Only Small Onions...12 years and still failing

[Chuck]

Lots of info to digest. Meadowlark. I lived in San Antonio for 4 years. Did not do any

I grew this year's onion plants in conditioned straw bales. I used the recommended high nitrogen lawn fertilizer to condition them for 18 days according to the "experts". The straw breaks down into a high nitrogen compost that one plants the onions into. I was getting great tops with lots of leaves and developing bulbs, but then, they just stopped growing. I had used more of the lawn fertilizer as suggested and watered them once a week. More mysteries. Thanks for your suggestions.

The highest nitrogen of straw is with alfalfa straw/hay and it is 2.50. All the high nitrogen lawn fertilizer did was to break down the straw and literally reduce the amount of nitrogen available to the plant. The higher the nitrogen content of synthetic fertilizer is the faster it leaches away. It is a matter of positive and negative ions as to the length of time a fertilizer will be available to a plant. Soil has negative ions. Synthetic fertilizers is also negative ions. Negative to negative =repel. What this means is that synthetic fertilizers do not adhere to the soil, organics have positive ions and does adhere. The chemical fertilizer either dissipates or leaches away or if available to a plant the plant uptakes it. It does absolutely nothing for the soil. Synthetics literally burn away organic matter and leave behind mineral salts. Your onions are literally starving. It is true that an onion leaf causes an onion ring. If your onion has had 13 leaves it will have 13 rings but that does not necessarily mean that those rings will be of any size. P and K are also important and so are minerals. I could explain all of this in much better detail but it would require a thread of its own and a lot of time. Suffice it to say that by using organic fertilizers, organic matter and organic techniques you will be successful. If you would have used organic fertilizer on the straw instead of a high nitrate chemical compound you would have been successful. What I would do now is take all that straw and incorporate it into your soil, throw away your high nitrogen "fertilizer" and replace it with a good organic. After 12 years of chemical fertilizers I would say you have depleted whatever organic material you may have had in your soil along with most of your soil biology. If you want to be sucessful now is the time to start building for next year.

 

[zigs]

I'm probably not much help with growing conditions in America but I would think about shade netting, often had some reasonably sized onions when they get shaded out by weeds.

 

[Chris W]

The highest nitrogen of straw is with alfalfa straw/hay and it is 2.50. All the high nitrogen lawn fertilizer did was to break down the straw and literally reduce the amount of nitrogen available to the plant. The higher the nitrogen content of synthetic fertilizer is the faster it leaches away. It is a matter of positive and negative ions as to the length of time a fertilizer will be available to a plant. Soil has negative ions. Synthetic fertilizers is also negative ions. Negative to negative =repel. What this means is that synthetic fertilizers do not adhere to the soil, organics have positive ions and does adhere. The chemical fertilizer either dissipates or leaches away or if available to a plant the plant uptakes it. It does absolutely nothing for the soil. Synthetics literally burn away organic matter and leave behind mineral salts. Your onions are literally starving. It is true that an onion leaf causes an onion ring. If your onion has had 13 leaves it will have 13 rings but that does not necessarily mean that those rings will be of any size. P and K are also important and so are minerals. I could explain all of this in much better detail but it would require a thread of its own and a lot of time. Suffice it to say that by using organic fertilizers, organic matter and organic techniques you will be successful. If you would have used organic fertilizer on the straw instead of a high nitrate chemical compound you would have been successful. What I would do now is take all that straw and incorporate it into your soil, throw away your high nitrogen "fertilizer" and replace it with a good organic. After 12 years of chemical fertilizers I would say you have depleted whatever organic material you may have had in your soil along with most of your soil biology. If you want to be sucessful now is the time to start building for next year.

Thanks for your response. Interesting take. I can tell that you are a dedicated organic grower. That is a good thing. However, I know plenty of people who use synthetic fertilizers and get tremendous results. One neighbor grows potatoes the size of softballs; another gets onions the size of baseballs. I know that organic gardening methods are certainly good for the soil...no question. But, they are also more expensive and time-consuming (at least from what I've heard from others). With that said, I am desperate enough to give some of your suggestions a try next year. Nothing ventured,,,nothing gained. I appreciate your time to get back to me. BTW, the tomatoes that I grew in just one straw bale grew incredibly well. I had to trellis them to a height of almost 7 feet. Too many to pick and use. And that was from just 4 plants in the bale.

