Onion Harvest Time: Learn How And When To Harvest Onions

The use of onions for food goes back over 4,000 years. Onions are popular cool season vegetables that can becultivated from seed, sets or transplants. Onions are an easy-to-grow and manage crop that, when properly harvested, can provide a kitchen staple through the fall and winter.

Success in Harvesting Onions

Your success in harvesting onions will depend onproper planting and care throughout the growing season. Plant onions as soon as the garden can be worked. Rich soil, consistent moisture and cool temperatures help bulb development. It is best to create hills for onions that are to be used for green onions but do not hill those to be used for bulbs.

When to Harvest Onions

In addition to good planting, you need to know when to harvest onions for the best flavor. Harvest tops for green onions as soon as they reach 6 inches in height. The longer you wait to harvest the green tops, the stronger they become.

Any bulbs that have bolted, or formed flower stalks, should be pulled and used right away; they are not good for storage.

Bulb onion harvest time can begin with onion tops naturally fall over and brown. This is usually 100 to 120 days after planting, depending on the cultivar. Onion harvest time should be early in the morning when temperatures are not too hot.

How to Harvest Onions

Knowing how to harvest onions is also important, as you do not want to damage the plants or onion bulbs. Carefully pull or dig onions up from the ground with the tops intact. Gently shake the soil from around the bulbs.

Drying and Storing Onion Bulbs

Once harvested, storing onion bulbs becomes necessary. Onions must first be dried before they can be stored. To dry onions, spread them out on a clean and dry surface in a well-ventilated location, such as a garage or a shed.

Onions should be cured for at least two to three weeks or until the tops necks are completely dry, and the outer skin on the onion becomes slightly crisp. Cut tops off to within one inch after drying is complete.

Store dried onions in a wire basket, crate or nylon bag in a place where the temperature is between 32 to 40 degrees F. Humidity levels should be between 65 and 70 percent for best results. If the location is too damp, rotting may occur. Most onions can keep for up to three months if dried and stored properly.

Source

Growing Primrose – Primrose Plants In Your Garden

Primrose flowers (Primula polyantha) bloom in early spring, offering a variety of form, size, and color. They are suitable for use in garden beds and borders as well as in containers or for naturalizing areas of the lawn. In fact, when given the proper growing conditions, these vigorous plants will multiply each year, adding stunning colors to the landscape.

Blooming often lasts throughout summer and in some areas, they will continue to delight the fall season with their outstanding colors. Most primrose flowers seen in gardens are Polyanthus hybrids, which range in color from white, cream and yellow to orange, red and pink. There are also purple and blue primrose flowers. These perennial plants prefer damp, woodland-like conditions.

Growing Primrose Plants

Growing primrose is easy, as these plants are quite hardy and adaptable. You can find primrose perennials at most garden centers and nurseries. Look for primroses that are healthy in appearance, preferably with unopened buds.

Primroses can also be grown from seeds with an equal mixture of soil, sand and peat moss. This can be done indoors or out depending on the time of year and the climate in your area. Generally, seeds are sown indoors (outdoors in cold frame) during winter. Once seedlings have obtained their second or third leaves, they can be transplanted into the garden.

Cuttings can also be taken from some varieties during summer.

Primrose Care

Primrose perennials should be planted in lightly shaded areas with well-drained soil, preferably amended with organic matter. Set primrose plants about 6 to 12 inches apart and 4 to 6 inches deep. Water thoroughly after planting. Add a layer of mulch around the plants to help retain moisture. Continue to give your primroses thorough watering throughout the summer months, about once a week or more during periods of drought, but let off once fall approaches.

The primrose flower also appreciates light applications of organic fertilizer throughout the growing season. Keep primrose plants looking their best with regular pruning of dead leaves and spent blooms. If you want to collect the seeds of your primroses, wait until late summer or early fall before taking them. Store them in a cool, dry place until the following planting season or sow them in a cold frame.

Problems with Primrose Perennials

Slugs and snails are common pests affecting primrose plants. These can be controlled with nontoxic slug bait placed around the garden. Spider mites and aphids may also attack primroses but can be sprayed with soapy water.

If primrose plants are not getting enough drainage, they may also be prone to crown rot and root rot. This can be easily fixed by amending the soil with compost or relocating the plants to a well-drained site.

Too much moisture can also make the primrose flower susceptible to fungal infections. This can often be prevented by using good watering habits and adequate spacing between plants.

