Onions Planted

Well I wanted to finish those onions. I didn't check to see if the bed was finally thawed. I just planted them. Today will almost get to 70F and tomorrow in the mid 70s so if it isn't thawed it ought to be by the end of Monday. I planted one flat a couple of days ago and had one flat left. These are Redwing and Ailsa Craig. You can see the red in the stems of the onions. Well at least in the front onions. The ones farther back are the yellow AC onions. Redwing is a keeper and AC is a large sweet onion that doesn't store well. It can keep for about two months.

It rained a little on me while I was planting. The ground wasn't muddy though as yesterday was warm and sunny. I left a one foot strip at the end by the fence. I'm going to plant lettuce there later in the year. It will get morning sun, but the fence will protect it from the afternoon sun.

I put in the supports for the netting, but haven't put the netting in yet. It was wet and I didn't want to get my bolt muddy. I'll wait until it drys. I don't need it in yet anyway. The protection is for the onion maggots. Typically the height of the spring flight is about the time the lilacs bloom. Or at 700 GDD base 40F. If you have never heard of the GDD I talk a little about it here and here. But the height of the spring flight is not the same as when the insects first come out. Something I learned the painful way with the squash vine borer. And that can easily be half the GDD for onion maggots. Right now we are at 207 base 40F. I know because I use my weather station and a spreadsheet to do the calculations. So I'll make sure to have that netting up soon.