On the topic of mulching onions... My approach the past 2 years has been to plant cover crops where I intend to plant onions and garlic, terminate the cover crops and cover with a silage tarp, remove tarp and plant onions/garlic into mulch that was created by the cover crop mix. Keeps the soil covered and is completely seed free. I've been using the warm season soil builder from green cover, and it makes a really nice mulch material.
Your advice gave me huge onions last year, I'm zone 5b well 6a for new zoning in nebr. I just started all my onions seeds to put in the ground in late March. Good luck with this crazy weather.
I loved that…….”show me someone who trims their onions and I’ll show you bigger onions”😂! Always stop putting the juice to your hard neck garlic once it scapes. I always use a balanced fertilizer first and then add nitrogen as needed, I like to use urea diluted down to about the same level as miracle grow for any nitrogen additions (spoon feeding). Urea dissolves really well in water and is used in commercial agriculture by people with central spigots! I think this is my favourite gardening channel now! Klaus
Travis I haven't watched your videos for a while and I was really surprised to see your single row of onions. I'm used to seeing double rows from you. I learned double row planting from you years ago on your dad's website and that's the only way I plant beets onions things like that even my carrots it's such an energy saver.
I'm glad I saw this...I had mulched my onions to help protect them from this upcoming frost and I just side dressed them with Ammonium Sulfate on them for an initial boost (and the sulfur) and was looking for a good organic fertilizer to follow them up with for the longer term. I was thinking of Chilean Nitrate because I already have it but I guess I'll take that straw off and go get some blood meal too. 👍
One thing to consider is that mulch helps keep soil cooler. So if it is a warmer drier spring, mulch may be useful. I have mulch on my onions, some look okay and some look great. I think the mulch helped with the hot fall we had. Truth is that I am learner to grow onions from you. I did buy my seeds from you. thanks again.
I didn't cover mine during the Christmas freeze of 2022 it got 17 here Thomasville GA, I not going to cover mine this coming week hence it will be 20 degrees next Saturday.
@hardstylzz5024 Thank you this is my first year growing onions and they look really nice so I didn't know. I haven't covered them so far this year and we've had a couple of freezes but no long stretches of cold. I appreciate the advice
January 13!! Guess you know about the Arctic front coming!! Around 5 degrees coming to East Tennessee. If I cover my short day onions will they have a chance??? This will be several days! They will get very little light for these days! I guess it’s temps first and light second!!
Well, I absolutely learned that I have to improve drainage. My onions were planted right around the same time as yours, and I'm north of Milledgeville. Mine are looking a little puny compared to yours, and I'd bet it's the soil moisture. We've had some decent rain over the past few weeks. Thanks, Travis!
I sure do agree with the weeds and synthetic argument. I use Peters 20-20-20 and although I don’t get alot of weed the quack grass is an enormous pain in the butt.
I just watch video early they said to cut the onions half way through. I never grown onions, but just planted some in garden few days ago to give them a try. Glad ran across your video.
You can plant the roots from green onions in your garden and they will reproduce. I do this all the time. Saves time and money. Buy a good 4 to 5 bunches and plant those roots.
Hey, you are the Onion guy. I love growing onions. Hey I can buy nice beautiful onions in the store year round, but they are just fun and rewarding to grow. Outside of some little weeding they are maintenance free and easy to grow. We had a wet year last year. I picked mine at the right time. Except I noticed they were juicy. And I used mine as I needed them. Do I really need to cure mine more? You ever get juicy ones? I used 5-1-1 fish fertilizer. And triple shredded wood chips as mulch/weed control.
We had 6 inches of rain in that last front that came through. I actually had to poke some holes in one of my raised beds because it had water sitting in it. Is that cold front that's getting down to 17 one night and below freezing for 5 days straight going to kill onions the size of yours? I'm asking because mine are the same size as yours. I'm going to put frost covers over mine for the 17% night especially and might keep them on for the 25% nights.
I have about the same weather forecast as you. I think I will cover for 17deg. my onions and kale. I don't think it will kill them, but might get some burning on leaves.
East of Atlanta is forecast to be 14 degrees on 1/16. Healthy and well established onion plants are supposed to be hardy down to 18-20 degrees. I plant in double rows, so it's easy to cover with a polyethlene tent.
