October 22, 2015 - Onion Planting

Best time I've heard to plant onion transplants in these parts is about December but since GrowOrganic sent these this week, I figured I better get these in the ground now as they won't last more than several days otherwise.
I planted two rows each of two varieties: Red Burger and Walla Walla, left to right. I prepared the rows each with blood meal and bone meal. I trimmed each onion to several inches on top and about 1/2" on the roots. I set the transplants to just where the bulb was as they tend to grow with the bulb just at the soil surface. It's easy to plant too deeply so I'm pretty careful about this. The plants are about 3"-4" apart in rows 12" wide.
I watered them thoroughly after planting and will keep them hand-watered until the garlic shoots in the west end of the bed have pretty much come up at which time I'll start the drip going. My idea is to allow the drip to be a backup to general rain and hand-watering during dry spells this winter. Supposedly El Niño is going to bring significant precipitation but after the past few years I'm not too encouraged yet.