Daylight hours are important

A couple weeks ago we saw the beginning of the summer season which was the longest day of the year. Up to June 20 the days got longer and longer, while after June 20 the days will get shorter and shorter. The shortest day of the year is Dec, 21. Where we live in Missouri on the shortest day of the year, there is about 9.5 hours of daylight, while during the longest day of the year, there is approximately 14.75 hours of daylight. Most things are affected by the length of daylight, including we human beings. But we have so much artificial light, the length of daylight really doesn't apply to us.

The length of the daylight hours or artificial light affects most everything. Some things we know it affects, but there are some it affects but we don't realize it does. In my opinion cats normally don't have babies in the winter not because of the cold but the hours of daylight. Deer are the same. I was visiting with a farmer who raises a whole bunch of beans. His comment was that beans in the fall, when the daylight hours get so short, don't do as well. Tomatoes are done when the length of the daylight hours gets down around 12 hours or so. The same is true of onions.

Onions can be grown from seeds, sets or plants. It takes months to grow onions from seed. For onion plants to be ready to grow next spring one needs to start the seed this fall. Onion sets are small bulbs harvested prematurely from last year's onion crop and then stored during the winter. Onion plants are small growing onion plants started last fall and are ready to grow. Sets are easy to find and plant, but they won't make large bulb onions. Plants are the best option to grow large bulb onions.

There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of different kinds of onions. Each kind of onion has certain likes and dislikes as far as soil condition, amount of moisture needed, amount of fertilizer needed, etc. When you plant onions, one of the most important things to consider is the region you are going to grow the onion in and the hours of daylight. The further south you live in the U.S. you will need to plant "short day" onions. Short day onions will start bulbing when the length of daylight gets from about 10 to 12 hours a day. If you live about in the middle of the U.S. from north to south, you will need "intermediate day" onions which require 12 to 14 hours of daylight. If you live in the northern areas of the U.S., you will need "long day" onions which require 14 to 16 hours of daylight.

Where we live here in Southeast Missouri, we are kind of in the middle so we can plant intermediate day or short day onions. I like Texas 1015 onions which are short day onions normally grown in areas like Texas or Oklahoma. So we grow a few Texas 1015s. But they don't do as well as intermediate day onions, so I grow Candy. Candy grows well and will get to three- or four-inch bulb size. Texas 1015s are sweeter than Candy onions. Mick lives in Nebraska so he grows long day onions with Copra being his favorite. One other twist to consider is the storage life of the mature onion bulbs. Texas 1015s don't store real well. Candy is better. It seems like the hotter the onion the longer the storage life is.

I order my onion plants so they arrive around the end of March or first of April. A good goal is to plant your onion plants four to six weeks before your last normal frost date. You can do a search for where to buy onion plants or email me. There are websites where you can learn the ins and outs of growing onions. Onions require regular fertilizer and nitrogen and watering. They don't like competition so keep the weeds at bay. We plant our onions in plastic mulch which really works.