by Texas Homesteader
This year has been a roller-coaster ride for RancherMan & me due to an unexpected illness. Thank goodness I had garden angels that surprised me at our house one beautiful spring morning and completely prepared all of our raised beds and planted my garden for me. What a blessing! I was able to harvest fresh veggies from my own garden this year because of the love and tender hearts of those sweet people.
But as I recovered from my illness the focus wasn’t on gardening and I had some failures where I normally wouldn’t have. One such failure was my crop of onions.
I planted plenty, but I wasn’t able to tend to them as they grew. So they just withered & disappeared beneath the straw mulch as the brutal drought gripped our area of Northeast Texas for the third year in a row. But recently I was pretty excited to see those little green tops peeking from beneath the soil. Some of my onions were coming back!
Double Onion Sets
As I watched them grow it became apparent that they were beginning to double as they had in years past. Where one onion plant grew I could tell there were two (or more) onions within that same bulb.
Some onion bulbs had FIVE sets in them! So I raked back the mulch and pulled out the onions that are doubling. As I pull the onion from the ground I can clearly see a single bulb but two onion sets.
Separating Double Onion Sets
This is where it gets exciting. I take a curved knife and carefully cut away the outer part of the bulb. It’s softer than a normal onion so it’s easy to do. Then I peel back the layers until I get to the firm onion sets within the bulb.
Then with my curved knife I gently cut through any remaining membranes & separate the two sets. As I get to the roots I rock the knife gently back & forth to slowly slice through the roots, being sure to leave some roots on each onion set.
Replanting Onions
There were quite a few of the doubled onions in this row. So I set to work pulling the bulbs, separating the sets, and replanting. Then I gently re-covered the newly-planted sets with mulch. Yea – replanting onions!
Where I once had a sad partial row of onions I now have a very full row of onions. So full in fact that I’ve had to scout elsewhere in my garden to plant the remaining onion sets. YES!
The onions may very well split again between now & spring. If they do I’ll just repeat the process.
The last time my onions doubled like this I had a bumper crop, so many that we couldn’t even come close to eating them all fresh. I froze & dehydrated tons of them. (I’m still enjoying some of the frozen purple onions in my cooking and my endless soup) My hope is that this year’s onions will provide the same kind of harvest. RancherMan does love his onions!
~TxH~
My Favorite Garden Hacks
- Easy Garden Planning Spreadsheet
- Getting A Jump: Planting An Indoor Greenhouse
- Repurposed Cardboard Seed-Starting Pots
- 3-Sister’s Garden – The Original Companion Planting
- Low-Cost Vegetable Gardening
- Planting A Large Galvanized Trough
- Using Cheap Biodegradable Weed Block
- Tricking Birds AWAY From Your Strawberry Plants
- Easy Compost For A Healthy Garden
- Propping Tender Seedlings
- Cheap (or FREE) Wood Mulch For The Garden
- Homestead Hack: Remember Where You Planted Seeds
- How Vegetable Gardening Can Change Your Life!
- Easy Deep-Soak Watering
- Planting Potatoes In Galvanized Trough
- Planting A Blueberry Bush In Galvanized Tub
- Stevia – Growing Your Own Sweetener!
MORE Gardening Posts
C’mon by & sit a spell! Come hang out at our Facebook Page. It’s like sitting in a front porch rocker with a glass of cold iced tea – lots of good folks sharing! You can also follow along on Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram.
If you’d like to receive an email each time a new blog post goes live it’s EASY to
Subscribe to our blog!
Great idea! Thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner Link up! And Happy Thanksgiving!
I found this post through the Homestead Barn Hop at The Prairie Homestead. I love this tip for getting more onions! I never would have thought of that, so thanks a bunch for a great read!
“Thanks A Bunch” – LOL – I see what ya did there… So glad you stopped by. ~TMR~
Just wanted to let you know. I have been working on this weeks Rural Wisdom and Know How #3. This post is featured. Thanks again for sharing. Keep It Rur Real.
Oh yea – that’s so cool. Thanks!! ~TMR~
How awesome – I do hope you have them double again in the spring – I do appreciate you sharing with Home and Garden Thursday,
Kathy
Oftentimes they do Kathy – I look forward to another bumper crop. ~TMR~
I planted some onions in my garden, pinning this in case this happens to ours, on my organic gardening board. Thanks for sharing on Tuesdays With a Twist, I enjoy your posts.
Hey, if they’re sprouting I don’t see why you couldn’t replant them. Especially since you apparently have plenty to last you for a while with your bumper crop. woo-hoo! ~TMR~
I grew onions for the first time this year and they did much better than I expected. I learned that when the tops fall over, they are ready to harvest, which w asa huge relief because I thought they all up and died at once out there! Now some of my stored onions are sprouting and I’m wondering if I should replant some of these for the spring.
That’s great! I love volunteer plants too! They make my day and here’s hoping your onions will be amazing this year!
Fingers crossed, Nancy. 🙂 ~TMR~
How cool is that!! 🙂
I have one onion in my herb garden that has been there for four years now and I’m not even sure how many times it has doubled. I just cut the tops for green onions.
Oh Candy, I’m pretty sure you’ve got me of the mind to cut some tops. My daughter just sent me a terrific-sounding soup recipe that calls for green onions so this may be the perfect time to harvest. Wonder if you can dehydrate the tops for later? hummm…. ~TMR~
It would be worth trying; although, they ones I buy in the store are freeze dried.
That’s awesome Tessa – Thanks! ~TMR~
Another great article that we shared with our FB readers at homestadlady.com!