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digit_gw

What to Plant to Follow Onions.

digit
11 years ago

& shallots &, I suppose, garlic (but I haven't grown garlic since Moses was in the Whale).

First off, I usually sow seed for Asian greens about now. In fact, that has been going on in my potato patch - as I slowly work my way thru the spud harvest, bok choy seed is being sprinkled in rows behind me . . .

But, what about "sneaking" something into a bed of onions -- and then, let it take over about now??? Something that seems like a natural to make good use of the location in the garden and the soil that a heavy feeder like onions leaves behind in late July/early August:

I tried late cucumber transplants this year. Here they are where they followed the shallots:

Actually, they followed the spinach. The shallot/spinach bed was the very earliest planted in the garden this spring. By the 1st of July, the spinach was long gone and the cucumber starts could go in. They did kind of bully the shallots and it was necessary to make room for the cukes. Just before they would have taken over the entire bed -- the shallots were pulled.

You can see that the shallots didn't really suffer from having a neighbor:

Now, if we have a frost the 1st of September, these late cucumbers will prove to be a mistake but I can't imagine that happening this year. Right now, the vines are covered with flowers and there are tiny cukes! I expect to start harvesting them in just a few days. The plants seem to be loving that soil (& maybe loving the fact that they missed being outdoors in a cool/cool/cool spring ;o).

Steve

Comments (11)

  • david52 Zone 6
    11 years ago

    When is your normal first frost date?

    Here, we generally plan on Sept 10th,

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I optimistically go for the whole 9 yards, David. The nearest Weather Service station to the cucumber/onion patch has it at October 5th. The university says September 29th.

    Forecast temperature for Saturday afternoon is 99F. That will be ten August days above 90!

    I don't think we are going to have a frost for well over a month and harvested the 1st Muncher cucumber from those vines this morning! Sure, the earlier planting has been kicking out cucumbers for quite awhile but this later planting is all set!

    Steve

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Posted by david52

    . . . Here, we generally plan on Sept 10th,

    It occurs to me, David, that if your 1st frost may show up that early, a July 1st set out for some cucumber starts might not seem that late.

    I've never tried them that late but it seems to be working in that rich, onion bed soil. Close to the sprinklers, too . . .

    Steve

  • david52 Zone 6
    11 years ago

    I've gotten a good crop of cucumbers when planting on the 4th of July - I do it in my garlic beds.

    The soil is warm enough that the seeds germinate within a couple of days, and they really take off.

    My onions are ready now, although many of the stems aren't falling over. Its interesting, I planted them deep, and the bulb is 3/4th under-ground. I goofed up and planted a bed with onions in front and leeks in the back, the leeks will keep growing for another month, if I irrigate them - something the onions don't need. I suppose I need to spend a day digging the onions .....

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Are garlic bulbs coming out that early, David? Or, do the pair of them share some space for a little while?

    I will get some fish emulsion on the leeks tomorrow. The highs are supposed to be down in the low 80's after this hot weekend so I figure they may be able to get back to growing.

    The onions are watered with everything else. They are being pulled while still green and laid out to dry elsewhere. Really, the tops are all down on the sweet onions. They look like a field of jumbo wheat that has badly lodged.

    Yeah, some bok choy seed in that onion patch of yours should reward you with stir-fry greens while you still have plenty of sweet onions to chop up with them . . .

    Steve

  • gjcore
    11 years ago

    This is the first year I've seriously have grown onions. They are doing pretty good and have been eating some but the leaves haven't browned yet.

    It is my understanding that when they start to brown it's time to withhold watering.

    Wouldn't that make it difficult to inter-plant "sneak" a fall crop with onions?

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I have never been able nor desired to separate onions from the other garden plants. In fact, I've found that they want a good deal of water thru their growing season so they go in where the sprinklers can provide that. I have shallots, bunching, sweet, and storage onions all in those locations,each year.

    Soil may be a factor. Well, I know it is. My soil drains very quickly. If I was to leave the bulbing onions and shallots in the ground long enuf, the leaves would turn brown. They would still be getting a plentiful dose of water twice each week. Does my garden soil dry between waterings? Absolutely.

    When those onions drop over, they seem to be pretty much done growing for the year. They can begin coming in to dry on the deck outside the greenhouse. That location gets sun only during late afternoon but they dry quickly. I make sure to move them out of the way if I'm running a lawn sprinkler nearby. When I had just a few onions to dry, I hung them on the northside of a board fence in the backyard. I'm looking for that drying to take place, mostly, after they are out of the ground.

    In the sweet onion bed, the cucumber starts went in after a little patch of sweet onions had been pulled for use as scallions. In the shallot bed, spinach had been sown early in the spring. After that row of spinach was out, the cucumber plants went in. It would have been best if the spinach rows amongst the shallots had all been in the center of the bed but, I learn as I go.

    Steve

  • david52 Zone 6
    11 years ago

    I generally pull garlic the first few days of July - this year they were ready earlier. Years past, its been beans.

    With my sweet onions, the tops just get week and topple, not necessarily turn brown first. The bunching onions just keep going until I pull them.

    My irrigation water is off today. With very low snow fall, its a short year for water. The guys who run the irrigation company defer to the people with the big side-roll irrigation systems, and so they run the ditches full bore for 3/4ths the season, then just shut them off, instead of allowing 3/4 the water all season.

    They sent out a note the other day that the allocation is about up, but I thought it would run into Sept.

    If we have another lousy winter, we are gonna be in trouble.

  • highalttransplant
    11 years ago

    David, I did what you did. Replaced the garlic with cucumbers. My garlic did horrible this year, and I pulled it early too. I tried it in the bed in the front this time, and it drains really well, a little to well for garlic I think. The heads were very small compared to the size they were where I grew it last time, in an area with more clay, therefore slower draining. That's my theory anyway ...

    We received a letter from our HOA earlier this summer, saying that due to the lack of snowfall, we were being put on watering restrictions and had to follow a 3 day per week schedule, or our irrigation allotment would not last through the season. We got lucky in July though, and had almost twice the normal rainfall. I went at least two weeks without even running the sprinklers. For July, that's unheard of around here.

  • jeaninmt
    11 years ago

    In our area, the onions never dry down on their own. We pull them and hang them in the barn for another month to dry. This summer has been warmer than usual, even nights in the 50's.

    This year the onions are in a place that I can leave the water off of, so I decided to do that. They've only missed one watering and the tops are starting to brown already.

    Its interesting because the garlic dries down even with the water on them. Our season must be too short for the onions to die a natural death.
    - Jean in Mt

  • digit
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Jean, they are still alive. They've just gone on to "another place."

    I learned a new term a few years ago when I was trying to understand what was happening to potatoes: plant senescence.

    The potato tuber is still, potentially, the same potato plant. The onion is just "gearing itself up" to send up a flowering stalk. Autumn leaves are going thru this senescence.

    Linked is Wikipedia on the subject. We should get in there and edit the article so that it applies more specifically to a few garden plants.

    Steve

    Here is a link that might be useful: plant senescence