Man, I'm glad to see this thread. I just updated my seed stash spreadsheet and chosen what I'm planting for this year. Now it's on to worrying over the nitty gritties, one of which is how many onions to buy, etc.

Last year was my first serious attempt at (bulbing) onion growing and, well, it didn't end well. LOL I'd like to have a decent harvest this year so am currently pondering amounts. I spent a good chunk of yesterday pondering the various varieties at Dixondale. I've narrowed it down to a mere 15 varieties. Ahem.

Diane

I would also like to hear from others. I really want to try cipollini because of their size, staying power, taste, and mildness. They are, however, long day (minimum 14 hour) onions. We do get to the 14 hours here in OK (14.5+ in late May/June?) but it is marginal. I'm actually buying a bunch and will be planting them in a friends' back yard in Colorado--sort of an extended garden--to see how they do up there.

Diane, what kinds have you chosen?

--Robert

I only grow for green onions and plant them in a wide row with plants about 3" apart. I can get a wide row 1'X 20' out of 3 bunches. I've never had onions ever get big like you buy in the grocery but will usually get about golf ball sized by the time they bolt. The Dixondale onions sound great but too pricey for me as my favorite(white granex) are availabe at a small greenhouse at 23rd and Douglas for less than $2.00 per bunch. The same space then becomes okra planted in mid May.

Keith

I plant mine in raised beds, and the beds are at least 4" above grade level to ensure good drainage.

I have used all kinds of spacing, and my onions produce about the same size onions no matter what spacing I use (within reason), as long as I am planting them into soil that has been very well amended so that it is very fertile, and also within the right pH range. If the soil is very fertile, if the soil drains well, if the plants receive at least an inch of water a week, if the plants are well-watered early on, and fed as needed (more on fertilizing them in a minute), they'll produce nice big onions. They key is that your onions need lots of nitrogen throughout their growing season in order to attain good size. However, once the necks begin to show any softening, I withhold water so they'll dry down a little on their own. This helps them cure better after they are harvested.

I generally enrich the planned onion beds a lot in the fall, adding lots of compost and composted cow manure and lots of blood meal and any other good organic sources of nitrogen I can come up with. I rototill all that stuff together in late Nov. or early Dec. and let the beds just sit there until planting time in February.

If you want to use a commercial, synthetic fertilizer, use one with a 1-2-1 ratio. I think Dixondale recommends a 10-20-10, and they have their own brand too, which is available at their website. With a synthetic, commercial fertilizer, you need to place it in a band far enough away from the onions that it doesn't burn their roots. (See the Dixondale Farms online growing guide where they have an illustration showing a trench of fertilizer with rows of onions on either side as an example of the spacing needed when using synthetic fertilizer.) If you follow Dixondale's instructions for planting, you should have a great crop. Both ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate can be used to fertilize onions.

If you enrich your soil with a variety of organic materials and/or fertilizers like I do, you can just rototill your OM into the beds and use whatever spacing you like. I sometimes plant onions 4" apart in rows only 1' apart instead of the recommended 16" and my onions do just fine. I also sometimes plant them 4" apart in all directions, or 4" apart in rows 6" apart. As long as they are well-watered and well-fed, they may be a little smaller if grown very closely but I am producing more onion per square foot of space used even if the onions are smaller than they'd be with wider spacing. (You need to follow the spacing recommendations if you grow your onions dryland style with no supplemental irrigation of any kind or you'll have small onions.) When your onions need a boost, you can feed them (I feed about every other week) with the liquid organic fertilizer of your choice like liquid fish emulsion or liquid seaweed or both or compost tea....there's lots of organic fertilizers available. You also can top dress them with blood meal or composted manure or any granular organic fertilizer. I use Espoma's Vegetable Tone.

One thing about onions is that they need consistent food and water and if they don't get it, their growth stalls. If it stalls, you'll end up with smaller onions overall than you would have if the stall had been avoided. Even though they will resume growth once they receive food and moisture, they'll be smaller than onions that never stalled.

Because it is usually dry here, I don't have problems with the common fungal diseases that plague onions. If your area stays moist or wet and humid, you may need to use a fungicide labeled for use on onions. I also haven't had a problem with any pests, but I understand some folks here in OK (and Kansas) have issues with thrips.

Finally, don't forget to mulch the ground to prevent drastic fluctuations in soil moisture. It also helps keep weeds down which encourages good growth.