 

[Chris W]

I'm probably not much help with growing conditions in America but I would think about shade netting, often had some reasonably sized onions when they get shaded out by weeds.

My answers to my problem remind me of the old joke about beekeepers (of which I am one): "ask 6 beekeepers a question and you'll get 8 different answers." I have heard mainly that onions prefer full sun. Go figure. Anyway, thanks for the shout back.

 

[Chris W]

That could well be a big part of the problem...if you want to grow more than scrawny onions. My soil is about 6 and produces huge delicious onions.

"Onions, like most veggies, grow best in slightly acidic soil. Ideally, soil for onions should have a pH level of 5.5 to 6.5, according to the National Gardening Association. At the high end of this range, soil nutrients are most easily accessed. While onions can survive when grown at a different pH level, they won't grow particularly well. "

I will check the pH next year prior to planting. Thanks

 

[Chuck]

Thanks for your response. Interesting take. I can tell that you are a dedicated organic grower. That is a good thing. However, I know plenty of people who use synthetic fertilizers and get tremendous results. One neighbor grows potatoes the size of softballs; another gets onions the size of baseballs. I know that organic gardening methods are certainly good for the soil...no question. But, they are also more expensive and time-consuming (at least from what I've heard from others). With that said, I am desperate enough to give some of your suggestions a try next year. Nothing ventured,,,nothing gained. I appreciate your time to get back to me. BTW, the tomatoes that I grew in just one straw bale grew incredibly well. I had to trellis them to a height of almost 7 feet. Too many to pick and use. And that was from just 4 plants in the bale.

Have you ever wondered why chemical fertilizers have such high NPK numbers? I agree, one can get great results by using chemical fertilizers. But, it reaches a point of diminishing returns and the cost of using chemicals increases in time. Why don't you do a test in a small area of your onion patch. In one area organic only and the other chemicals? Keep track of the costs and labor including pesticides and fungicides, fertilizers and amendments. If you incorporate a lot of organic matter into your soil, use only organic fertilizers and maintain both plots equally, I predict that your onion crop will be more than satisfactory and much better than the chemical fed onion patch.

 

[Meadowlark]

Chris,

If I may suggest, soil amendments to modify PH can take time so you may want to address the PH well before planting. For example, I often need to add ag. lime to my acidic soils and it can take 1-2 months to be fully effective.

Also, let me add, I've been growing big delicious onions in the Texas sun for many years, and never ever considered shade netting. My onions want full sun and thrive on it.

 

[Tetters]

No success with onions. Been trying for 12 years...sets, plants, in rows of amended and fertilized soil. Tried containers. Red, yellow, white, etc. Long day varietes for NE PA. Watered and fertilized at recommended intervals. Result? Always the same...golf ball sized or smaller onions. I feel jinxed. Tried planting just below surface and 1" below surface. Close together and farther apart. No difference. HELP!!

Really ?

I'm probably not much help with growing conditions in America but I would think about shade netting, often had some reasonably sized onions when they get shaded out by weeds.

I have heard mainly that onions prefer full sun. Go figure. Anyway, thanks for the shout back.

What does ''Go figure'' mean @Chris W ???

Here are a few of Zigs onions this year - only a moderate size this year with two little runts at the front of the last picture.
Why not Go figure..........

 

[Tetters]

Go figure
A slang phrase used only in the United States of America, short for "go and figure that out". It is typically only used in speech, and is an attempt to ridicule the previous thing they said. In fact, all it does is indicate that the person is both ignorant and stupid.

For the English members amongst us !!

 

[Tjohn]

I've found that the size of my onions depends entirely on the amount of compost I put on the year before. A few sections of our onion bed washed out and had to be replaced with new dirt. Those onions were only half the size of the ones that grew in the old soil right next to them. I put 4 inches of good compost on the beds in the fall and let it soak in over the winter.

 

[Durgan]

I simply plant small greens or the small packages of bulbs. Completely ignore them until harvest except I may water if it gets dry. I consider them among the easiest plants to grow. The last few years I have been growing the vidalia, because I like the no sting. I have never had a failure crop wherever I lived. Usually Zone 5.