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Texas Gardening

Have you planted your onions yet in DFW?

13 years ago

We planted a few days ago. The tag said they are good to 20 degrees. This cold front coming is supposed to be colder than that. Do you cover onions?

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Comments (9)

tx_ag_95
13 years ago
I haven't seen anything that says it's a bad thing to cover plants that don't need covering, provided they're uncovered after the temperature warms up. Other than the possibility of having your neighbors laughing at you for being too careful, of course. :)

I'll probably err on the side of caution and cover my newly planted plants and dump leaves around the bases of the others. Hopefully, I won't have to replace anything!
merrybookwyrm
13 years ago
I'd cover the onions, too. If they had been growing all winter, then maybe not... But they haven't had time to get settled in. Won't they be more tender than they might have been otherwise?

I'll be covering or moving my tubs inside (fig, swiss chard, bay tree, mint, onions, sage) AGAIN...
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popcornhill
13 years ago
I put out 14 sets about one week ago. Can't cover them for this cold spell....so we'll see. Guess this will be the test to see what low temps they can take. But I don's feel so good about this one.
ogrose_tx
13 years ago
No, I plant mine in February, but that's not to say that they won't experience some colder weather. Never have had a problem with them growing. Will be interested in your experience with this, please let us know!
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Original Author
13 years ago
Dh covered our with tarps and then piled mulch on top. After seeing the ice covered plants in my flower bed, I'm glad we decided to cover the onions. Reminds me of the freeze in 1983.
Lynn Marie
13 years ago
I planted mine last weekend. Oops! I didn't see this storm coming until it was too late to do anything. I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!
equinecpa
13 years ago
I almost planted mine last weekend and I'm sure I heard Neil Sperry say we could plant potatoes and onions because the ground wouldn't freeze. In my head I couldn't think it would help them so I chose to wait.

Let us know if your onions fair OK, I'm hoping they do!

I'm kicking myself because I didn't bring in a couple of my big herb pots...I hope they pull through.
popcornhill
13 years ago
Just a follow up bump here. After sleet and then a week with temps at or below 20 degrees, followed by seven inches of snow and then to top that off another snow a couple of days later, I think my onions said to heck with this. They were laying over, no color and I say dead. Then after a couple of warm days some of them actually started to show a little green. But I had to decide weather to chance a come back by all of them or lose a whole season waiting for nothing. So I bought a few more sets and replaced most of the onions. I did leave some to see if they would come back and produce good onions. Trouble may be in figuring out which ones were frozen the first time. Anyway, hope that is all the really long freezes because I have now planted 70 red potato seeds!!
Lynn Marie
13 years ago
I planted mine a week before the first freeze here in DFW and believe it or not, they look great now! I feel certain they'll all produce!

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