Growing primroses is easy when given the proper growing conditions and following primrose care guidelines.

Source

Care Of Watercress: Growing Watercress Plants In Gardens

If you are a salad lover, as I am, it is more than likely that you are familiar with watercress. Because watercress thrives in clear, slow moving water, many gardeners refrain from planting it. The fact is that the plant is very adaptable and watercress cultivation can be attained in a number of different ways at home. So, how to grow watercress in the home garden? Read on to learn more.

Watercress Cultivation

Watercress is a perennial cultivated for its clean, slightly peppery tasting leaves and stems. Seen wild, it grows partially submerged in running water and flooded areas in moderately cool climates. If you have awater feature in your landscape, this is a great place to cultivate watercress, but don’t despair if not.

Watercress can also be grown in consistently wet soil with a pH of 6.5-7.5 in full sun, or you can mimic natural conditions by growing watercress plants in a bucket or other container. In the garden proper, you can dig out a 6-inch furrow, line it with 4-6 mil polyethylene and then fill with 2 inches of composted soil or peat moss. Of course, if you have a running stream on your property, watercress cultivation is about as simple as it gets.

Growing Watercress Plants

Watercress can be grown from seed, transplants or cuttings. Watercress varieties abound, but the most common home grown variety is Nasturtium officinale. Prior to planting, choose a sunny location and amend the garden soil with 4-6 inches of composted organic matter down to a depth of 6-8 inches.

Seeds are tiny, so they need to be lightly broadcast over the prepared sight. Sow three weeks before the frost free date for your area. This plant germinates best in cool conditions (50-60 degrees F. or 10-15 C.) but not frigid. Keep the planting area moist but not covered with water. Container grown plants can be placed in a saucer filled with water to retain moisture.

Seedlings will appear in about five days. If you are transplanting, space the plants 8 inches apart once all chance of frost has passed.

Care of Watercress

Consistent moisture is the number one concern in the care of watercress; after all, water is its milieu. Container grown plants can be placed in a bucket filled with 2-3 inches of water so the roots stay submerged.

Although the plant does not have high nutrient requirements, cultivated cress may show signs ofpotassium, iron or phosphorus deficiencies. A complete soluble fertilizer applied at the recommended rate should mitigate any of these issues.

In the garden, keep the area around the plants free from weeds and mulch to aid in water retention. Snailslove watercress and should be removed by hand or trapped. Whiteflies also like the plant and can be controlled with soapy water or insecticidal soap. Spider mites cause leaf discoloration and general deterioration of the plant. Natural predators such as lady beetles, predatory mites or thrips can eradicate these pests.

Watercress Harvestin

The flavor of watercress is best during the cool months of the year. Once the plant blossoms, the flavor is compromised. Watercress harvesting can commence about 3 weeks after emergence. Cutting or pruning the plants will encourage them to be thicker and lush. Cut the plants to a height of about 4 inches. Wash the cuttings thoroughly and store in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for as long as week.

Harvesting can continue year round, adding a boost of vitamins A and C, along with niacin, ascorbic acid, thiamine, riboflavin and iron to your ho-hum salad or an added zing to compound butters or sauces.

Source

Onion Bulb Formation: Why Onions Do Not Form Bulbs

Many onion varieties are available to the home gardener and most are relatively easy to grow. That said, onions do have their fare share of issues with onion bulb formation; either the onions do not form bulbs, or they may be small and/or misshapen.

Reasons for No Onion Bulbs

One possible reason for a lack of onion bulb formation is the selection of the wrong type of onion for your area. In their natural environment, onions are biennials that have a two year life cycle. The first year, the plant bulbs and the second year it flowers. Cultivators of onions grow them as an annual and harvest at the end of the first growing season.

Onions are categorized as “long day” or “short day” varieties, with some intermediate varieties available as well. The terms are in reference to the length of daylight during the growing season in a particular area.

• A “long day” onion variety quits forming leaves and begins to bulb when the length of daylight is 14-16 hours.
• “Short day” cultivars make bulbs much earlier in the season when daylight is only 10-12 hours long.

“Long day” onions should be planted north of the 40th parallel (San Francisco on the west coast and Washington D.C. on the east) while “short day” onions do best south of the 28th parallel (New Orleans, Miami).

The newest kids on the block are the day neutral varieties of onion which can be planted without regard to latitude. A big boon to gardeners between the 28th and 40th parallel.