Hey Travis, when you set up your irrigation, why did you decide to use drip instead of 1/4” soaker hose? The soaker hose can still go sub-surface and you could get more water out to the plants quicker it seems.
I was going to ask if you ever had onions rot when seedlings. Then you said you did when you put hay mulching around them. Last year I had it happen for the first time had to replace several and they sat doing nothing for a long time. They rotted in ground as well as in my raised beds. I can only figure it was because it was still pretty warm in November last year which encouraged rot. I've never had to worry about being too wet only too dry. My onions didn't get near as big either. I did bury rows of chicken manure over here called coop poop under where i planted the onions and wonder if it was too much.
Im a first time grower of onions(this spring). Im in zone 5b Illinois. This is the first video of yours ive watched. Ive ordered onion seedlings already. My question is when do i fertilize my onions? At the time of planting? Do i add it to my bed & mix it, or do i side dress as you demonstrated in this video? Also, i use blood meal & not bone meal? Also, the same for garlic? I apologize for so many questions, but like i said this is my first time & im a little anzious about the whole onion growing business. Thanks in advance for any & all informantion you may provide.
Use a balanced fertilizer at planting. We put it in the planting furrow. Then once they start growing good, that's when you'll want to side-dress with a high nitrogen fertilizer like blood meal.
Yes. I give them something balanced at planting and then again once they start to grow after transplanting. Usually once they get 10-12" tall we'll start pumping the N to them.
Came back to say, my elephant garlic has started to show really yellow leaves this winter and seems quite unhappy right now kind of hoping it pulls through the rest of dormancy and takes off.
Thank you for all of this great onion information! Have you used fish emulsion as a nitrogen fertilizer, to water with? Thank you again for guidance - take care with this winter weather!
Hi Travis, my newly planted onion starts took a pretty good hit from some recent hail and storms. The greens have a lot of damage. Do you think they can recover?
Travis, when should I start onion seeds in order to plant for my Spring garden? Forgot to say I'm in zone 9 according to the new zoning map. South Mississippi.
Travis, I live and grow in Arkansas. I am trying to over winter onions and garlic for the first time this year. The have been in the ground a couple of months and look ok. Should I cover them up with some kind of mulch or frost protection through the coldest parts. We will get ice and some snow.
Watched a Yara Liva video and it showed the onion nitrogen uptake curve to be 60%-80% during bulbing. Everybody says to stop fertilizing once bulbing starts, but that seems to go against the “curve”.
Talking about feather meal, I try to use all the parts of my broiler chickens when we slaughter them, and all of the feathers go straight into the compost, and they compost down amazingly fast, entrals and heads go in the black soldier, fly larva bin, and we eat literally everything else, including the feet. if you're gonna raise chickens, do try the freedom ranger broilers you will get a 6 pound tender butchered chicken at 10 weeks old and they actually are healthy up until butchering not like the Cornish crosses which are very sad to grow
Last year, over the course of two days all of my onion and garlic leaves fell over. Turns out it was two huge box turtles doing what they do in the spring. LOL
Will the cold and frost damage garlic bulb if the leaves are damaged? This year I mixed blood meal in the soil and the garlic is growing like crazy. I have a mountain of mulch and covered them with landscape cloth, but it's growing out of the cloth. I live in N,C. Zone 7b. If I'm doing wrong please tell me.
@@LazyDogFarm I have a 12 x12 foot plot for sweet corn that I have planted in double rows.I did FAD system.But I realized my baby corns were not going to be close to my 8-5-5 for awhile.I thought if I put 855 in same furrow I planted my corn might benefit quicker, since it would be directly above it..FICAP. Furrow,Irrigation,Cover,Amend,plant, for all double rows. It is raining hereI don't have a lot to do !!
I’d like to know what’s eating the tops of my yellow onions? I’m in California East Bay. I have them in grow bags. Only planted about 10. So far it ate about 2 inches. What could it be? First time planting onions too 😢 I’d also like to add that they’re covered with mesh cloth.
