Onionology is complicated. Will try to clarify a little: First a little background: "onion" is a huge catch-all imprecise category encompassing a highly diverse clan, allium cepa and other allium species as well. What we are talking about here are bi-annual bulbing onions, grown from seed. All varieties of bulbing onions ultimately derive from the so-called "spanish" onion. They fall into two rough categories, long-day and short-day, based on how much daylight there is around the solstices where the plant is growing. So bulbing onions are highly sensitive to photo period. The first most important thing to know is whether your latitude is "short" day or "long" day. As it happens, Kentucky is kind of in the middle, either might work though long day is probably more likely to do well. There are also a few hybrid varieties called "intermediate" day that might do best of all for you. Short-day varieties are sown in fall and come to full size in late spring. They require more than just low latitude, they also require a mild winter climate, about z7b or warmer, so some regions of KY might work and others not. Long-day are sown soon after the winter solstice and planted out in early spring and are full size in mid to late summer, depending. An exception is the walla-walla which is adapted to the PNW and I think there may be one or two others long-days that can be fall-sown in mild northern climes. So the infamous "sets" are small bulbs grown from seed and then planted to grow for the plant's second season. The plant really wants to bolt and grow seed rather than a bulb. Sets are a scam perpetrated by seed companies. They are mostly a waste of time and space. Buy plants grown from seed in texas next year, they come at just the right time for planting out and the results will be far better.

Lesliew There is some very good and very bad advise given here. First let me address the question of to clean or not to empty pond for cleaning. First I have seen no where that your pond has a bare liner anywhere, in fact you say you have a lot of gravel on the bottom. So I have to assume that the liner is covered with rock. If this is the case than you are building up debri in this rock that can not be removed by vacuuming. It normally can only be removed by emptying and pumping it out. Does this have to be removed? That depends on where you live and how you keep the pond in the winter. If you live somewhere the pond gets covered with ice than chances are that you will have a problem one winter. Can I tell you when this will happen? No that depends on a lot of different factors such as fish load, debri in pond, how a hole is kept in the ice, what state the debri in the pond is in, and how long the ice is on the pond. Is cleaning a pond hard on the pond? Yes but the killing of all the fish is harder on the owner. Do you need to add bacteria to the pond? This answer is going to start a lot of debate but here goes. If you have a pond that is covered in rock than you should add it as the manufacture suggests. If you live some where that you get ice on the pond than it becomes more important. Than it also depends on how good you are at keeping debri out of the pond. The main purpose of added bacteria is to break down debri in the pond smaller so that the bacteria that naturally occurs in the pond break it down to a point where it is not a problem. It does this far quicker than the bacteria in the pond can do it. The real problem comes from what type of bacteria in the pond is breaking this debri down. If the bacteria isn't getting any O2 than the bacteria that breaks the debri down produces some very nasty gases. These gases are what will kill the fish. Should I clean the pond with the fish in it? This depends on weather or not you have the bacteria that is producing these nasty gases and how fast you clean it. If you stir up this debri so that the gases are released faster than the pond can expell these gases thru the surface of the pond then the fish will be affected by these gases. Do I need a biological filter? Again this depends on several factors. Natural lakes and ponds don't have additional filters and they don't have problems. But that isn't quite true. Yes they do not have additional filters on them but nature keeps the fish load to what the body of water with the addition of fresh water can support. This is done by the amount of food that is available, concretations of natural chemicals that the fish put in the water gets high enough they stop reproducing and growing, and if all else fails fish kill offs. In the normal garden ponds these are controled. Fish are fed and water is changed so the fish load can quickly get higher than what the pond can support. Than what happens? Very simply you have fish die offs. I am sorry to be so windy but I waded into this thread not because of your situtation but because of other people that may read this thread and get some bad information. From what you have written you probably would not have a problem following the advise given on this thread but another ponder could have some very bad problems following it. Mike

No personal experience with the recipe but I know from others that Topp and Howard recipes are considered tested and safe. I have just never found any of them to be of interest tome. Plus, as I understand it the main objection to the cornstarch is that it breaks down during the processing so it is more of a quality issue than a safety one (especially in small amounts). Still my inclination is always to just leave it out any time I find it in a recipe and if thickening - its only role - is still needed when the jar is opened, add it then. I'd rather have condiments be a bit too thin than overly thick anyway. A relish one can stand a spoon up in or has little spread-ability has little appeal personally. Dave

There is conflicting "information" about President Obama's birth certificate. Both in that and in the case of GF migration, it is not terribly difficult, in that it is a matter of whom ya gonna believe. If you have good reason to be skeptical of information emanating from UF Dept of Entomology, then maybe we all should doubt the competency of that authority. The GF migration into my yard every fall is another piece of conflicting information to add.