Bulb size is in direct correlation to the number and size of leaves (tops) of the onion at the time of bulb maturity. Each leaf corresponds to a ring of the onion and the larger the leaf, the larger the ring.

How to Get Onions to Form a Bulb

Choosing an appropriate onion variety for your region and following the correct planting time is an important factor in getting healthy onion bulbs to form. “Long day” varieties are planted in the early spring. Either start seeds indoors and transplant or plant onion sets directly outdoors. “Short day” cultivars should be planted mid fall either directly sown or with onion sets.

Grow onions in raised beds about 4 inches high and 20 inches across. Dig a four inch trench in the bed and distribute a phosphorus rich fertilizer (10-20-10) 2 or 3 inches below the transplants, cover with a couple of inches of soil and plant the onion sets.

Maintain some space between the plants, one inch deep and four inches apart. For direct sown onion, thinning is the key to bulb size. Obviously, if there is not room for it to grow, you will get onions that do not form adequate bulbs.

Lastly, while this may not be directly related to a lack of bulbing, temperature will most certainly affect the size and quality of the onion. Cooler temps below 70 degrees F. (21 C.) may retard bulbing in some varieties. In late spring, fluctuation between warm days alternating with cool days may cause the plant to bolt, or flower.Flowering in onions results in a lighter weight bulb with an increased risk of decay and a lower storage life.

Source

Facts about Manuka Honey

The claim: A medical-grade version of this honey is used in sterile wrappings. As with most honeys it has hydrogen peroxide, which gives it its antibiotic qualities. It also has methylglyoxal, an antibacterial component, in much higher quantities than found in other honeys. Studies have suggested that manuka honey might help to ease symptoms of infections such as coughs, but it’s not clear whether the honey is having an antimicrobial effect or whether it is just soothing like all syrups.

Mellor’s verdict: Any of the claims for eating manuka honey, all of which have been rejected by regulators, are vague. Any health benefits must be balanced against the very high quantities of sugar compared with the very small amounts of these proposed active compounds.

Source

Facts about Apple Cider Vinegar

The claim: Doubtless a tasty condiment, but has been anecdotally linked with an eye-wateringly long list of potential health benefits in areas including: digestive disorders, sore throats, high cholesterol, indigestion, preventing cancer, dandruff, acne, energy boosting, cramps, and helping with blood sugar control. The EFSA, however, hasn’t approved any of these claims. Many of the studies have been on animals or in laboratories using human cells.

Mellor’s verdict: Vinegar is probably best kept as a condiment. Use it on salads instead of high calorie oils and mayonnaise and to add flavour to sauces to help reduce salt intake – it might help, not because of anything it contains, but because it would be replacing less-healthy foods.

Source

The truth about ‘miracle foods’ – from chia seeds to coconut oil

As books that give answers go, there’s one classic that often gets overlooked – the dictionary. So next time you’re wondering whether a £10 tub of the latest miracle food can really stave off cancer, diabetes and heart disease, and get rid of a podgy belly in time for summer, run your finger down to the word “miracle” where you will find this definition: “an extraordinary and wondrous event” – so far so good – “that cannot be explained by natural or scientific laws”.

“Whether it’s coconut oil, chia seeds or apple cider vinegar,” says Duane Mellor, an assistant professor in dietetics at the University of Nottingham and a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, “there is no scientific evidence to suggest that if you top up your diet with any ‘miracle’ or special food that you’ll get any of the promised effects. The idea is almost entirely a marketing vehicle, but when people read claims online, they start to think differently and can start believing it.” One of the reasons people might believe the hype is because as with any good miracle – or magic trick – the success lies in smoke and mirrors. With miracle foods, while the magical health food salesman is conjuring a few extra coins out of our pockets, we’re left bamboozled by scientific terminology.

“Many products tend to be accompanied by all sorts of horrendous scientific jargon, like ‘maintains cognitive function’,” says Mellor, “which are watery, scientific-style claims that people tend to read as being something meaningful to human health. Then there’s antioxidants and free radicals, which are some of the most feared and misunderstood words used.”

