June 30, 2016

Good morning, I have always been the curious sort. My Mom has frequently commented on this trait compared to my brother.

The most frequent story my Mom will tell is when my brother and I would sit in our red Radio Flyer wagons and roll down the hill behind our house in Seattle Washington.  When my brother’s wagon would get stuck on a stump, rock or in a hole; he would get out of the wagon and pull and tug with all his might to free the wagon. Myself I would get out of the wagon and see what the problem was, then lift up and move the wagon so then I could be quickly on my way. I would also make note where these obstructions were so that I could avoid them in the future.

I have always been curious.

Whenever anything happens not to plan I try and evaluate the outcome to modify or enhance the outcome for a much preferred outcome in the future. Maybe this is why I so very much enjoyed geometry in high school.

I like to frame the problem into a sentence, try to figure out a potential solution, and then try that solution, followed by reevaluating the outcome after trying that potential solution.

Using this format in gardening can take years just to achieve a final solution. It does help with the anticipation of the passing of seasons though. Case in point is with bulb onions.

Bulb onions are a long season crop and are very much in tune with the changing seasons. Onions come in three “flavors” so to speak. They are long day, day neutral and short day. Understanding this and to realize that we can only grow short day onions (that is if we want to grow bulb onions). If we try and use day neutral and long day onions we would become very frustrated because the length of our days would only allow these onions to become green onions that bolt to flower.

It is also very helpful to understand that onions are a biannual plant. This means that it takes two years to go to seed. Other helpful info is to know what the preferred size of your overwintered onion seedling is, which will determine whether it will bulb or bolt. The preferred size of the onion plant so that it does not induce bolting when the onion plant emerges from winter is less than one quarter inch. Larger than this and you have green onions with flower tops, and less you have bulb onions in May.

As if all this info is not enough, it helps to know that onions in a dormant situation are extremely cold hardy that is until they begin spring growth. Even with the spring flush of growth they are more cold hardy then other veggies. Cold snaps will not kill the plants but it will burn the lower leaves and cause them to die. Each leaf that dies is a decrease in the onions mature size. This is why it is important to protect onions from cold snaps but only for the cold snap. Perpetual covers will cause the onions to mature prematurely.

As one can see there are a number of pieces to this puzzle. I started this jigsaw puzzle a number of years ago. 2015 was the first year I harvested bulb onions in quantity; I replicated my success again this year. Soooooooooooooo, going forward I think I have finally figured this out, but I will remain observant.

This is exactly why it helps to have a grasp as to how things work. It is not too dissimilar as using a cook book to prepare a meal. If you follow that cookbooks recipe to the letter, there is a very good likelihood that it will turn out OK. But if you take a look at that recipe and really study it, you can tweak the ingredients and make it your own. Ah!! And this is where the fun begins.

With anything it helps to get that back ground information so that you can then sit back, ponder, and tweak then to repeat all the above steps. Maybe I have too much time on my hands. Who was it Aristotle that sat and pondered the chimpanzee skull?

This week I anticipate harvesting chard, kale, lettuce, carrots, beans, cucumbers, eggplants, chilies, zucchini (yellow squash are waiting on a new bed to mature), okra, and tomatoes

I have started harvesting butternut squash as soon as they have cured I will be offering them.