I think you would make a perfect Yooper, Ed!

I hit one a couple of weeks ago but it wasn't that big and did nothing to the truck. Cashier at DG wanted it since it was fresh killed and not ruined all over.

Road Kill Cafe - You kill it, we grill it!

farmerdill said: Ed: that Texas Early Grano has a rich history. It dates to the 1930'sand started with a cross between Yellow Bermuda and a Spanish Grano. All the short day sweet onions are heirs of the Grano 502 which preceded the Early Grano. When I get bored, I will try to condense the history and enter it in the Database. https://aggie-hort.tamu.edu/pl... Just as aside I mostly grow sweet onions and I have them all year. I harvest the in May, hand them to dry in the rafters of a metal shed, when the start sprouting in December, I set the sprouting ones back in the garden,. They are ready fo large green onions by the time I eat the last of crop, By April, The 2025 planting will be ready to harvest as greens. Never without homegrown onions.

Now let me get this right... You harvest the sweet onions in May and hang'em to dry. You then eat them all summer long? I take it that you move them to a different area after a week or two of drying?...a cooler, darker area? Room temperature? Then, as their internal clocks starts sprouting some of them you plant those sprouts...will those grow another bulb or are they good only for green onions?

The big thing is, though, the sweet onions are lasting you longer than a couple or three months??? It's looking like you stretch them out...six months!!!!!

bhiejr said: I hit one a couple of weeks ago but it wasn't that big and did nothing to the truck. Cashier at DG wanted it since it was fresh killed and not ruined all over.

Weedwhacker said:
I think you would make a perfect Yooper, Ed!

We's try to fit in most anywhere we are!!!!

Btw, going back to the deer... That Oldsmobile was made out of steel, at least the piece between the trunk and the back seat...good US steel!!! Otherwise that deer might've ended up being the only living critter going down the road in that tank...at least for several seconds...'cause I'duv had to leave that thing!!!!

They do say animals killed while stressed are a bit rank, but acorn diets do that to them as well. Ed, you do know to slit that jugular on the next one you haul around? Just keep a plastic sheet in the trunk, chuckl.
I need to rethink my thyme pot - I originally had milk bottles in the bottom, with holes and such , under the dirt, but they need replaced.

[quote="Intheswamp"] Now let me get this right... You harvest the sweet onions in May and hang'em to dry. You then eat them all summer long? I take it that you move them to a different area after a week or two of drying?...a cooler, darker area? Room temperature? Then, as their internal clocks starts sprouting some of them you plant those sprouts...will those grow another bulb or are they good only for green onions?"

The big thing is, though, the sweet onions are lasting you longer than a couple or three months??? It's looking like you stretch them out...six months!!!!! "
I let my mature onions completely dry in the field. No green tops. I them hang them in groups of six to the rafters in a metal shed. They stay there until December except for those I eat during that period. They begin to sprout when the wild onions begin to make their appearance at which time I begin setting them in a designated patch. The only protection is from rain. They go thru all the temperature variances of middle Ga.
They stay totally dormant during triple digit temps. I have done this with around a dozen Grano and Granex varieties and have observed only a month max difference in sprouting time.

No large bulbs, They are now in their seeding cycle. Each large onion will have 6-10 sprouts which rapidly grow to quarter size. By April they will begin bolting ( sending up flower spikes)and become inedible. There is enough overlap with the growing new crop and the fading old bulbs to give a continuous supply.

kittriana said: They do say animals killed while stressed are a bit rank, but acorn diets do that to them as well. Ed, you do know to slit that jugular on the next one you haul around? Just keep a plastic sheet in the trunk, chuckl.
I need to rethink my thyme pot - I originally had milk bottles in the bottom, with holes and such , under the dirt, but they need replaced.

I figure the next one I'll just buckle in to the front seat...oughta hold'em pretty good. If I get stopped I'll just tell the patrolman that the deer got in a fight at the bar and is too drunk to drive, thus I'm designated driver.

Now that I drive a jeep I'm really not sure what I'd do. Throw'im up on the spare tire, I reckon!

