What is the pH of that soil?

Are the major nutrients in balance?

How much organic matter is in that soil?

There is a lot of information out there about cultivars to grow but very little, even from organic sites, about the soil and the soil plants grow in is the most important part of an organic garden/farm.

Have a good reliable soil test done, Texas A & M does this) for soil pH and major nutrient levels and that will help with amending the soil that will grow strong and healthy plants as well as bigger onions.

These simple soil tests may also be of some help.

1) Soil test for organic
material. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in
a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and
replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24
hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight.
For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the
bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above
that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole
1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains
away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain
away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs
more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the
soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful
of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is
released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a
finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your
soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant
odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria
will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter
can be bad as well.

5) Life. How many
earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5,
according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that
is not healthy.

kimmq is kimmsr

Thank you kimmq, as valuable as they are, soil tests are out of the question until business gets better. The thing is, everything else grows great; brassicas, nightshades, cucurbits, legumes, even garlic. They are healthy onion plants, just not big bulbs.

1) I will look into the quart jar OM home test, but it will have to wait until these flooding rains stop.

2) It is a nice sandy loam, but as previously mentioned our ground is completely saturated right now, regardless of soil type (if you watch the news tonight, you'll see the amount of rain we've had and are continuing to receive). Which makes me think: Wouldn't this test be dramatically affected by ambient soil moisture levels? If we were in a drought, it would drain so quick that it would indicate low OM, and if it was flooding, the test would indicate that it "needs lots of OM"? (dramatic examples, I know).

3) If the moisture level is correct, our sandy loam passes this test with flying colors.

4) Our soil has a pleasant rich earthy smell.

5) We have so many earthworms, that when we pull weeds, they come squirting out of the soil and take off like snakes! Seriously!

Please don't take my replies as being resentful, or as sarcasm, I just wanted to address your points directly. Trust me, we view organic gardening as growing healthy soil, and that healthy plants will come naturally with it. I can say we must be doing a pretty good job, because we simply don't have problems with plant disease, or insect pest. We did have these issues when we moved here 4 years ago, back when our soil was unhealthy.

Thanks again for the response.

A comment about fertilization is in order. I'd never be a certified organic grower because I use some fertilizers which would not pass the strict organic standards. However, I have found that to get the best quality produce in my situation, some fertilizer must be used. My soil is quite rich, very well supplied with organic material, and has a great texture. However, even with liberal of compost, I still needed to add more N. See http://www.dixondalefarms.com/onionfertilization for some good guidelines on the amount of N to supply onions.

I've visited lots of certified organic farms over the years, and gotten to see their operations in depth. As I've noted elsewhere, it is not an uncommon practice (at least in some big growing areas) for these farms to make compost with a significant input of synthetic N like urea. Since they cannot apply the N directly to their fields and be certified organic, they take this step to get the required N onto their the crops. The compost can be made off farm so the added synthetic N does not appear on their crop input reports.

I know many growers don't need to supplement their fertility inputs. For me, it is a big time and money saver. I can call my produce naturally grown, noting that there are some fertilizer inputs. For me, this step significantly increases the quality and quantity of the produce grown.

Renais

The cost of a soil test from Texas A & M starts at $10.00 per sample and is an important piece of information necessary to getting the soil into that good healthy condition.

If what Renais writes above is true it points to major problems with the
USDA's certified organic program. If Renais did have a good rich soil the addition of synthetic Nitrogen would not be necessary. From what
I read above Renais is not an organic grower.

kimmq is kimmsr

I've never done a soil test either because I use square foot gardening (SFG) techniques. Soil tests aren't a requirement in all situations. Generalized, copy and pasted responses that don't take into account the methods being used are of little value. I'm not a rock dust fan myself and can't speak to varieties in your locale, other than that I don't see anything that might have been missed for growing onions.

Here are some SFG 'Maui' onions from a few years ago:

I ordered starts from dixondale last year and was very disappointed. It is alot of work but I started all from seed this year, started them first of Dec. As soon as I could work the soil I planted I believe end of Feb. I Wish I had prepared the bed the previous fall. Anyway they are on their way to getting large but could be better, but I find the largest bulbs don't store well at all and sometimes rot while curing/drying. Id rather have storage qualities. Try starting from seed and planting early as I have read they need the cold for big bulbs.

The sweet onion types that I enjoy and prefer do not tend to store well. The hotter/long-keeping types are everywhere here and available for cheap. So the sweeter types are worth growing here.

In my locale onions are started from seed in the first week of Nov and are harvested in June when the tops bend over. That's a long time taking up valuable space through peak greens season (over Winter).

I'm not generally a huge fan of water soluble forms of N, but I can tell you that onions do appreciate some fish emulsion doses throughout the growing season.

Thank you chigardenlady, the starts that I've used the last two years have been dixondale. I will order seed for this winter, and give that a shot, it has to work better with fresh transplants.

