The Other Bulbs

30 September 2009

In The Garden With the Fluvanna Master Gardeners
By Irene C. Burke - Fluvanna Master Gardener
Fluvanna County Extension Office: 434.591.1950

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The Other Bulbs

Ancient Egyptians revered the onion’s encircling layers of life; in 1160 B.C. the eye sockets of entombed King Ramses IV were filled with these precious bulbs. For my part, a day without onions is like a day without sunshine. Onions brighten the flavor firmament, warming the garden bed—garlic and shallots too. Growing them all is a must, especially the pricier shallot.

Location — This year shallots and garlic grew at the front of my west-facing, perennial bed with purple alliums and Lincoln leeks in the background. Of course you could give them their own raised bed—like the side of an herb plot, where they’ll be in my garden next year. They’ll fare well, adding to the fragrant air as I brush by.

Soil prep — Alliums (onions, garlic, shallots) like well-drained loam; shallots favor loam with coarse sand, and garlic prefer loam deepened with compost. Fortunately onions have shallow root systems, so you’ll not need to penetrate the clay or the flaking, layered rock too deeply.

What is well-drained loam? Take a handful of sticky, gooey red or grey clay, three handfuls of compost, then mix. Add three handfuls of coarse sand and you have a robust medium for onions, shallots and garlic. Size this up to your planting bed to a depth of 6 inches.

Light — Twelve hours of direct sunlight is the bare minimum during the growing season. They’d appreciate 15 hours and reward you with greener scapes (the flowerless stalks rising directly from the ground) and fatter bulbs, as well.

Culture — Rot of all sorts will be kept at bay with meticulous sanitation and compost, which inoculates against decay. Hand-pull weeds and mulch lightly to the scapes’ edge.

Harvest — After the scapes yellow and dry, onions and their kin are ready for pulling and further curing atop a screen or slatted wooden container in a well-ventilated, cool dry dark area. If you’re growing Egyptian (Perennial Tree) bulblets, wait until most of the tops have fallen over, then pull the base bulbs. Leave the healthiest bulblets to propagate next year’s crop; save as many as you wish for a lively sauté.

Garlic — Separate each clove from the bulb as you plant an inch deep, pointy side up, 3 to 5 inches apart in 12-inch wide rows. Both early (white or Mexican) cultivars and late (pink or Italian) cultivars can be started in the fall when mulched at 3 to 4-inch depths.

Shallots — Plant 1-2 inches deep, 4 to 6 inches apart in 12 to 18-inch wide rows for winter and spring harvest.

Onions — Plant perennial onion sets like the Egyptian (Perennial Tree), from October to November 15, 1 inch deep, 4 inches apart, in rows 1 to 2 feet apart. The Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) publication 426-411 says to set “the Yellow Multiplier (Potato Onion) 1 to 6 inches by 12 to 24 inches for standard spacing; 4 inches by 4 inches for wide row in rows up to 2 feet apart.”

Tip of the Week

Cathy Cripps, PhD, professor at Montana State University, successfully cultivates pine seedlings using mycorrhizal fungi found in native leaf mold and forest litter. Tree health, insect and disease resistance, and drought tolerance improves significantly with these beneficial white filaments. The same is true when you incorporate leaf mold into your garden soil.