Alliums – Good for Us and Always in Season!

Garlic Scapes growing from the center
of Hardneck garlic plants

By Richard de Wilde

Alliums encompass a wide variety of species including garlic, green garlic, garlic scapes, fresh garlic, as well as dried garlic for winter use.  This class of vegetables also includes onions and the relatives thereof!  Many years ago we set the lofty goal of including at least one vegetable from the allium family in every CSA box throughout the season!  This year you have already received ramps – which had a typically short season – chives, green garlic, and this week, garlic scapes.  

In what we classify as “onions” we have gone through the ‘potato’ onion and are moving into the green and purple scallions, which are grown from seed in the greenhouse starting in February, then transplanted in the spring as early as possible, this year being transplanted later than usual. We did not harvest and delver our overwintered Egyptian Walking Onions this year because we are trying to find a better way to propagate them.  Heretofore we have been trying to propagate them from the bulbils, which are the tops the plant forms, rather than from the set it produces. The bulbil tops that we harvested and replanted in fall – when we plant garlic and potato onions – have failed to produce a consistent crop for several years. So, in wanting to keep this onion in our seasonal line-up, we dug up all we had from last year’s planting and replanted the bulbs for a harvest next spring.  This is a propagation technique we previously used but tried to replace because of the hassle factor of replanting at a very busy time of year. But we like them so much as an early scallion-type onion that we managed the transplant this week! This gives us all something to look forward to for next year!   We’re always thinking ahead, with your interest in mind, and our own desire to produce seasonal onions throughout the year!

Yellow Onions Drying 
in the Greenhouse

Many of our long-term members understand the very high degree of management of detail that is involved in a long season, local diet. Yes, as farmers, we live and plan around the weather, but as managers of a detailed enterprise you would be challenged to suggest that there is any business that requires more detailed management than our diversified, focused business of feeding people locally, and in season as much as possible. While of course doing it in a manner that builds soil, captures carbon, and protects and enhances wildlife and pollinators. A win-win for our local economy, seasonal eating, and food security!

Sorry, I digress, back to alliums. I am thankful for the advice given by many people about allium production. When we experienced disease problems many years ago, we consulted with experts, and they recommended raised beds to prevent water damage to small plants. We responded, and now almost all our crops are on raised beds to minimize being damaged with flowing or standing water. Onions can experience damage to only one layer of a developing seedling, which does not show up until the onion is mature and develops ‘soft rot’ or neck rock when cured. Considering this, we have taken raised beds to a higher level in covering them with plastic and a thin sheet of aluminum foil that deters the ‘onion thrip,’ an insect that causes most of the onion disease and storage problems. Also, based on a tip from a former Seedway rep, we harvest the mature storage onions with some green in the top, and dry them in our greenhouse with 80% shade coverage to prevent sun scald and excess temperatures. This has resulted in a consistent supply of onions in even the worst weather conditions.

Onions coming in from the field where they 
are laid out on tables to dry, one crate at a time!

With the use of plastic bed covers, if we prepare them two weeks in advance of poking the hole that our transplant goes into then in those two weeks most of the weeds will germinate and die before we plant. However, onions are the exception in that we do not have two weeks of warm weather to germinate weeds as we plant them very early in the spring.  We have tried making the beds in the fall, but there were problems with that, so now we continue to plant into freshly laid plastic in spring and know that we will need to weed the holes which the onions are transplanted into. This year, as most, we have already hand weeded twice!

This whole system, developed over 20+ years and adapted yearly, has produced the most consistent onions and long-term storage onions for many years!

2022 Onion Field with Erosion Proof Aisles of 
Cover Crop In Between Raised Beds of Onions

Plastic disposal is still a process. We have had promises of plastic recycling, but the most recent company has suspended pick-up since the pandemic started. We do make extensive use of rye straw that we bale from winter cover crops. However, mulch cools the soil – which is great for garlic and strawberries – but for onions, the reflective mulch with onions planted directly into a black strip has proved far superior to any other system. For onions we plant low growing White Dutch Clover with Red Fescue to provide an erosion-proof aisle between the raised plastic beds. We manage any weeds that come through the Clover and Fescue with a weed trimmer. See photo of a recently trimmed aisle which transports excess water away without causing any soil erosion, while in fact contributing to soil improvement.

Juan Pablo & Alfredo hand weeding onions

With our allium crops, as with all our crops, we employ technology, experience, and observation, while also artfully managing the many hands which do the hard work. This allows us to grow a nutritionally superior crop without the use of any synthetic chemicals which would destroy our health and which would have wreaked unimagined destruction on our bird, bat, and pollinators. Our use of organic methods ensures that the local ecosystem will remain healthy and in balance, and that we will be able to provide delicious produce long into the future.