Vegetable Garden

Who's got one ? what are you growing ? and how's it coming along? Mine consists of sweet corn , cabbage , brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli ,cucumbers, zucchini, peas, tomatoes , peppers , acorn squash, pumpkins, and assorted spices. The cold wet weather hasn't been very conducive to good growth so far for me. But with warmer weather in the forecast things should turn out. I hope those of you growing fair better.

Wild onions going wild

Really bad start of the year with all the heavy rains that we have gotten. One week on for vacation in May for a week and the individual in charge of taking care of things watered one time really set us back a lot. We lost a lot of seeds in pods so I had to start over. 80% of the carrot crop either got eaten by bugs or snapped off by heavy rains even with the screens in place. Some of them were watered incorrectly and didn’t make it. We are a little behind but the back ups are coming along OK. Damaged onion plants lotta broken blades reduces the side of the onion , which is OK we need more medium size onions for storage anyway. But too much rain has hurt them quite a bit as well. They did not like it. We lost three cucumber plants for reasons undetermined. I don’t think they liked all the rain either they have good drainage. They just did not like it.  Actually had a hot pepper sport pepper plant died. I have never seen this happen before. I have a back up to replace it but a lot of weird things going on this year. These 50° nights are not helping either. I’ll be off for a couple weeks we’ll see if we come back in June and July. I’ll keep everybody updated. 

So for onions, it would be best in the spring if you PM me or shoot me a text. You can tell me what your plans are what you’re hoping to get. Send me a couple of pics of what you’re planning on and we can go over some details if you would like. Every scenario is different. Always willing to help out a fellow gardener if they wanna listen. 

The little engine that could.

First bounty of the season...

Came back from up north to find a ripe tomato.  

She's an overachiever, the other tomato plants are no where near ready - was quite surprised to find a ripe tomato.

Going to slice it up (along with some fresh oregano) and put it on a pizza we brought home from Vinchis in Sayner.

Pulling some baby pearls and some Romain lettuce today.

Thanks for your suggestions BMR! Looks like a lot of stuff I have to do. I'll give it a shot next year see what happens

I have an entire row of onions that died off quickly last year.  So quick I totally forgota bout them!  This year they grew back and all are going to see.  Those will be the first onions I use this season, and I"ll collect the seeds to start some new seedlings next year.

My onions are looking really good this year, even the short length ones I bought before I knew the difference.  I highly doubt I'll beat BMR for size, but I'm sure going to try!

Finally done planting my gardens! 37 pepper plants, 16 tomato plants, two rows of beans, 1 row of lettuce, 4 egg plants, 2 zuchinni rows, 2 cucumber rows, some carrots, 3 rows of onions, and some cilantro. Will post pictures soon! Two new garden areas this year.  Looking forward to a good year!

If you leave the onions in over winter, they won’t really get any bigger next year. They may a little bit, but they are going to go to seed and they’ll be a lot spicier tasting.

You also need correct soil and pH level. I use a few secret ingredients to kind of make it like a Sandy Lom like they have in Texas. Onions, love that for sucking up nutrients. It is very hard to grow them like I do on a flat surface, if you’re having troubles, I suggest making a 4 to 6 inch hill and put your onions  in this hill. Half of the onions will be exposed at all times. That is the bulb you can place your fertilizer inside that hill. The roots will stretch to get it. A lot of my knowledge comes from we did onion sets  And sold them all over the country, hundreds  and thousands of onion sets but those are no good for really making big bulb onions. You need a first year plant. And if you really want the biggest ones start from seed, make sure you give them all the fertilizer they need early.  Where you buy your onions, I would not buy them from Jungs that is for sure. You want to start out with a very nice plant before it was put into hibernation that had all the nutrients that it needs and is very strong. 

Yeah, well in this area, I would definitely grow long day onions. When you place them in the ground, make sure they are only as deep as the first knuckle on your index finger. Very tough to grow onions in Wisconsin so you have to start them early, late March early April. They need lots of sunlight. Lots and lots of fertilizer. They are heavy eaters. Nitrogen is most important but you do need potassium and phosphate so that root growth will be able to suck up all the nitrogen. When they start bulb do not fertilize anymore. The key is to get as many blades as you can with a thin neck.  Normally first couple days into June. The bulb process will start for long day onions in Wisconsin. We do not have a long period of time to get the nutrients they need to make big bulbs. They are heavy feeders and they need lots of water. Around 2 inches per week  of water. If you buy onion plants, make sure they are in the ground within three weeks after you purchase them if that is from a reputable onion farmer if you get them from Steins farm and Fleet Menards Lowe’s Home Depot they have no idea how old those plants are.  When you first place them in the ground, do not disturb them for about a month. You can fertilize after a couple weeks but don’t dig any or pull up weeds around them yet. They need plenty of sun as well. When they start to bulb, make sure you get all the dirt away from the bulb so that onion can expand.  What happens later on mid June through late June all the energy that is in the blades will be transferred into making that bulb. I suggest that maybe you subscribe to Dixon dale Farms onion news. He almost knows as much about onions as I do. PM me with any questions  Article that I just wrote later and make any corrections. Hope it helps. 

BMR
How do you get large onions? For 2 years now I've been growing onions and I end up being the size of radishes at the end of the season. Is there a special type onion to buy that will get bigger? Can I leave them small onions in over the winter will they start growing back in the spring? I usually start my onions indoors around March and the variety is called candy onions. If you can help me out I'd really appreciate it

  Thanks!

Carpio those are male flowers on your cukes.  You'll get a lot of male flowers before female flowers usually start producing.  They're meant to start attracting the bees though.  Once the female flowers form you'll notice little cucumbers on the ends before the flower, but there will also be a flower on it. You can hand pollinate those if you don't see any bees around.