Ok this years freezeagemon i picked all i could..am letting all but my onions and.garlic die...bye bye peas..all brassicas..lettuce...heck i still have basil out there i need to pick...and tons of peppers...oh well Im sure the dill is a gonner too...aint no way im doing heroics except for my onions... Now ill just dreamnof spring and after this freeze start my tomatoes...and peppers..and perhaps another round of peas. When i went to get milk and eggs i went to walmart and thwir christmas was 90 petcent off...so i bought a bunch and did notice they had all the 2024.seeds on display...should be able to get some peas..
Imagine a cow standing in a field that can talk. She says, “I have heard some people complain about us cows farting as we eat vegetation..that’s just like just like the Vegans!”Lol For fertilizer, rabbit manure won’t burn. Apply directly.
hold up you said do not cut your onion tops but then you said show me some one who is cutting their onion tops and ill show you a bigger onion, i do not understand, isnt a bigger onion better? so we should cut the onion tops to get a bigger onion or what am i not understanding because you said not to cut them? thanks in advance for your answer brother love your gardening style!
My onions are happy, but my garlic has gotten rust from weeks of on and off rain where it literally rains for 3 days then its like 65 degrees and fungus is going nuts, I sprayed it with copper fungicide it started to spread and ive hit it with actinovate a biological fungicide that is capable of killing rust.
Those 3 fertilizer names no one ever heard of means nothing. 21-0-0 works best for 6 weeks then 0-20-20 for 6 weeks. Plant 3 ft wide beds 30 ft long not rows onions will crowd out grass and weeds. Feed onions 1 lb. of fertilizer every week for the entire bed. Plant onions 4" apart.
the other thing that has always blown my mind is you side dress, instead of top dress. Then I've seen you discuss the efficiency of the siding over top dressing. Why don't you just top dress less and get the same or more nutrients to the plant? It's just crazy A$$ things you do that make no sense.
Probably has a lot to do with my previous experience using synthetic fertilizers. I'm always scared to get it on the leaves, even though I'm not using synthetics anymore.
Yeah your dog will eat blood meal bone meal and feather meal. The get protein from those. Your dog might need some raw eggs, give your dog what it needs and shelve you MEALS where your dog has no access.
To make blood and bone meal easier to handle, I mix about twice the amount of dry sand. Slightly damp sand really knocks down the dust.
On the topic of mulching onions... My approach the past 2 years has been to plant cover crops where I intend to plant onions and garlic, terminate the cover crops and cover with a silage tarp, remove tarp and plant onions/garlic into mulch that was created by the cover crop mix. Keeps the soil covered and is completely seed free. I've been using the warm season soil builder from green cover, and it makes a really nice mulch material.
Your advice gave me huge onions last year, I'm zone 5b well 6a for new zoning in nebr. I just started all my onions seeds to put in the ground in late March. Good luck with this crazy weather.
Travis can grow some onions.
Thanks for all the tips 😊
Also thank you for all your knowledge and time making these videos. Watch you everyday for about 3 months now
I also learn something new and important every time I watch you. Love your channel!
I loved that…….”show me someone who trims their onions and I’ll show you bigger onions”😂! Always stop putting the juice to your hard neck garlic once it scapes. I always use a balanced fertilizer first and then add nitrogen as needed, I like to use urea diluted down to about the same level as miracle grow for any nitrogen additions (spoon feeding). Urea dissolves really well in water and is used in commercial agriculture by people with central spigots! I think this is my favourite gardening channel now!
Klaus
Don't forget...garlic scapes are delicious :)
Glad to see I'm not the only one in Georgia with onion seedlings that are still on the small side right now.
Mine are the same size as the ones in the video too. Completely normal.
Yay! So glad to find you again! Learn so much from you.
Welcome back!
Thank you for responding to my questions about my elephant garlic on Facebook. Never heard back from Hoss. Keep up the great work!
You have the best home grown onions I have yet to see :)
Travis I haven't watched your videos for a while and I was really surprised to see your single row of onions. I'm used to seeing double rows from you. I learned double row planting from you years ago on your dad's website and that's the only way I plant beets onions things like that even my carrots it's such an energy saver.