Harvest when the necks fall over and cure them for several days before putting them into storage. Even though Dixondale lists 2 or 3 or 4 months as the typical storage time for short-day and intermediate-day varieties, mine usually store for 5 to 8 months as long as they are well-cured. I'm still using fresh onions that were harvested in late June and early July and expect they'll still be good in Jan. and Feb. if I don't use them up before then.

Did I cover it all?

If I forgot something, let me know.

Oh, and if I fill up the allotted beds, I just plant a row of onions in each raised bed until I've used up all the extra onions. I also like to plant a few onions and garlic bulbs around the base of my fruit trees in the hopes that they'll repel borers. I also leave a few onions in the ground every year when I harvest so they'll bloom the following year. Onion flowers are VERY attractive and attract a lot of little beneficial insects. So do carrot flowers, so I always leave some of them in the ground to flower the next year too.

Dawn

In the "for what it's worth" category~

I planted Candy and Red Candy onions (from Dixondale) in mid-February. They were planted very shallow in rows of amended soil that was hilled up. The onion transplant was placed in the top of the hill with only enough dirt to keep them upright. I mulched pretty heavy since it was still cold outside. I believe Dixondale's website has fertilizing instructions listed but I mainly used fish emulsion and fed them pretty heavy. I think I remember Dawn mentioning that the fertility of the soil, along with consistent watering in the early stages, would determine the size of the onions. When they begin to bulb up, I started cutting back on the watering. Since almost half of the onion bulb is exposed above ground, it's pretty exciting to watch their progress. When the green tops began turning yellow'ish/brown'ish and falling over, I start harvesting in batches and cured them outside in a shady spot. Most sized up to baseball size with a few smaller ones here and there. Overall, it was a great harvest which I'm sure was beginner's luck. The only real problem I've yet to solve is why my "sweet" onions had so much heat... even to the point of burning your eyes (which typically doesn't bother me) when you cut them. Weird. If anyone can solve that mystery for me, I'd be ever so grateful.

Lynn

Forgot to mention...raised beds...planted 6" apart.

Lynn,

My best guess with the problem of having sweet onions that taste too hot is that your soil is high in sulphur. It is the sulphur (specifically, the pyruvic acid compounds in the sulphur) that makes onions have the hotter and more pungent flavor.

If you haven't had a soil test, I'd recommend having one done and be sure that whoever is doing your test is testing the sulphur levels.

Some of the best soils for growing sweet onions are the sandy soils that are naturally low in sulphur which is, coincidentally, the kind of soil they have in the counties in Georgia where the famous Vidalia onions are grown. Sandy soil also is found in onion-growing areas in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where Dixondale grows their onions. I added as much sand as I could (a dump truck load of it) to my red clay the first year we broke the ground for the veggie garden. (However, when adding sand to very dense clay, add lots and lots of organic matter at the same time, or you'll end up with adobe clay soil.)

Sulphur has a couple of uses in a veggie garden, but I never add sulphur to my garden other than dusting my cut seed potatoes with sulphur before planting them. And, I don't grow onions in a bed where potatoes grew the year before either just in case there's enough extra sulphur there to cause a problem.

Most onions have a sugar content ranging from 3-5% for hot or pungent onions and anything from 6-12 or 15% for sweet onions. How can an onion with 5% sugar be hot and an onion with 6% sugar is sweet? It's all about the pyruvic acid in the sulphur. Sweet onions have lower levels of pyruvic acid (usually 5% or less) but hot onions have about 10-13% pyruvic acid, so the pyruvic acid is really what makes them hot and it is the absence of pyruvic acid that makes sweet onions seem so much sweeter. So, I'd bet your soil is naturally higher in sulphur than what is considered ideal for growing onions.

Also (and this is an answer for anyone whose onions are sweet at harvest but much less sweeter three months later)sweet onions hold a lot more water and the water helps 'water down' the pyruvic acid which also contributes to the sweeter flavor. If your onions dry out a whole lot in long-term storage, you may notice they are not as sweet after weeks or months in storage than they were the first couple of weeks after they were picked. If they are hot from the moment they're picked, though, it has to be the sulphur in your soil.

And now y'all have just about exhausted everything I think I know about onions.