Getting back to gardening...this has been the longest spell of freezing nights that I recall in a long, long time. Even been dipping down in the mid-to-upper twenties. The collards, cabbage, and carrots (the "Three C's"!!! ) all seem to be doing well (of course the cabbage looks like netting ). It just dawned on me that all those start with "C" and its been really COLD...I wonder if that's a "sign". The rest of the plants in the garden...beans, cukes, peppers...they all look like old piles of some kind of dark yellow-green dead "something". Oh well...organics for the garden!!!! Man, I'm ready for SUMMER!!!! (said the south Alabama boy! ).

farmerdill said: I let my mature onions completely dry in the field. No green tops. I them hang them in groups of six to the rafters in a metal shed. They stay there until December except for those I eat during that period. They begin to sprout when the wild onions begin to make their appearance at which time I begin setting them in a designated patch. The only protection is from rain. They go thru all the temperature variances of middle Ga.
They stay totally dormant during triple digit temps. I have done this with around a dozen Grano and Granex varieties and have observed only a month max difference in sprouting time.

No large bulbs, They are now in their seeding cycle. Each large onion will have 6-10 sprouts which rapidly grow to quarter size. By April they will begin bolting ( sending up flower spikes)and become inedible. There is enough overlap with the growing new crop and the fading old bulbs to give a continuous supply.

I've gotta figure out somewhere to store them, of course I've gotta grow some first! ...but we're gettin' there! I'm glad to hear the summer heat doesn't affect their storage. I've got porches on the old trailer I hook hang them beneath...not sure if critters would mess with them, though...and they'd be more exposed to fog/humidity. Birds would be the only thing I can think of messing with them beneath the porch roof. I could put them inside the trailer but it can be rather HOT in there in the summer...

Like I said, though, I'm not very keen on green onions so I might just plant some of the sprouts for seed. It will be interesting to see how the varieties do and I will post my rookie experience/impression with them to the database.

What is getting me nervous right now is that it looks like we may have about four days of some 80-90 percent chances of rain with lows in the 40s and 50s. After that it turns sunny with lows dropping back down to the freeze point of 30f to 31f for a few days. It looks like next weekend it might be warming a bit with the lows hopefully above freezing. How do onions do if planted in slightly freezing temperatures?

Thanks for getting me "on track"...the onions being biennial means they'll next go into the flowering stage so no bulbing from the sprouts. Do they cross-pollinate easily if I plant both varieties for seed?

Btw, NICE LOOKING ONIONS!!!!!!

Oh, and regarding the frozen/not-frozen state of my garden. The fig tree that came out so well this past summer after being frozen last winter is looking, well...frozen again.

Weedwhacker said:
I think you would make a perfect Yooper, Ed!

and

bhiejr said: I hit one a couple of weeks ago but it wasn't that big and did nothing to the truck. Cashier at DG wanted it since it was fresh killed and not ruined all over.

you hit a yooper!?!?!?!?

Ed, I don't know the answers to your questions about saving seed from the onions, although I'm pretty sure that they will cross pollinate. I've saved seeds from a few of my fall-planted onions and the ones I planted last spring did well, even though they came from hybrid varieties and probably also crossed. I'm planning to get some OP onions to plant next fall and see how those do (both the onions themselves and then whatever seeds I get from them).

Sally!

sallyg said: you hit a yooper!?!?!?!?

The yooper was trying to get home from the bar and took a wrong (southerly) turn...

Weedwhacker said: Ed, I don't know the answers to your questions about saving seed from the onions, although I'm pretty sure that they will cross pollinate. I've saved seeds from a few of my fall-planted onions and the ones I planted last spring did well, even though they came from hybrid varieties and probably also crossed. I'm planning to get some OP onions to plant next fall and see how those do (both the onions themselves and then whatever seeds I get from them).

It will be an interesting experiment. Both are OP varieties. If they both do good then a cross between them might be "better" ......or not.

Recycled onions.

If left to late May-June, they will mature seed. I have had a few volunteer plants from leaving them in. I even saved seeds on year and was able to get plants which were close to the original, More trouble than it was worth to me. Alliums are very easy to grow here. None of my myriad pests bother them. Deer, rabbits , squirrels, insects avoid them. Have not encountered Pink Root which is a problem for Vidalia growers.

I'm glad you all just don't know my curse of the Allium Leafminer! It is awful.
I have been away for a week and will return and see how my brassicas have taken the cold nights.