I'm glad I saw this...I had mulched my onions to help protect them from this upcoming frost and I just side dressed them with Ammonium Sulfate on them for an initial boost (and the sulfur) and was looking for a good organic fertilizer to follow them up with for the longer term. I was thinking of Chilean Nitrate because I already have it but I guess I'll take that straw off and go get some blood meal too. 👍
One thing to consider is that mulch helps keep soil cooler. So if it is a warmer drier spring, mulch may be useful. I have mulch on my onions, some look okay and some look great. I think the mulch helped with the hot fall we had. Truth is that I am learner to grow onions from you. I did buy my seeds from you. thanks again.
I’m glad you grew some hard neck and soft neck garlic on top of the Elephant Garlic.
Will you cover your onions with the cold weather were expecting in Ga this week
I didn't cover mine during the Christmas freeze of 2022 it got 17 here Thomasville GA, I not going to cover mine this coming week hence it will be 20 degrees next Saturday.
@hardstylzz5024 Thank you this is my first year growing onions and they look really nice so I didn't know. I haven't covered them so far this year and we've had a couple of freezes but no long stretches of cold. I appreciate the advice
January 13!! Guess you know about the Arctic front coming!! Around 5 degrees coming to East Tennessee. If I cover my short day onions will they have a chance??? This will be several days! They will get very little light for these days! I guess it’s temps first and light second!!
Well, I absolutely learned that I have to improve drainage. My onions were planted right around the same time as yours, and I'm north of Milledgeville. Mine are looking a little puny compared to yours, and I'd bet it's the soil moisture. We've had some decent rain over the past few weeks. Thanks, Travis!
I sure do agree with the weeds and synthetic argument. I use Peters 20-20-20 and although I don’t get alot of weed the quack grass is an enormous pain in the butt.
We are about to get some freezing temps here in south Texas, do I need to cover my onions and garlic? Thanks for these great videos.
I just watch video early they said to cut the onions half way through. I never grown onions, but just planted some in garden few days ago to give them a try. Glad ran across your video.
You can plant the roots from green onions in your garden and they will reproduce. I do this all the time. Saves time and money. Buy a good 4 to 5 bunches and plant those roots.
I use a humid acid fertilizer works great for everything
Thank you so much for this information I've been trying to figure out how much I could feed my garlic.
What are you thoughts on using a broad fork between the rows to dry it out?
That would probably work too.
Great information video on onions and garlic 🇳🇿
Thank you so much. Just a wealth of knowledge. I always learn something from your videos.
Hey, you are the Onion guy. I love growing onions. Hey I can buy nice beautiful onions in the store year round, but they are just fun and rewarding to grow. Outside of some little weeding they are maintenance free and easy to grow.
We had a wet year last year. I picked mine at the right time. Except I noticed they were juicy. And I used mine as I needed them. Do I really need to cure mine more? You ever get juicy ones?
I used 5-1-1 fish fertilizer. And triple shredded wood chips as mulch/weed control.
We had 6 inches of rain in that last front that came through. I actually had to poke some holes in one of my raised beds because it had water sitting in it.
Is that cold front that's getting down to 17 one night and below freezing for 5 days straight going to kill onions the size of yours? I'm asking because mine are the same size as yours. I'm going to put frost covers over mine for the 17% night especially and might keep them on for the 25% nights.
I have about the same weather forecast as you. I think I will cover for 17deg. my onions and kale. I don't think it will kill them, but might get some burning on leaves.
East of Atlanta is forecast to be 14 degrees on 1/16. Healthy and well established onion plants are supposed to be hardy down to 18-20 degrees. I plant in double rows, so it's easy to cover with a polyethlene tent.
Ever try the fish and kelp fertilizer?
No kelp, but we use a lot of AgroThrive which is fish and corn steep liquor based.
Thanks for the great advice on growing onions.
Hey Travis, when you set up your irrigation, why did you decide to use drip instead of 1/4” soaker hose? The soaker hose can still go sub-surface and you could get more water out to the plants quicker it seems.
I was going to ask if you ever had onions rot when seedlings. Then you said you did when you put hay mulching around them. Last year I had it happen for the first time had to replace several and they sat doing nothing for a long time. They rotted in ground as well as in my raised beds. I can only figure it was because it was still pretty warm in November last year which encouraged rot. I've never had to worry about being too wet only too dry. My onions didn't get near as big either. I did bury rows of chicken manure over here called coop poop under where i planted the onions and wonder if it was too much.
Thanks for sharing.
