Wednesday, April 10, 2013

An onion set in a pot!

For reasons that still elude me, I decided it might be a fun thing to plant a lone yellow onion set into a ceramic pot and watch it grow. I did this on March 25 and used Miracle Gro potting mix, (something that may come to haunt me later on).

The little guy sat there from that day of planting until after the first week of April when I happened to notice that a green growing point had erupted from the top. Wow! I moved the pot, at that point, to a location on a balcony where it could get some sun. That was on April the 7th, if I remember correctly. It measured 4 centimeters from the soil line to the highest point at that time.

Not long after, on April the 8th , I took another measurement and noted it was now 6.4 centimeters tall and and then today (the 10th) I found the highest point to be 11 centimeters! This baby is really growing strong! Once again, however, I'm worried that the added fertilizer will affect any bulbing in a poor way. Onions, it seems, like to be stressed both nutritionally and in terms of water in order for them to reach their maximum 'bulbing' potential. When those factors are not present, or when it gets too hot, they are more likely to bolt or to grow lots of tops with no real onion 'bulb' developing at all.

I'll make it a point to track the progress of this little guy over the course of the next couple of months to document how it does. Uh oh, here's come the evil Dr. Brussels. I'd better hide my onion!

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Hello! - This is DanO's psychiatrist, Dr. Brussels. DanO is currently residing at the Sunnybrook Sanitarium and is doing very well, or so we had thought. For some reason, though, he's become fixated on onions to the exclusion of most everything else. And, while we were confident of his release earlier on, the staff has reached the conclusion that perhaps it would be better for him to stay at Sunnybrook for the time being.

Dr. John Brussels
Sunnybrook Sanitarium
Forsyth, MO

Update: I received a mercury injection and am feeling much better now! This picture of the onion in a pot wa taken on May the 8th. Like me, it's still hanging in there!

May 18, 2013 Update: My onion in a pot is still growing well. It now has eight 'leaves' and is not showing any sign of bolting.  

June 15, 2013 - The onion has really grown well in this
potting mix! 
















 Here it is early July and the little guy is still doing pretty well with a the guy now about 5 and a half centimeters across! I'll do a followup post of this onion when I harvest it later in the month! See the harvest day pictures here!