Copra onion?

[Woodpecker]

I planted a bunch I got from June's the other day. All of the copra onions I ever planted have been small. What can I do to ensure nice onions? Please share your tips and advice. Thanks!

[feather]

Candy onions and Walla walla onions, averaged about 14-16 oz each, softball size. They don't last through winter, they start to sprout. Red Zeppelin, are a little smaller, last 7-8 months. We ordered all those last year from Stark Brothers.

[paquebot]

Depends upon what one's idea of small is. Copra is normally a consistent 3" to 4". If you can't get that in your garden, you're not going to get the maximum size of any larger type. Just like any other living thing, they need food to grow. Dixondale's onion fertilizer is 10-20-10 which is not a common formulation. Anything else close to a 1-2-1 ratio will work. Also recommended is a side-dressing of nitrogen every 21 days as soon as bulbing begins. Again we can refer to Dixondale and they use 21-0-0 ammonium sulfate. I use 5-2-0 Milorganite with great results. Feed them right and they will grow.


Martin 

[Woodpecker]

Thank you both for your replies! I will do my best to feed them right.

[paquebot]

One year I grew Copra and First Edition side-by-side in a brand new bed made just for onions. Dixondale mail order was the only option for plants then. I'd grown their First Edition for several years and then decided to add Copra. They were so similar that I could not tell them apart when harvested. Dixondale quoted me in their catalog the following year and it wasn't long that First Edition was dropped. I've never matched that harvest but the plants were growing on virtually pure nutrients which I would never be able to duplicate.

Martin

[Weed]

When ordering transplants, timing and the condition of those transplants will have a big impact on the size onions you wind up with also.  Of course the sooner you get them planted, the more time you're giving them to growout to their potential before the bulbing process kicks in.  With that being said...transplants, depending on the condition can just seem to sit there for weeks before they re-establish a good root system which amounts to valuable growing time being lost.

Starting/planting your own transplants from seed will prevent much of that lost time, as the plants barely miss a beat going from the starting medium to garden soil.  Even the tiny little blade of grass sized plants get planted here, they WILL produce a good sized onion under the right conditions.

Majority of what gets planted develops into large/medium onions, but we always get our share of small ones too which is just fine...a 2" onion is perfect for tuna salad without wasting any of it

[Woodpecker]

Thanks for all the tips. So far they are doing good, I planted them last week.

[paquebot]

Ditto what was said about planting little plants which are not much bigger than a blade of grass. Did just that with Clear Dawn, Mako, and Yellow Sweet Spanish today. They easily catch up since there's very little transplant shock. Today's will have no excuse for not closing on maximum size. Soil was already halfway decent before I started. Tilled in a 50/50 mix of county compost and aged horse manure at the rate of a gallon per 2' of row. I'll be very disappointed if we don't see maximum size for those varieties.

Martin

[Woodpecker]

I always plant the little ones. Just because they are little now doesn't mean they will not grow.

[Deleted]

I have found onions like a lot of water.

[paquebot]

May 6, 2015 15:35:47 GMT @steff503 said:

I have found onions like a lot of water.

Sweet onions are better with a lot of water but storage onions are better without.  The higher water content is the reason why most sweet onions don't store well.  At the other end, less water in a storage type is desirable.

Martin

[Deleted]

My best onions, Copra and Red Zeppelin, both do best when we have a wet year. I still have copra in storage from last year.

[Woodpecker]

I've found that the Copras like a lot of water here too. I do need to be careful though because we have clay soil.