Im a first time grower of onions(this spring). Im in zone 5b Illinois. This is the first video of yours ive watched. Ive ordered onion seedlings already. My question is when do i fertilize my onions? At the time of planting? Do i add it to my bed & mix it, or do i side dress as you demonstrated in this video? Also, i use blood meal & not bone meal? Also, the same for garlic? I apologize for so many questions, but like i said this is my first time & im a little anzious about the whole onion growing business. Thanks in advance for any & all informantion you may provide.
Use a balanced fertilizer at planting. We put it in the planting furrow. Then once they start growing good, that's when you'll want to side-dress with a high nitrogen fertilizer like blood meal.
Thanks for the great tips! When garlic starts bulbing do you just continue feeding all purpose fert or do you change it up?
How often to add blood meal to the garlic?
It's going to be down in the low 20s in South Georgia next week. We're going down to the teens Tuesday night with a high in the 30s Wednesday.
Do you think alfalfa pellets might be a good mulch for your onions?
Love your garden.❤
I bought bloodmeal but i rarely use it. I use blood water from fish and beef i cleaned mixed with rice washing water. My alliums love them.
In the beginning, do you fertilize with like a 20 2020 and then at what point do you stop using that and then start adding nitrogen?
Yes. I give them something balanced at planting and then again once they start to grow after transplanting. Usually once they get 10-12" tall we'll start pumping the N to them.
How do you develop onion roots.
When was this filmed?
Sunday, January 6th
Came back to say, my elephant garlic has started to show really yellow leaves this winter and seems quite unhappy right now kind of hoping it pulls through the rest of dormancy and takes off.
Thank you for all of this great onion information! Have you used fish emulsion as a nitrogen fertilizer, to water with? Thank you again for guidance - take care with this winter weather!
Travis what about using Milorginite
Hi Travis, my newly planted onion starts took a pretty good hit from some recent hail and storms. The greens have a lot of damage. Do you think they can recover?
I was forced to use mulch due to standing water in my sets. They seem to be doing fine, but I do need to scratch the surface to aerate.
Travis, when should I start onion seeds in order to plant for my Spring garden?
Forgot to say I'm in zone 9 according to the new zoning map. South Mississippi.
Do you put the blood meal on your shallots as well?
Yes
Travis, I live and grow in Arkansas. I am trying to over winter onions and garlic for the first time this year. The have been in the ground a couple of months and look ok. Should I cover them up with some kind of mulch or frost protection through the coldest parts. We will get ice and some snow.
I'm not Travis but I can say without a doubt you should do everything necessary to protect your onion plants.
Watched a Yara Liva video and it showed the onion nitrogen uptake curve to be 60%-80% during bulbing. Everybody says to stop fertilizing once bulbing starts, but that seems to go against the “curve”.
Talking about feather meal, I try to use all the parts of my broiler chickens when we slaughter them, and all of the feathers go straight into the compost, and they compost down amazingly fast, entrals and heads go in the black soldier, fly larva bin, and we eat literally everything else, including the feet. if you're gonna raise chickens, do try the freedom ranger broilers you will get a 6 pound tender butchered chicken at 10 weeks old and they actually are healthy up until butchering not like the Cornish crosses which are very sad to grow
Yeah I think you guys know alot about fertizer. I cant wait to try onions again.
Last year, over the course of two days all of my onion and garlic leaves fell over. Turns out it was two huge box turtles doing what they do in the spring. LOL
Will the cold and frost damage garlic bulb if the leaves are damaged? This year I mixed blood meal in the soil and the garlic is growing like crazy. I have a mountain of mulch and covered them with landscape cloth, but it's growing out of the cloth. I live in N,C. Zone 7b. If I'm doing wrong please tell me.
For me side dressing with blood meal really super sizes my onions.
Dang, this video is so far behind the 8 ball. Us here in the real world are dealing with a huge freeze in the next week. We are preparing
I was wondering why you didn't plant double rows with your onions?
Just didn't feel like I needed that many onions again.
@@LazyDogFarm I have a 12 x12 foot plot for sweet corn that I have planted in double rows.I did FAD system.But I realized my baby corns were not going to be close to my 8-5-5 for awhile.I thought if I put 855 in same furrow I planted my corn might benefit quicker, since it would be directly above it..FICAP. Furrow,Irrigation,Cover,Amend,plant, for all double rows. It is raining hereI don't have a lot to do !!
