And who said they ONLY needed a few onions to eat fresh this year, because they had a freezer full of frozen ones? LOL

I looked at those this week and wondered what would happen if I planted one of the short day length ones in my intermediate zone. Jay probably knows.

Yep, I'm busted! lol Every time I say I will plant less, I plant more...and you know me well enough to know how true that is.

The Early Texas White onions just sound so intriguing, but there is no way I am not going to plant Candy, so now I'll have to at least plant Candy and Early Texas White and at least one red one, so that's three bunches instead of one. See, this is why cutting back never works for me.

I have planted short-day types here in southern OK and they perform just fine, and the later their DTMs---say 100 days instead of 85, for example, the better they perform here. Since you're further north, Jay's experience with short day types likely will be more relevant to your location than my experience would be.

When growing short day types at the northern end of their range, the earlier you can get them planted, the better. The best short-day crop I ever got was planted on or around January 2nd or 3rd from onion plants purchased at Marshall Grain Company in Fort Worth on either New Year's Day or New Year's Eve. It was an impulse buy because the onions had just arrived and looked so good and fresh, so I just thought "Well, why not?" I was planting about 6 weeks ahead of my usual onion planting date, and it was a warm winter so I got away with it. Had I done the same thing last winter? They would have been frozen and dead in no time. Sometimes luck is everything in terms of getting away with planting insanely early, and I was just lucky that year.

If I do plant short day types, I'm going to request an earlier than usual shipping date and then hope I have luck on my side.

As for all those onions in the freezer? Well, I've been cooking a lot lately and used one quart-sized bag of them this week. That's (grinning) 1 quart down, about 100 to go. I use tons of onions cooking large pots of soups, stews, etc. for the firefighters in winter, so if it is a bad wildfire winter, I could conceivably use up all those onions before the next onion harvest. If it is a quiet wildfire winter, then I have about a 3-year supply of frozen onions.

Dawn, If you ever quit gardening Love County will starve.

I knew you would plant onions......and buy seed. LOL

And that reminds me, my Indigo Rose tomato seed arrived this week. It was back-ordered so arrived later that the rest of the order, but it came in the mail Thursday.

I haven't bought any flower seed yet....except for the wildflower seed that I planted to make up for all the wildflowers that didn't get to blooms and set seed this year.

I have a lot of flower seed I didn't get to use this year because of the drought, so I don't really need any more, but you know how it is once the seed catalogs start piling up in the mailbox.

Is anyone doing a bulk order again this year? I really want to try these, but it seems that their prices are much cheaper when ordering several bunches at once. I'm also not sure I need 5 dozen bulbs considering I'd be the only one in my house eating them, lol.

I haven't heard that anyone is planning to do a bulk order for 2012, although that could change at any time if somneone wants to volunteer to do it. SeedMama did a fantastic job coordinating the group order for 2011, but it is my understanding that she will not be available to do it for 2012.

I think I am just going to order mine seperately for 2012 because I am going to try to plant quite a bit earlier than the rest of y'all would even think of planting. My normal planting time is a couple of weeks earlier than that for central OK as it is, and I want to plant perhaps a couple of weeks earlier than the normal planting time for SC OK. That's predicated on this being another La Nina winter and me wanting to get everything off to a good start before the dryness and heat combine in spring to slow down the cool-season crops.

Some places in Norman and elsewhere in central OK and NE OK do carry Dixondale onions and you can pick up bunches there without going through the ordering process, which is what I'd do if anyone down here carried Dixondale. Maybe some of the folks who found Dixondale in their local stores last year will tell us where they found them if they see this thread. Most stores in southcentral OK carry Bonnie Plants, and I have nothing against BP, but they don't necessarily carry the varieties I like to grow.

I vary how many onions I plant depending on the anticipated weather. In a wet year, my onions often struggle with the perpetually wet clay soil and fungal diseases, so I plant fewer because the outcome is not going to be good and I don't like wasting space. In a dry year, I tend to get a bumper crop, so I plant more. However, the crop was so good this year (I think I planted 6 bunches plus a bunch of leeks) that I just don't need another big crop in 2012. The freeezer will only hold so much, and we can only eat so many fresh ones. Also, people who are thrilled to get fresh tomatoes or peppers or melons or corn do not get real excited when you say "Do y'all need any onions?", so they are not necessarily easy to give away.

I am available to do the bulk order and would enjoy doing it. It is always good to have something to look forward to. I'll get an official thread going mid-December.
Seedmama

Hi SeedMama, That's what I get for thinking you were too busy. : ) Great to see you back online.

Dawn

was the bulk order part of the process that ended up with a meetup of some kind last year around okc?

Yes it was. I think the people in the OKC area met Seedmama someplace to pick up their onions on a Friday or Saturday. It was probably in late Feb. or earliest March?

There was a separate gathering in Norman at the end of April. It was called the Spring Fling and involved a covered dish lunch, door prizes, and a plant and seed swap as well as several hours of hanging out/talking.

I'm definitely in if we decide to do a group order. Did I dream it or did Horn Seed offer Dixondale onions this year?