I've linked a well-respected commercial soil lab below. They have a fine reputation and the people there are very helpful. You can ask Jay about them as he used them last year. The downside is that soiltesting is not inexpensive. The upside is that the test tells you what your soil has and how to correct it. The lab I've linked below even does pyruvic acid testing although it is probably geared more at commercial growers than at a home gardener.

OSU also has a soil testing lab and likely their fees might be a bit more reasonable.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: This Lab Can Test Soil OR Plants

My grandparents gardened in the southern part of Carter County and their soil was so sandy it was almost like being on the beach. Their onion were SO sweet. I think they just called them white bermuda onions. As a child, I would pull an onion and clean and eat it with a big chunk of cornbread which was always in a little iron skillet on the side of the stove with a 'shower cap' cover on it. LOL

Keith,
You mentioned Dixondale onions are too pricey. I just wanted to be sure you knew we are doing a group order this year to get the cost down. It will be "around a dollar" a bunch, quite possibly less. Look for the "2010-11 Official Dixondale Onion" thread if you are interested.

Seedmama

It will be "around a dollar" a bunch, quite possibly less. Look for the "2010-11 Official Dixondale Onion" thread if you are interested.

If that's the case count me in. I must have misread it as I thought the minimun would be $2.50 per bunch. I'll take a look again. Thanks,

Keith

Keith,
You aren't hallucinating. In the "unofficial" thread last summer, we discussed doing a group order through Dixondale, and that would have been the price. However, we are ordering our Dixondale onions through K&K Nursery who has more buying power, and is just a nice group of people all around.

K&K is quite pleased with our efforts to support a local nursery. I called today to get answers to a couple of questions that have come up on the "official" thread. Our contact will be out of the office through the end of the week, but I'll have answers soon.

Thanks seedmama,
K&K nursery is only about 15 miles south of me so I would have no problem picking up an order there, however I would just as soon meet with the others so I can meet everyone! I'm looking at the Texas 1015, Contessa and Candy and will post my order in the "official thread"..

Keith

How much shade do you think red onions can take?

My garden is partly shaded by a blackjack and I need to rotate some things this year. This was my first year trying to grow them and didnt do too well.

If I circle the garden with onions will it keep the gophers/moles away?

Brake4turtles,

If you are wanting to raise bulbing onions, they need full sun. Without full sun, they won't bulb up and will remain long and narrow like green onions. If you want to raise green onions, they'll tolerate some shade but I don't know how much.

Onions need a certain number of hours of sunlight per day in order to bulb up. Without that specific number of hours of sunlight per day, you won't get bulbing. Short-day types need 10-12 hours of sunlight per day and intermediate day types need 12-14 hours of sunlight per day. We can't grow long-day types in most of Oklahoma (some people in the northernmost parts of OK can grow some long-day types with some success, I am told) because our day length is not long enough. They need 14 to 16 hours of sunlight daily.

In my garden, onions don't seem to repel any sort of animal, although I don't think deer ever nibbled the onions back when the fence was shorter and deer could jump it and get into the garden. All that works in my yard and garden for gophers and moles is cats. Some people have success with gopher traps, but our cats have kept our yard and garden more or less gopher and mole-free (every now and then they try to move in but the cats 'remove' them)since we moved here, so I've never bought a trap.

There are a few veggies that grow well in shade, although they do need some sunlight. All greens (collards, mustard, lettuce, arugula, cress, endive, radicchio, spinach and kale) tolerate a lot of shade. Many leafy herbs also tolerate shade. Broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, brussels sprouts, beets, peas and beans can grow in partial shade. By partial shade, I mean that they still get 3 to 5 hours of sunlight daily and 5 is better than 3 or 4 hours.

Hope this helps,

Dawn

Thanks Dawn!

I guess I will plant the onions in the raised bed like last year :( But I will amend it better and space them father apart. I think that may have been the problem. And I purchased them from an ify place last year.

The gophers are getting ridiculous. I cant walk anywhere without almost twisting an ankle.
I have a cat and a dog but they don’t have very good hunting skills...I have thought about a trap but the population is so high

I have been VERY successful growing cucumbers in my shady spot. Several batches of bread and butter pickles this year. But like I said I’m rotating things around this year. I have never tried growing lettuce (and baker creek sent free seeds with an order I placed in June) so I may try that in the shade.

I do love the planing stage. I haven’t screwed anything up yet :) Soon it will dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home. Sooo depressing. More time to study and read up on this stuff (I need it!)