What’s the feeding schedule?😅
I’d like to know what’s eating the tops of my yellow onions? I’m in California East Bay. I have them in grow bags. Only planted about 10. So far it ate about 2 inches. What could it be? First time planting onions too 😢 I’d also like to add that they’re covered with mesh cloth.
I agree 100 percent don't cut your onion tops 👍
You forgot cotton seed meal, Travis. It is a viable nitrogen source.
Ok this years freezeagemon i picked all i could..am letting all but my onions and.garlic die...bye bye peas..all brassicas..lettuce...heck i still have basil out there i need to pick...and tons of peppers...oh well
Im sure the dill is a gonner too...aint no way im doing heroics except for my onions...
Now ill just dreamnof spring and after this freeze start my tomatoes...and peppers..and perhaps another round of peas.
When i went to get milk and eggs i went to walmart and thwir christmas was 90 petcent off...so i bought a bunch and did notice they had all the 2024.seeds on display...should be able to get some peas..
Imagine a cow standing in a field that can talk. She says, “I have heard some people complain about us cows farting as we eat vegetation..that’s just like just like the Vegans!”Lol For fertilizer, rabbit manure won’t burn. Apply directly.
How are you (if you are at all) prepping for this next month of super cold weather?
I believe bone n blood meal is sourced for cheap off of gmo fed animals from large cooperation. It works great but I'm a little concerned about it.
hold up you said do not cut your onion tops but then you said show me some one who is cutting their onion tops and ill show you a bigger onion, i do not understand, isnt a bigger onion better? so we should cut the onion tops to get a bigger onion or what am i not understanding because you said not to cut them? thanks in advance for your answer brother love your gardening style!
Sorry for the confusion. I meant show me someone who cuts their onions, and I'll show you a bigger onion I grew by not cutting them. Don't cut them.
@@LazyDogFarm ahhhh i get it now thanks Lazy dog YAH bless
This I know is a dumb question but what in the world is the chicken tractor?
It's a mobile chicken coop that we move every day around our gardens and property.
I thought you feed your onions more of a phosphorus based fertilizer and stop the nitrogen when they start bulbing?
I usually don't feed them anything once they start bulbing.
👍👍👍👍👍
great info travis but you just made one mistake! ill put my trimed onions against yours anyday and we shall see witch grows bigger.
Stop fertilizing once onions start bulbing. Good to know👍
My onions are happy, but my garlic has gotten rust from weeks of on and off rain where it literally rains for 3 days then its like 65 degrees and fungus is going nuts, I sprayed it with copper fungicide it started to spread and ive hit it with actinovate a biological fungicide that is capable of killing rust.
What about fresh chicken poop water
Cold weather is coming!! Be careful with your figs
Those 3 fertilizer names no one ever heard of means nothing. 21-0-0 works best for 6 weeks then 0-20-20 for 6 weeks. Plant 3 ft wide beds 30 ft long not rows onions will crowd out grass and weeds. Feed onions 1 lb. of fertilizer every week for the entire bed. Plant onions 4" apart.
the other thing that has always blown my mind is you side dress, instead of top dress. Then I've seen you discuss the efficiency of the siding over top dressing. Why don't you just top dress less and get the same or more nutrients to the plant? It's just crazy A$$ things you do that make no sense.
Probably has a lot to do with my previous experience using synthetic fertilizers. I'm always scared to get it on the leaves, even though I'm not using synthetics anymore.
No to Kamala. She is the last thing America needs.
Funny story, I had a bag of blood meal last year. I went to use it and it was gone. I looked everywhere and found the empty bag in my dog's house.🫤
😂
How big did your dog get? 😂
Ants also eat organic and synthetic fertilisers like crazy
Yeah your dog will eat blood meal bone meal and feather meal. The get protein from those. Your dog might need some raw eggs, give your dog what it needs and shelve you MEALS where your dog has no access.
A couple years ago I fertilized my peonies with a blood and bone fertilizer…they are no longer there and the dogs are.
To make blood and bone meal easier to handle, I mix about twice the amount of dry sand. Slightly damp sand really knocks down the dust.