A Harvest - August 16, 2019 @goldenoakfarm
Out again early Friday morning and I found the first 2 rows of onions. The smaller ones on the lower half of the left row are Ailsa Craigs. They were started in a crowded pot and planted much later than the Wallas.
These are the Wallas. My helper friend says they are a lot larger than a softball.
My husband emptied the first load of mulch into the garden and got me a second load. My helper friend did the foliar spraying all morning.
The first load was enough to finish this section.
But before I put the mulch down, I had to dig the shallots. Every year the poor shallots get forgotten until their skins are gone. This year I got really large ones and a big harvest from the 10’ row. They are French Grey shallots.
Because the skins needed for storing them have rotted, I wash them off, trim the roots and store them in the vegetable drawer of my fridge. I use glass covered bowls usually, but there were so many this year, I had to use a larger enamel pan. I use these because they don’t seal tightly.
Pretty shallots for eating
These are my seed shallots. I’ll plant them in early October when I do the garlic. They will be stored in the fridge until then, due to no skins.
We can NEVER have enough onions, garlic or shallots, in my humble opinion. LOL. Curious what you are spraying on them? We're blessed in Thailand to be able to grow - and plant - things all year round. You have inspired me to go and buy some shallots today from our organic Chinese vegetable lady, to use them in a salad for lunch and immediately PLANT the bottoms. Cos I love shallots.
Nice cosmic nudge.
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The onions and shallots don't get a foliar. I use a tablespoon of organic Espoma BulbTone at planting, in the bottom of the hole, before I put the clove in, for the shallots. I plant as early as I can in October here in New England so the roots can establish before the ground freezes. They are heavily mulched at planting. Besides pulling the occasional weed that's all the shallots get.
The onions are started in March inside and planted outside in May. The soil is amended with a mix made from a soil test for that garden. They are mulched (if I have it, which I didn't for most of these) when planted. They don't get a foliar spraying either during the season.
So except for weeding, that's all I do during the season. The spacing is important, both of plants as seedlings and in the row, and of the rows themselves. Weeding is also important, as alliums do not like competition. That's why I am so surprised at how big the ones I am finding are.
The weeds got way ahead of me, but I guess the onions had developed a good enough root system, and the soil was good enough, they grew large anyways.