I'm giving serious thought to planting my onions pseudo-square foot gardening style. I plan to put them 4 inches on center completely filling a 4 foot by 14 foot raised bed. Does anyone want to talk me out of it?

The Dixondale website suggests row style, with fertilizer in a trench between the rows. My beds are well worked with compost, and I plan to top dress with fertilizer. I think I can accomplish similar results. I have yet to place my own Dixondale onion order, because I need to determine quantity based on available space.

I'm not going to try to talk you out of it.

John Jeavons recommends planting onions on 4" centers in raised beds in his wonderful book, "How To Grow More Vegetables* (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops) *Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine".

Who are we to argue wih John Jeavons? So, I'd say go for it and see how this method works for you.

You may or may not get slightly smaller onions, depending on soil fertility and rainfall/irrigation, but I still think you'd get an equal or higher total yield in pounds in your bed compared to onions planted with more tradition in-row/between-row spacing in a comparable bed the same size in the same year.

Dawn

I always plant my onions in the wide row sq. ft. method, then just pull and use scallions for salad, leaving room for the ones I want to bulb into big onions.

Keith

Onion growers,
I'll just add a little to what has been written so far. I agree for the most part with everything said. The raised row is a must. The double row is what I use. I plant transplants every two inches down the row and about 7 inches across the row to the others. This way I can put a soaker hose between the rows of onions and have the watering covered. By planting every two inches I can pull every other one for green onions early in the season and the others will have a chance to grow bigger as time goes by. Then when they start bulbing I rake dirt from around them and this seems to help them get bigger. I do know that onions are heavy eaters. I fertilize them just like they are grass, like Dawn said, high nitrogen.
Best to you all,
Bill

wow great Carol! I was thinking to ask all those questions about growing onions, then already a thread floating then bunch of suggestions followed:-)

Chandra,
I just love the GW 'search' feature, don't you? I knew Carol had started this thread back in November, but even if I hadn't, I would have found it with my search for "onion." I find my quest for knowledge is well fed by reading old posts on a topic.

I'm a little different than most of you in how I plant. This is due to my soil type. I have deep sand. I plant mine flat with no raised bed just like I do garlic, leeks, shallots, ect. It works great in my deep sand. This is the way the farmers west of me do it on the deep sandy irrigated 120 acre circles. If growing in tight ground then raised beds are a must for all of the above. My sister had to use raised beds. I've tried both and have never seen any difference at all in my deep sand.I space mine 3 inches apart then pull every other one as a green onion. The ones left make very nice big onions. Jay

I am thinking to plan 6-bunches (350-60 plants) of onions similar to Dana's method, keeping 3" or 4" distances all directions in a raised bed (6-8" height) of 4'x16' dimensions. My preference is optimum production rather than size of bulb. I also would like to harvest some green onions much before final harvest.

Dawn, suggested to plant some under trees and flowers beds, I like that idea, will plant in rose garden bed. It looks like I need to double my Dixandale order.

Dana,
Earlier I have ordered one bunch of each of the following types, could you please count them twice, Now I need 2-bunches each of following short and intermediates;
1. 1015Y Texas Supersweet
2. Contessa
3. Hybrid Southern Belle Red
4. Red Candy Apple
5. Candy
6. Superstar and

I am also thinking to try one of the long-day variety, any recommendation for my location (Norman, Central OKC area)?

By the way, when we should expect to plant onion this time? I remember one of you mentioned sometime ago is "MID FEBRUARY", and order seems to reach us in March? Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thank you -Chandra

Jay,

If I had deep sand like yours, I wouldn't have to raise all the beds. I cannot imagine how wonderful that would be!

With slow-draining clay, it can take my soil two months to recover from a huge rainfall like the 9.25" that fell in one day in April '06 or the 12.89" that fell in one day in April '09. Even with raised beds, I had issues with plant death after both of those big rainfalls. The soil stayed wet forever and got that mucky smell of soured soil. Without raised beds I would have lost the whole garden both times I think.

Chandra, The mid-February planting date is for the southernmost portions of the state like mine. I think those of you in central OK probably plant a bit later. Also, sometimes we have to delay onion planting a bit because it is either too cold or too wet at the recommended planting time. I often don't get my onions into the ground until around March 1st.

