we just finished this week eating our onions from last year
we planted them in mid january 2016
we harvested them in late april 2016
we hung them like onion chimes in our garage
we ate them gradually over the months since
if you havent done it yet its time to plant them again
i planted ours about 2 weeks ago
sometimes i wait unitl the end of january
but since its been so warm mostly this winter
i planted them early this year
heck we just had our first peach bloom this week
not good
the blooms will probably freeze
one year i wrapped it good with row cover
put in a warming lamp
it kept them from freezing
even when we got down in the 20s
but
this year ive decided to put my efforts elsewhere
so for my onions
i prep my raised beds
making sure i dont plant where i dd the last 2 years
so
i rotate all my crops
i add 3-4 inches of my country n compost
that our chickens make from the leaves some of
you give me
then
i use a garden fork
drive it into the bed
work in back and forth
this allows the compost and fertilizers to get a little deeper
then
i add an organic fertilizer
i use either ladybug 8-2-4 or medinas growing green
both are good ones to use
then
i add a dusting of cottonseed meal
which provides a quick access to nitrogen when the onions
start to grow
then
i add a slight dusting of stuff called rocket fuel
from gardenville
it has a lot of minerals etc the plants need
last year i planted purple hull peas in this spot
so i cut off the plants at the ground so they would
breakdown and leave the minerals stored in their roots
for the onions to use
then
i soaked the bed good with liquid molasses
which provides food for the good organisms in the soil
then
i covered the bed good with a layer of leaves for
mulch
this was allowed to sit for a few weeks to cure
so on onion planting day
i raked off all the leaves
the onions plants i use are 1015s
they well have an almost sweet taste
and
they dont burn my eyes when i cut them
i plant the onions down about an inch or two
one hook em horn sign apart which is about 6 inches
then
i water them in well
i fertilize them about once a month until they seem
to quit growing
we pull the smaller green onions as we need them
stalks fall over
this produces some hand sized sweet tasting non eye burning
onions
then
its also time to plant your potatoes around here
i use red lasotas since they seem to grow well here
at the country n
i use the same bed prep as above for the onion bed
i dig an 8 inch deep trench
in our beds which are 3 ft wide
i make two rows about a foot or so apart
i use uncut potatoes
i never mess with cutting the potatoes and dusting with sulfur
its too much work
i just get the smaller ones and junk them in the hole
scattered 1 foot apart
i put down my organic fertilizer in the trench between the
potatoes
i cover the potatoes with just a few inches of dirt
then
as the plant grows out of the dirt
i keep it covered up
this mounding technique produces more potatoes
each potato will produce about 8-10 potatoes
i planted 22 potatoes
you can do the math
i fertilize them about once a month with my organic fertilizer
above the ground start to die
we pick new potatoes when they are smaller
in fact i tend to harvest about a third of them this way
since like the green onions i just cant wait to eat them
then
yesterday i bought my tomatoes
warning dont even try to get tomatoes and plant them
around here right now
i bought i gallon containers of tomatoes
i plan to transplant them to 3 or 5 gallon pots
keep them in my small greenhouse
putting them outside when the days are warm
otherwise keeping them in the greenhouse when
its cold running a heater with a thermostat
i plan on not planting them into the ground until late march
seeing if i can avoid that freeze that seems to kill mine
off each year
oh
for that first early tomato
the organicgreen doctor
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