Onion Update/Hairy Vetch to the Rescue?

It was my plan to grow enough onions to store for the winter. I have found out today, to my great disappointment, that the average size of my onion crop is about the size of a cocktail onion; imagine 200 cocktail onions…..

From my research, I am realizing that perhaps I did not nourish my onions enough. My regular feeding with nitrogen rich food like fish emulsion -which is high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium,and micronutrients including some trace elements was not as regular as it could have been.

So, for next year, the onion bed will be prepared over the autumn and winter by a winter hardy cover crop of nitrogen-fixing hairy vetch.

I’ll give the onions a bit more time, feed them again and hope there will be a bit more growth- but tune in this time next year- I plan to have storage onions. Meanwhile, since Barbara Putnam and I started the seeds together, I think I’ll go over and see how her onions did and get some more tips.

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Onion Seedlings!

Stay tuned! We’ll plant them when the soil is warm enough- sometime I’m guessing in May!

Thanks Barbara for the photos.