Free radicals are unstable elements that come spinning off any oxygen-using chemical reaction in the body. They are unstable because they are missing an electron and, in a bid to restabilise themselves, they steal an electron from elsewhere. This could be from the fats in cell membranes or from your DNA. The damage they do when bullying other elements into handing over an electron is called oxidative stress, and this can be associated with heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Free radicals, however, are also involved in beneficial processes. They help to destroy invading bacteria and play a part in cell communication. To limit their role to only those things that benefit us, our bodies make things called antioxidants that, much like people standing outside nightclubs handing out hugs and hot chocolate to pacify drunken revellers, provide free radicals with the electrons they need so they don’t cause damage elsewhere.

“But if you look at the antioxidants circulating in our bodies,” says Mellor, “by far the most common are the ones we make ourselves – glutathione and uric acid – followed by vitamins A, C and E, which we get from normal food anyway. Many of the antioxidants in things like chia seeds are there to stop the plant oils going rancid, or to protect them from sunlight damage, and may not be that available to our bodies anyway. So although the EFSA [European Food Safety Authority] allows manufacturers to claim that their products are rich in antioxidants – because they are – manufacturers are not allowed to claim any health benefits. If you look carefully, it’s sort of legalese what they end up claiming.”

Even when used as supplements, antioxidants don’t seem to provide any benefit. A large study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that followed nearly 10,000 people over an average of four-and-a-half years showed no benefit from vitamin E supplements in the prevention of heart disease. Studies for other antioxidant supplements have been equally discouraging.

Part of this confusion is because diet is complex. It’s tough to tease apart the contribution of individual components because the nutrients in many foods become available to us only when eaten as part of a wider diet: studies have shown that only when we cook carrots can their beta-carotene become more available and; the lycopene in tomatoes is most readily available when they are eaten with oil.

But what about all the other vague claims about foods that can help you lose weight, or support a healthy immune function, or lead to a healthy heart? They all sound good and sort of make sense, don’t they? According to Ali Khavandi, a cardiologist at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, these claims are vague for a reason – they are based on experiments carried out on animals or on human cells in a lab. They have not been shown to have any effect on people, and until such effectiveness is shown, he says, we should stay open-minded but cautious about exaggerated claims.

“As doctors I think we’ve taken our eyes off the prize,” he says of the importance of a healthy diet in avoiding the major chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. “For the past few years, at least for heart doctors, I think we’ve been more interested in the sexier side of preventing disease – new drugs, stents, and operation techniques – and we’ve left the diet arena a little unmanned. It’s now been populated by unqualified people and celebrity health gurus spreading misinformation. As doctors I think we have an obligation to reassert an authoritative voice when it comes to healthy eating.”

Yanking the spotlight back from celebrities and fad food products might be a difficult task. “The problem,” says Khavandi, “is that the message we try to get across – which is based on proper, robust evidence that has been shown time and time again – is not very interesting to people. They have heard it all before.”

The messages he is talking about include the fact that fruit and vegetables are good for you. As are wholegrain cereals and nuts. For fats, which you need, choose unsaturated fats such as olive oil and those directly taken from marine sources such as oily fish. Neutral foods, he says, are saturated fats like butter or coconut oil and unprocessed red meats – eat these in moderation and they’re unlikely to do any harm. Stay away from excess white-flour products, processed meats, and trans fats such as vegetable oils and palm oils found in fast foods.

Simple enough advice on the face of it, but with sensationalised articles emerging daily about the benefits or dangers of specific foods, people get confused and lose sight of the simple messages. A complication nowhere more true than with cancer.

“There is certainly no such thing as an anti-cancer diet,” says Justin Stebbing, a consultant oncologist and professor of cancer medicine and oncology at Imperial College London. “But I have patients asking me things about these foods all the time.” He puts a finger on why cancer-busting food is such an appealing concept. “As a patient, disease makes you lose control. People immediately want to regain that control and a very easy way for them to do that is by diet, and they can get all sorts of things off the internet. We should understand that the internet is a double-edged sword and if we’re looking for information we should go to reputable sites.”

Such sites, says Stebbing, are NHS Choices, Cancer Research UK, Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation, which all give clear, evidence-based dietary recommendations. Duane Mellor has another simple rule of thumb for distinguishing cherrypicked claims from bona fide scientific evidence. “The EFSA is very clear – and very strict – about what health messages it allows companies to use in the marketing,” he says.

“If you see a claim on a blog, and if it’s persuasive and looks good, ask yourself why has the company not used it in their marketing? If the product really did prevent cancer or heart disease, do you not think it’d be plastered all over the packaging?”

Source