The stores just south of me (about 20-30 miles south) in Texas have had onions in the stores for about 2 weeks now, but unless you have deep sand to ensure perfect drainage and a way to cover up the onions and keeps them from getting too cold, I still think it is too early to plant onions even on that side of the river in Texas.

About one year out of ten you can get away with planting onions very, very early in my area. I did it in about 2003, planting on January 1st and had a great crop. Planting that early and getting away with it is the exception and not the norm though. I wouldn't try planting that early again.

Dawn

Chandra - I would suggest just staying with the short and intermediate day onion choices. When we say northern types, we are speaking of northern US, not northern Oklahoma.

Onion plants are in a category that we call 'daylight sensitive' and the long day onions need to be planted in northern locations so they are assured enough daylight hours to bulb up. Of course, you can do what you please.

I am attaching the page that shows when Dixondale normally ships their onion plants and it is based on their determination of the best planting dates for your area. I think they ship early in the week so the plants will arrive to allow you a weekend of planting. Just use the first three numbers of your zip code and match it to the chart. A week or so on either side is probably OK.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dixondale Chart

Just for grins, I compared my new zip to my old zip. Just under two months' difference. I didn't grin. *sob*

(Don't worry, I'll grin when we're nice an cool at 90 degrees and you're all sweating it out at 140 degrees. :-D)

Diane

Anything above 120 and we will all be at your house.

Cool. I'll need help weeding about then.

Diane

Diane,
You realize that when we come to visit, we're going to pack up all the hot air that's heated to 120 degrees and bring it with us. We'll leave the hot air there with you, and pack up your cool 90 degree air and bring it home with us. You've been warned! (However, we will weed while we're there.)

Dawn

Ack!

Wait. Will you play whack-a-mole while here, too? If so, I just may agree...

Diane

I'll bring my best mole-killing cat. His name is Yellow Cat (I didn't name him!) and he roamed around the 'neighborhood' as a feral cat for about 10 years before we tamed him and he retired here to live in splendor and comfort (catnip! canned food!). Since he was feral most of that time, he had to hunt and feed himself and he's a wonderful hunter.

Yellow Cat lived with my neighbors, Fred and Jo, for about a year, but still was sort of semi-feral, iving under their house and learning to appreciate cat food from a dish, dog food and kitchen scraps. However, when they took in another dog someone had dumped, Yellow Cat went back to feral living. After that, I used to put a little plastic bowl of food out for him in an area where he "hung out" a lot because it was a drought year and there weren't a lot of rodents or bunnies around for him to hunt. I guess he decided that having a steady food supply was better for an aging cat than living off the land and he came to live with us soon thereafter. He still doesn't like dogs, but our dogs avoid him and he avoids them.

He's still a great hunter, but a couple of years of comfy living have made him rather soft and fluffy instead of lean and muscular like he was when he was feral. For people who say a feral cat can't be tamed, I'd say Yellow Cat has shown that's not always true. Even though he doesn't "have to" hunt any more, he considers any field mouse, mole, vole or gopher to be fair game.

For the record I have learned a lot since posting 'can I grow onion in the shade.' winter is good for something :)

re: the Garden web search function...I love it too. A week or 2 ago I was searching "growing sugar snap peas" and it took me to a 2008 thread in the Winter sow forum it had everything I need to know even with pictures from seedmama of a cattle panel arch I might try.

re: yellow cat...Sounds like an awesome kitty. I wish he could teach my cat how to hunt gophers/moles. She pretty good at the mouse thing tho.

Heather (with major cabin fever!)

I had a yellow feral cat that I also just called "Yellow Cat". I finally tamed him and now he's a big lover boy. I decided I should give him a real name, so named him Willie....

I now have 6 feral/stray cats that have adopted me...Not counting the two that mom has next door

I figure if God sends them to me, I have to take care of them....

I had a female that came into heat, as I haven't had the time (Or money) to have her fixed. A new "yellow Cat" (maybe more orange), came during that time and I guess he decided he likes it better here than home, he is big and seems well fed, but has ear mites and tape worms. Have you priced a tape worm pill???......PLEASE!!!
somebody need a cat?

Heather,

I think one way to teach them to hunt is to keep them slightly hungry when they're young. Almost every cat we have had since moving here has been a good hunter and maybe the younger ones learned it from the older ones. I don't know.

