Walking Onion Double Cropping Growing Experiment
Although most onions can take drought, many types will produce much better if watered regularly. Walking onions are no different. When walking onions send up the scape and seed, the scape dies. The onion left in the ground does not grow until the fall rains start. The question at hand was: If watering is commenced immediately after harvesting of the seeds, will the onions grow and produce a good crop before fall?
To answer this question, an experiment was devised. The old scapes would be removed and watering would commence immediately. The onion patch involved was in the greenhouse, in the south west corner. The onion patch had been planted the previous fall and watered until the scapes had started to die at the tops. Watering had not been done for approximately thirty days prior to the start of the experiment. The watering schedule would be once a day, in the early morning, around eight o'clock.
The following are the ongoing results.
Aug. 12- trimmed scape foliage back, started watering.
Aug. 16- first green onion sprouts appeared. Three sprouts total were in evidence, each approximately one and one half inches tall.
Aug. 17- Approximately one half of the onions are now sprouting. The largest sprouts are now two and one half inches high.
April 30, 2009 A long winter has ensued. Several issues have kept me from finishing this report. This experiment was concluded successfully. The results were that all the onions sprouted and grew well, with many getting over two feet high. They were harvested in November and the largest seeds were replanted outside of the green house. They grew well all winter and are now about 16 inches high on average. Some of them are now putting up seed scapes.
May 13, 2009 Update Here is a picture of the onions that were planted from the seeds from the above experiment. The seeds were selected for three to five topsets each and for the largest size. They are doing well.
This was a very successful experiment. The onions grew well and produced a fall crop of onions. Our weather here is mild and they didn't freeze hard, so they also produced onions all winter.
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