Thanks for the tip MrClint. I gave them a couple doses of fish and seaweed early last season and had better results, but there is still room for improvement. I will give them a few more rounds of fish next season.

MrClint is correct, soil tests are not a requirement. They would only be needed if a grower wanted to know something of value about the soil. Many years ago, when we were writing the standards for Michigan Organic Growers, much time was spent on the issue of soil testing and we decided that it was necessary so we could actually see what that person was doing. However soil tests were only one part of the whole and the are a guide meant to help the grower get that good healthy soil.

Spraying supplemental "fertilizers" tells me that a grower has not gotten the soil into that good healthy state that will grow strong and healthy plants.

kimmq is kimmsr

OK great, now show us your onions.

This year's are still growing hard to see in a pic. Don't mind the d e I have a million baby slugs. They never ate my onions before but they are this year.

Last year's were grown in a raised bed. This year's are in ground. I prob messed up since I haven't fertilized at all. Next year I will have a bed prepared in fall for onions. Oh and here if you leave onions planted in fall in spring they bolt and the heads split into two cloves like garlic. Then they are bitter and hot imo. I love sweet onions too Its just I haven't found a good storage variety. I grow many different varieties mostly long day since I am in Chicago. I think long day bulb up bigger. The year before last I had the best onions, huge. But it was a better season so I believe there are lots of different variables. I don't have time for record keeping or contests just enjoy growing my own food. I have a ton of rock dust as I got a deal year's back and thought it a good idea to but alot, but I never use it. Maybe I'll get it out maybe it will help dry up the slugs.

I always add extra Sulphur, beyond that a normally balanced soil. I find sets are the most reliable start. I find the BRIX for onions thus grown is higher than for any other vegetable (I don't grow corn). Keeping them over winter is much harder than growing them. Regards, Peter

All gardening is local. Here in So Cal, long time gardening writer Pat Welsh has some great advice for growing onions:

I would only add that onions appreciate some fish fertilizer, it is not a requirement.

MrClint - Good luck getting kimmsr to actually post anything about his garden. I think he is too busy preaching to everyone else to actually plant a seed himself. Easier just to put him on ignore.

But I will show you my onions. Red Candy, Candy, Red Marble Cipolinni, Superstar. I will be harvesting all of the Red Candy and some of the Cipolinni tomorrow.

This is from late May

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This was from the opposite end taken last weekend.

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Nice. You hoop your onions? That is interesting.

Your beans look good too!!

I used Espoma Pant Tone and compost. Works well for me. The onions in full sun grew almost too big and got floppy. The ones with less sun aren't so great. Onions need a lot of sun.

This forum is at its best with real world experience, examples, and photos.

I amend the garden beds with home made compost the prior fall when a bed becomes vacant. I always plan a year ahead so I know what beds the early cool crops will be planted. In the spring I mix in either garden tone or a mix of Bone Meal, Blood meal, and wood ash. I usually fertilize with urea every few weeks while the onions are growing.

Chigardenlady - I have had the hoops over those beds since early March when I planted the onions but I never did have to cover them. I will follow the onions with Cheddar Cauliflower in August and will cover those with insect barrier and or shade cloth so I will leave the hoops up. Fall broccoli will go into the bed that has the beans now and I will also cover those.

Here are a couple pictures of my onion harvest so far.

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And the first bean harvest.

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Those look great!

I read an article years ago about the Vidalia onion...it is grown with no sulphur, that's what makes it sweet....onions need a regular watering schedule, and weeding to grow well.

Pulled and cured already. I have another bed that got a late start and are still growing. They aren't huge like the others. If you want large onions you gotta get them in as early as possible. I only water periodically as I don't find onions to be very thirsty.

The first year that I grew onions, I got them in late, slacked off on the weeding, and then decided that they were just doomed and ignored them. (Except for the automatic watering.) I got so many onions that I had to give them away, even though I was rummaging through the weeds to find them. They weren't huge, but they were big enough--I absolutely considered it a success.

The second year that I grew onions, I got them in on time, kept them beautifully weeded, and got sad tiny onions.

Then I read that onions really, really don't like the root disturbance of weeding. I suspect that the weeding was what caused that failure.

The third and fourth years that I grew onions, I planted them on time and grew them through weed barrier fabric (four onions per hole, one hole every eighteen inches--a tremendous excess of space, I realize, but I was deluding myself that maybe onions could be dryfarmed), so that they stayed mostly weed-free without my having to damage their roots. I got nice big healthy onions--despite really lousy soil prep and fertilization, and not enough water.

So until I have more data, I think that the key to my onion crop is weed control without actually having to disturb the soil. AND enough sun--the most recent year I grew a pretty long row of onions, going from full-day sun to half-day sun, and the onion size dipped very abruptly when the onions got to the half-day sun.

Next time, my plan is on-time planting, good soil prep, full-day sun, weed barrier, and at least twice as much water as last time.