Any suggestions for bunching onions? Green onions. Do I also plant them in the fall for spring harvest?

Mary Stella, the hardneck varieties are for you, in your climate. I also plant my onions at the same time I plant my garlic, mid-October. I also plant another crop of onions in February/March. Onions will bolt in hot weather so you really want them to grow in the cooler months. Your planting time might vary up to a month though. Call your County Extension Service and they can tell you when to plant different things.

As you know, we here in the deep south had a horrible, cold winter. Way out of the norm. I did cover my garlic and onions with 6-8" of oak leaves during the coldest months, but then blew them off the plants in early March. I have no ideas whether the leaves helped, it's just something I do. All my garlic and onions look great.

Ken

I don't cover my onions and leeks and they have done fine in my climate even when covered with ice. They have bounced back. This past winter was the coldest in over 30 years and some of the pots may have taken a hit. But your climate is much colder than mine, Mary, so I wonder.

I am a creature of habit, Tee. As I said, I have no ideas whether covering the crop helps.

Well, I always say, "better safe than sorry". You grow a lot more than I do so I know you have a lot of experience.

I grow a lot - experience I am not so sure of.

I did order some hard neck garlic per your recommendation. I will take a look at the extension service to see what they say about it. I was surprised to see a couple of tiny bunching onions pop up in the raised bed so maybe I will at least get those next spring.

Bunching onions (down here) will continue to grow and expand well into summer, long after most onions have bolted.

I will continue to try to find the correct plants, spacing, and timing. We love those onions in salads, stir fry (using sauces not oil), and other recipes. And of course garlic in darned near everything.

Mary Stella -- for your bunching onions, are you thinking of planting seeds, or sets (tiny bulbs) ? I've never planted any of my onions in the fall, always in the spring -- but on the other hand, plenty of missed onions always survive the winter and sprout back up in the spring. The problem I have in fall planting onion sets is, they just aren't available to buy then, at least not where I live. And I don't know for sure, but kind of doubt that planting onion seeds in the fall in the north would work well -- if they started growing in the fall I think they would be way too tiny to survive, and if they didn't sprout until the spring I think you would get better results from planting sets as early as possible (and then making succession plantings to get a longer harvest of the green onions). And for growing regular large onions for storage, be sure to plant "long-day" varieties -- the "short-day" types are for our southern friends!!

I ordered garlic from 'outside' for fall planting. My onions and chives are from seeds but so tiny and wimpy and simply don't seem to be growing. They are still in flats. Not sure what to do with them. I also had some survivors pop up this spring in the raised beds where I had thought I pulled them all up in prep for winter. Perhaps if I can keep them alive through summer I will plant them in the raised beds in the fall. It would only give me one harvest but I guess that beats none. I had wanted to succession plant this summer for those things that bolt or mature very quickly. Wish I had more room. Trying to talk DH into another slightly raised bed (only maybe 8" ) in another part of the lawn. Even out front where the moose graze but they usually head back up to the hills shortly as eating improves up there. Some stay because the pickings are so good here, thanks to gardeners.

You might want to go ahead and put some of those onions and chives in the ground. Fertilize them with a 1/2 dilution of "vegetable" fertilizer or just 20-20-20. They may take off.

I am running errands today and will pick up some 20-20-20 then plant them. Thanks.

No promises, you understand. Consider it an "experiment", since you know I love to experiment!

Mary, when did you start the onion seeds? I start mine around Feb 20th (it was actually the 23rd this year) and mine are also still in flats -- it takes them a while! I probably won't plant them out for another couple of weeks, and they will still be pretty small, but once they're outside they always amaze me at how well they do. I also always trim the tops back 2 or 3 times while they're inside (to about 4" long), otherwise they get to be quite a tangled mess.

Moose in the garden -- and I thought our whitetail deer were a problem!!

I've always wondered:
If multiple goose are geese, why aren't multiple moose meese?

Yes, that has occurred to me also. Believe me they do not resemble 'meese' in any way (mice).

Thanks Sandy. I will trim them now. I planted them about the middle of March I believe. Will note that I need to bump that date back some next year.

Couldn't find 20-20-20 but did try.

Getting a few earthquakes up here Just mild short temblers. Still gets your attention after '64

I was the only one I know of in the entire city of Pittsburgh when we had that one a few years ago. I was in the library. I said "THAT was an earthquake!" and nobody believed me! 2 of my friends thought it was a large truck going down their street.

Oh yes. In Fairbanks we had shakers for a long time. And indeed a big truck would get everyone's heads popping up and looking for the nearest exit. We had a two story ceiling with one of those false ceilings with tiles and metal struts at the top. We had a few of those fall to the first floor (at work, a bank). The 36x24 tiles were bad enough, but the metal struts were no joke.

I lived in SF in the 80's.
Was out of town though for Loma Prieta in 89.
Lost some breakables in the apartment - got yellow tagged.
Nobody I knew was hurt though.