GA: Onion harvest

Harvested some onions today.  I think they were from the sets, rather than my home seed starts.  Not gonnan lie, they're definitely on the small side!  But they're onions none the less!  I'll use them in upcoming recipes, not likely to be many to put away.

GA: Harvested two onions (bulb)!

They weren't huge, but, they were nice!

GA: Here's what's tulled/"tulled": All of the squash, watermelon, cantalope, potatoes, leeks, cucumbers, most of the onions

I will use "tulle" loosely, to refer to any of the various netting I have, which now includes not only tulle but also shear curtains from the thfit store, and Proteknet from William Dam Seeds (the piece I bought was 14' by 25').

Of course, eventually the squash and cucumbers will need to be untulled -- goodness help me when that terrifying day comes!!!

Trimming onions (new this year)

 This year I'm trimming the onion tops to see if that helps them bulb up at all.  So, once they get two leaves, trimming occasionally.

Onions round 3

Because a relatively high proportion of them seem to be flopping once put into the mix.

Onions round 2

Started more bec I didn't start enough in round 1.  Still all from the same commercial packet I bought recently.

Onions started in PT -- "Frontier", to try for bulbs as well as scallions

Bought these seeds from Ritchie's, "Frontier", a hybrid said to be good for short seasons and a bulb that's good for storage -- at least, based on the packet.

Will only do this type of onion this year, none of my pre-existing seeds, just to keep things simple.

Allotment: Onion bulbs a flop

Yep, the onion sets I planted at the allotment hardly did anything.  Some swelled a bit, maybe doubled or tripled in size, but a long way to from being an actual onion.  Not sure if maybe the site doesn't get enough sun, or if it was some other issue.  Anyway, I'll be able to use these, but probably won't try again next year.

Allotment: Onions are officially a flop -- hardly grew much despite tops dead

Alas, my 100% failure record at growing an actual onion remains.  Figured it was worth a try at the allotment as I think it gets more sun than my yard.  But the onion sets hardly doubled in size, despite the tops being mostly all gone now.  So, plucked some of them, left a few more for now.