When you're out in the country, there is sort of a "kill or be killed" attitude on the part of many of the animals. Since we're in a very rural area, it takes a lot of work to keep a cat alive. Around here, there are tons of wild critters (raccoons, bobcats, coyotes, etc., and sometimes even feral dogs) that prey on cats, especially small, fairly defenseless kittens. A raccoon can wipe out a litter of kittens in one night. Our cats have to come inside before sunset and can't go out until a hour or two after sunrise. They don't like it, but we lose fewer of them that way. One of our neighbors lost 14 cats (2 mama cats and their litters) in less than a year's time about a decade ago. Another friend a few miles from us had the same thing happen about 3 years ago. Then, in 2009-2010, virtually the same thing happened to another friend....and they live at the other end of our road where it is a lot more 'civilized' than it is here at our end near the river.

Gary, That's exactly how we "get" every cat we have. They show up dumped/abandoned/lost and starving and I figure God brought them to us to be rescued. We once took in one male cat and two females the same week (each came separately)....and before we realized it both the females were pregnant. We still have one of those mama cats, the dad cat, and several of their babies. Every cat we have, except for Yellow Cat, has been "fixed", so he has to travel and roam a bit to find female company that welcomes his attentions.

The good thing about having the cats is that they really do control the rodent population and, since venomous snakes are a huge problem here, the fewer rodents around the better. Friends of ours who live near us had a big snake problem at one point. After they got a couple of cats, that greatly, greatly decreased how often they were seeing snakes in the yard.

It was my friend, Fred, who named Yellow Cat, calling him "that ol' yeller cat", which eventually became "Yellow Cat".

Around here, everyone who has a barn, shed, workshop, etc. has cats....or rat snakes. One of our friends has a big black ratsnake who lives in his barn and keeps the rodents under control. I think I'd rather have cats than a snake to control the rodents.

Dawn

Ironic. a Gray striped tabby male that came here last August. I named him Freddie.

I'm sure Fred would be honored.

My question is a tad bit differant. I have gone all raised beds in my garden and because I have never grown anything in one, I am at ends on just what to do. Do I place the onion sets under the mulch or all the way through the paper and into the dirt? Do I put the soaker hose under the paper or on top of the mulch?
Boy, do I need some serious help.

Captain Dirt,

I plant directly into the soil, planting shallowly because that is what onions prefer. I weed the beds about once a week for the first month or so. Then I add mulch, but I put the mulch only in the open area between the onions and don't have it up so close to the onions that it touches them. (In a rainy year, wet mulch in direct contact with the onions can lead to disease issues.) I usually don't put paper on the ground under the mulch in the onion bed beacause the onions don't like being covered up...the bulbs like to sort of pop up out of the ground as they enlarge and grow, and they grow better if you let the bulbs expose themselves, so to speak. I've tried growing onions every way possible, and leaving the soil unmulched right around the onion plant works best for me in my garden. Sometimes I have to pull out weeds that pop up in that open space, but it isn't that big of a deal and the effort pays off because onions that are shallowly planted and have the mulch pushed back a little from the plant do better than those that have mulch touching them.

If I were planting the way you want to plant with paper under mulch, I'd cut an "X" in the paper where each onion will go and fold back the paper around the X so the paper doesn't lie back down over the soil. So, each X'd area is a little spot of bare soil. I'd put the soaker hose under the paper before planting.

So, in order to plant, prepare your soil. Then, put down your soaker hose first and turn on the hose and run it while you can look at it and make sure it doesn't leave any dry areas. If it does, rearrange the hose. If you're going to use a pelleted fertilizer, put it on the ground as a top dressing, or mix it into the soil thoroughly as you prepare the soil, under the paper, but not where the X's are cut for the onions. You don't want granular or pelleted fertilizer that close to tender young roots. Put down your paper and use something to hold it down temporarily until you're through planting and can mulch. Plant your onions through the X's cut in the paper. Lay your mulch on top of the paper at least an inch thick, but leave the X'd area unmulched so the bulb can pop up out of the ground in a couple of months as it enlarges. Water the area well. After that, strive to get your onions an inch of moisture a week. Regularly weed and remove any weeds that sprout in your mulch or in the open soil next to each onion plant. Add more mulch as time goes on, but continue to keep it back away from the onions. In roughly 90-110 days (if you're growing here in or near Oklahoma), you'll have nice, big fat onions ready to harvest.

Dawn