{Homestead Notebook} May 2024-onions and seed starting
I only have a couple pages to share with you from my Homestead Notebook. I’m hoping to get back into doing some garden/nature studies in it along with notes from planting and harvesting.
One veggie I’m trying to learn more about growing is onions. I’ve successfully grown them, but they are very small, so I’m hoping to have a bigger, healthier harvest this year. I’ve started two new varieties, one is the Ailsa Craig onion (a sweet variety that grow HUGE bulbs), and Caliber onion, which is a hybrid and is supposed to store exceptionally well. The Ailsa Craig is a open pollinated onion, which means I can collect the seeds from it and grow the same onion from the seed. The Caliber onions are hybrid, so seeds collected from that won’t have the exact same onion results. Both Ailsa Craig and Caliber are long day onions which are what I need here where our daylight hours in the summer are from as early as 5am to almost 10pm.
I shared some videos last week about starting seeds in a DIY “seed snail.” I have a few going in the greenhouse right now with Mammoth Basil, Cilantro and Genovese Basil. (Have you ever dehydrated your own basil? I can’t believe the flavor difference compared to store bought! It’s insanely good!) The seed snail method was super easy to do so I made a page in my notebook so I won’ t forget next year to start them all this way if it goes well!
And, just to keep it real, not every page in my Homestead Notebook is well planned out and neat. Some are literally scribbles and some are just post it notes stuck onto pages!
That’s it for May. Hopefully next month I’ll have some nature study pages done too!
in the seed snail, which I did try with cantelope seeds, as I don’t care too much about them, you put the soil on the top half of the paper/ burlap/ etc, and then fold it up to create a pocket that you then roll up. At least the video you shared in a previous blog post did that. I think the see snail might work nicer as its a larger clump of dirt and paper so it won’t dry out so fast. Here in central texas, that is normally an issue. Of course, not right now as its crazy humid with all the rain we’ve gotten.
I picked up onion starts at walmart, of all places, and some are bulbing out. I need to pull back the dirt and mulch from around them. Thank you for that reminder! I think I harvest them in June. I’ll do 2 packs of starters next year!
It is crazy how the different zones make gardening so much different. As of now my carrots and basil are sprouting in the seed snails. (I know carrots don’t like to be transplanted, but I’m gonna try it anyway #rebelgardening) Keep me updated on how the garden goes for you this year!