The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

When to plant potato onions

New potato onion sproutsWhen brainstorming reasons why my potato onions stayed so small, I never thought to consider planting date.  Last year, I put in my potato onions at the beginning of November, but the few bulbs I left in the ground this summer to finish up their bloom cycle (no seeds resulted unfortunately) started sprouting fresh leaves in mid-August.  I tend to believe that plants know best, so I went ahead and planted our summer harvest a month ago rather than waiting for the late fall date I'd chosen last year, and the onions are nearly all up.  In fact, one plant that had gotten a bit uncovered is clearly already splitting into two bulbs.
Potato onion
I can't remember why I planted the onions so late last year, but most sources recommend you treat potato onions like garlic, and many sources do recommend late fall planting dates for garlic.  However, I've always had great luck planting our garlic at this time of year --- the extra couple of months of non-freezing weather seems to boost my yields considerably.  I'm hopeful that planting our potato onions in late summer will give them time to produce the larger bulbs I crave to wean us off annual onions.


Treat your backyard chickens to a homemade chicken waterer.


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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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Question...

I do know that they are Potato onions, but some of them are putting out tops like the Egyption Onions.

Comment by Ed Tieman Thu May 30 21:25:29 2013
Ed --- Maybe you're seeing flowers? Potato onions aren't really supposed to bloom, but some cultivars do (and then produce only small bulbs as a result).
Comment by anna Fri May 31 12:59:07 2013
When I get a chance I will send photos.
Comment by Ed Tieman Fri May 31 22:32:25 2013

As I said hind-site...

A little over a month or so ago my Potato Onions were attacked by a Grayish powder then black spots started to form and the gray powder went away then that part of the stock turned browm. I took a sample to the Nursery and he gave me something he mixed up. He said he did not know what it was on my onions.

What could it of been and your help.

Comment by Ed Tieman Mon Jul 8 22:52:54 2013





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