Thursday, July 17, 2008
Onions, garlic, shallots
Well that is it for the alliums this year. I just spent two evenings plaiting my garlic and cleaning and stringing up or netting all my onions and echalotes (OK slight exaggeration, I was also making 15 pots of apricot jam at the same time). There looked like a reasonable amount but when I weighed them, what a letdown!
Echalotes: 1.5 kg (the best of the lot, Jermor cuisse de poulet variety, but maybe I will do 2 varieties next year)
Brown onions: 1.7 kg - well not terrific but they are better than last year's! More bigger ones and the average size is bigger. A few hardly swelled at all past their "set" stage though.
Red onions: about 1.2 kg although I have already used quite a few. Most bolted.
I can't remember how many I planted though - I believe it was 250g of each. So maybe in terms of yield that is not too bad.
Next year, different plan of attack:
Echalotes: 1.5 kg (the best of the lot, Jermor cuisse de poulet variety, but maybe I will do 2 varieties next year)
Brown onions: 1.7 kg - well not terrific but they are better than last year's! More bigger ones and the average size is bigger. A few hardly swelled at all past their "set" stage though.
Red onions: about 1.2 kg although I have already used quite a few. Most bolted.
I can't remember how many I planted though - I believe it was 250g of each. So maybe in terms of yield that is not too bad.
Next year, different plan of attack:
- Plant them where the beans were this year so they have good nitrogen stores,
- Add lots of manure there as quickly as possible (think I will already start that in the soon to be empty pea patch for the winter garlic planting), and really dig the soil well until perfectly crumbly and light, so the bulbs can swell,
- Plant closer together, I think I wasted lots of space in my allium patches.
- Weed them well,
- Use seed for red and brown onions - it seems a far more profitable way to do it,
- Try planting a few at different times and see which ones grow best (especially for red onions, they seem to tend towards bolting)
Labels: echalote, garlic, onions, red onion, summer
# posted by antipodesgirl @ 5:14 PM 
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