This is my first time to grow potato onions so I’m hoping to get some advice from someone as to when to collect the bulbs. As you can see the tops are drying out. Do I wait for more drying or dig them out now? This is one of my somewhat control containers with 4 Green Mountains on the left and 4 Yellow on the right. The tops leaves look about the same but the bulbs are considerably different. GM bulbs appear to be less but bigger. The YP has a lot of variation from 3 to 10 new bulbs that are smaller.
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The green in the first picture is a tomato cutting that I started a couple of weeks ago for the onion replacement.
My experience is that they store better, when I let the leaves dry/die completely while in the ground.
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Thanks
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@Tana
This morning before you posted I was feeling the GM onions bulbs and some of them were soft so I pulled them out and I also pulled the YP onions (4 of each). About 1/2 of the GM was soft and won’t last long. Not pleased with the GM and I probably won’t plant them again. The good news is that the YP onions all looked firm and in good condition. As you mentioned they could have stayed in the soil longer.
GM planted 4 and got 8 but half were soft.
YP planted 4 and got 25 and all were firm and appeared to be in good condition.
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I have never heard of potato onions…
But those words made me think of…
Potato, onion, okra, squash…
Those 4 fried together… heavenly.
Before we went low carb… we used to do that regular. Now we leave out the potato.
Still very good.
I have two rows of okra coming on and some yellow crookneck and walking onions. Cant wait.
TNHunter
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Seems early to be harvesting. I’m in WI and don’t harvest until mid-July.
Looking at you pics, the nest in the bottom right doesn’t look like the bulbs are fully formed, and there is a lot of green in the stalks. My first thought is that they’re just not getting enough full direct sunlight.
Mine are fall-planted, in full sun all day and don’t start bulbing until around June 21st. It depends on your location. I have been posting about my potato onions for the last couple years. You may find it helpful [Preformatted text](https://www.potatoonionguy.com)
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Thanks. I have a few more containers of YP onions and I plan to let them mature more.
This is my potato onion row this year. Last year I got some free Norweigan POs from Kelly Winterton and some Green Mountain seeds. Kelly was getting rid of the Norweigans because they wouldn’t grow bigger than 1" in his garden. They did much better in my garden for some reason. The Norweigans grew much better than the GM F2s. Last year I spring planted and harvested in late July and early August here in SW MO. This year I fall planted and it looks like harvest will be earlier. Most of the row above are Norweigans, with some GM F2s on the far end. We had very few go soft, and almost all of them lasted perfectly well right up until a month ago when we ran out. Here’s a pic of my best Norweigan from last year:
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Your onions look much better than the ones I have.
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I can’t prove it, but I think potato onions are day length sensitive the same way regular onions are. There’s no reason at all why those Norweigans should do so well in my garden and so poorly for Kelly. I did throw some rabbit manure at that row before planting, but no fertilizer otherwise. I know Kelly waters his better than I do mine. I do mulch, but I wait until we are in a drought for a few weeks before turning on a sprinkler. So, the only thing I can think of that’s different comes back to day length.
I forgot to add before that I let the tops die down all the way before harvesting.
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And another thing I forgot to add, the blooms are a pleasant bonus. In the evening there is more butterfly and bee action in my onion row than all my wildflowers combined. I would have already cut back most of the onion flowers if the pollinators weren’t so happy in there.
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Thanks for posting a link to your reports on potato onions. Great information.
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