Re: Fw: long day vs short day onions

Onions are photoperiod sensitive. The time the year onions are planted can
make a big difference in their performance. An onion that does good for a
spring crop in your area may not do well if planted for a late fall harvest.
The end result is usually that onions will flower and try to set seed based
on the daylength when what the gardener wants is for the onion to increase
in size. I have had very small onions go to seed way before they were large
enough to be edible. Once onions flower they get a real strong taste also.

Ask your extension agent which onion varieties are known to perform well in
your area.

Strawberries are also sensitive to photoperiod.

Dan
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----- Original Message -----
From: Claire Peplowski <ECPep@AOL.COM>
To: <shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 12:31 AM
Subject: Re: [SG] Fw: long day vs short day onions


In a message dated 3/2/01 11:43:50 PM Eastern Standard Time,
cidjohnson323@MEDIAONE.NET writes:

<<
 Hi Claire,  If I understood Rebecca right, she was talking about the length
 of the day, rather than the season.  Does that make a difference? >>

I think that is a good question.  What I have learned about growing season
is
that the number of days without frost has a great influence on the way
plants
behave in your garden.  For instance we can count on 100 days, some years
quite a bit more.

I was in England one summer after I spent some of my traveling time looking
at gardens, the days were much longer than NYS as England is farther north
than we are.  It was light on streets past 10:00 pm.  This was a surprise to
me.  The growth of plants did not seem a lot different than here on the same
dates with the exception of those that benefit from a longer season.

My husband spent part of his service years in Alaska and Korea.  The Alaska
daylengths are well know here and yet there do not seem to be great
differences in gardens.  This must be a subject requiring the recitation of
some scientific study.  Where ever I have traveled, I have found the length
of frost free season and the amount of available sunshine to be the most
significant factors.  Denver area gardens, just as cold as mine, with those
clear blue skies have abilities we do not have.

The onion is an allium so the question should be researched as allium
growth.
 I do seem to recall that the formation of the bulb is different in various
parts of the country.  Still, making a line through Oklahoma seems sort of
silly.

C.Peplowski
NYS z4
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