It's time to plant onions
BY JOE DANIEL SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR

If you talk gardening, and walk around an East Texas courthouse square you will hear a different onion planting date for every side of the square.

There will likely be a fun story and best wishes for your gardening efforts with each recommendation but some will be less than accurate. Here is the science behind late January and early February planting.

Onion plants can freeze in the field. Prolonged temperatures below 20 degrees Fahrenheit kill onions. Onions don't grow bulbs when temperatures are below a 50 -60 degree range. Bulbing is favored by temperatures between 70 and 80.

Best onion growing days are when the high is no more than 85.

Onions are day length sensitive regarding bulbing. In the Southern U.S. it is most important that we choose short day varieties that will be triggered to bulb when temperatures are favorable.

Recommended yellow varieties include TX 1015, Colossals, Mercedes, Diamante and Sweet Sunrise.

Recommended white onions include the varieties TX Early White, Contessa, Cirrus, and Monsoon. Recommended red onions are Rio, Sulsula Red and Santiago. Bolting, premature flowering is another reason for carefully choosing a planting date.

Flowering is dependent on temperature not day-length. If the onion plants are pencil size and exposed to temperatures in the low or mid 40's for a prolonged period the likelihood of bolting increases.

Onions are classed as biennials; this means it takes two years to go from seed to seed. Alternating warm cool warm conditions mimic the change of seasons and onions of pencil size flower.

The right variety planted at the correct time is a great first step to large sweet onions. Other factors that play a part are keeping the soil pH above 6, having adequate fertilizer two to three inches directly below the onion plants and providing the equivalent of two inches of water a week during the bulbing period. If this is done, yes, the onions in your back yard will be as good as any Vidalia, Noon Day or Walla Walla.