Cool! I cannot wait to go. Thanks for this, it does chase some of the blues away!

I love horn...we got all of our seeds there last season. I ordered most of mine online from seed savers this year, but i'm planning on getting my onion sets from them soon. There are lots of experienced gardeners there who are glad to answer your questions.
-Matt

Atwoods in Vinita has seed potatoes now. They have onion sets, but no onion plants yet.

Woohoo! Santa brought me a Horn gift certificate!

Ok, dumb question time...
l what is an "onion set"? a set of onion plants?

The only dumb questions are the ones that aren't asked.

Onion sets are tiny dried onion bulbs and normally are sold bagged in much the same way that ornamental flower bulbs are sold. I don't like onion sets because they tend to be long-day varieties that won't grow at the latitude at which most of us live. I did see some bags of onion sets at Wal-mart a year or two ago that had the words "Southern Onion Variety!" or something similar on the bag, but I didn't recognize the variety so I am not sure that was a true statement.

Onions plants are sold in little bundles and each bundle contains about 60-80 plants. They usually begin appearing in stores in southern OK the first week in January and work their way north, making it into stores in northern OK around early Feb. although they might not make it to northwestern OK until slightly later since NW OK stays colder longer in spring.

If you are buying onion plants or sets, make sure you choose short-day or intermediate-day onions because long-day onions won't bulb up well here.

To learn more about onion daylength, check out the attached link from one of the best onion plant suppliers in the nation. (There's also a great Onion Growing Guide at that website.)

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Daylength Map and data

I can't remember all the varieties of onions at Horn's. They had about 6 varieties. I got TX 1015s, Yellow Granex, and a red sweet. I know the first two are short-day types. I'd bet all the onions they sell are short-day or maybe intermediate. Their business is local, and it just doesn't make since to sell something that won't produce.

Thanks for the information. I am going up to Horns today on a seed buying trip and I am still a little shaky on what varieties work to buy. This has been a big help!

Thanks!

I got the granX as well. Those are the ones recommended at the Master Gardeners class.

Moni

Ezzirah,

Any onions sold as bundled plants in Oklahoma should be types that grow well here....I've only seen long daylength types sold here as bulb-like sets, not as bundled plants.

The original Granex was released in Texas in the early 1950s, I think, and is still sold today. There now are many named granex types sold for the south and they all grow well and produce, but not all are equally productive and disease resistant. The Grano types (like Texas 1015Y) are improved granex types and the improvement is mainly improved disease resistance, which in the case of onions generally means improved resistance to pinkrot.

When selecting onions to grow in Oklahoma, any granex, grano or bermuda type ought to grow just fine. It is the long daylength types that won't bulb up here. Another easy way to choose is to watch for the word 'sweet' or 'supersweet' in a variety name or in the variety description because those are the types that grow well in the south. (We can't grown the hotter or more pungent/more spicy onions here because they don't bulb up.)

The only downside to growing sweet or supersweet tyes is that they generally don't store for as long as they hotter and more pungent onion types. With proper curing, though, I've had them last easily 6 months in storage which is longer than average for sweet onions. For longer-term storage, I chop them or slice them and freeze them.

Onions are one of the easiest veggies to grow here. As long as you don't plant them in soil that stays too wet and as long as late, severe cold doesn't hit them they're a cinch to grow.

Dawn

I will just add a few words for those that may be closer to me. I see some more long day types in the stores and nurseries here. Even in the OK and TX Panhandles. I feel I'm on the southern edge for most long day types and have even found a few that won't bulb good for me. I will list a few on the common ones I see around here. The Sweet Spanish types. The only long day types I know of with Sweet in their name. The yellow and white Spanish have both been offered in many grocery stores and farm stores as plants in Guymon, OK in the past. Walla Walla and Red Zepplin are common here. Walla Walla does decent. Red Zepplin won't bulb hardly at all for me. Another Spanish type just showing up around here some is an open pollinated one called Siskiyou. Haven't tried it. I've had decent results with the Spanish types but have friends 100 miles south of me say they can't get them to make decent bulbs. It sounds like from Dawn's and others reviews that most places down farther in OK only carry plants that do well there. I just thought I would comment on what I see here and my experiences. Jay

Jay,

I'm not surprised you see long daylength types at your latitude. I wish I had a ghost of a chance of growing them here. I tried growing Red Zepplin once, and it looked more like Red Torpedo, which wasn't exactly the look I was going for.

I need to get out the Johnny's catalog and see if any of the listed longday types would grow anywhere close to my latitude. I always want to grow things that "won't" or "don't" grow here.

Dawn

Dawn,
Like I've said before I can grow many of the long and short day varieties here. Maybe a little smaller than in ideal conditions but still worth growing. There are a few of each that don't do well at all. Funny you said your Red Zepplin's looked like Red Torpedo because that is what mine looked like also. In fact Bruce at Dixondale asked me to try them again at no charge to see if there was a possibility of a switch. Same story just a different year when I did. After reading Johnny's latitude's where different varieties grow well I can see why some don't cut it here. I saw the same type of listing at another site this last week and forgot to mark or write it down. Very helpful. What really helps growing either long or short day here is getting them in early. Especially on the short day. A couple of times I've been late getting them in and size was a lot smaller. Mine will go in as soon as I receive them in mid March if possible. Jay

Jay,

It is interesting that they didn't bulb up any better for you than the did for me...I was thinking maybe yours would have bulbed up a bit more.

I am going to do my best to get mine into the ground on the day they arrive but since it is so wet here, it may be more like making onion soup than planting onions. I think mine are due to ship on the 16th.

One year I bought onion plants on Jan. 1st down in Ft. Worth and planted them here 2 or 3 days later. It was a very warm and very dry winter which probably is why I got away with planting so early and not later losing them to bolting. I had huge onions that year. The winter weather has only been that warm and dry one January since then so I haven't attempted an extra-early planting since then, but it does give you huge onions.

Dawn