Monday, October 14, 2013

One more reason to love my Publix at Gandy and Himes.....about a month ago I told a young guy in the produce section of my obsessive quest for potato onions to grow here as a possible perennial onion and explained to him what they are. I asked if he'd ever seen such a thing...he'd never heard of them, wrote it down plus my name and phone number. About 2 weeks ago he spotted me, even remembered my name, told me no luck so far but was trying a few more angles. A few days ago he called and said he'd exhausted every option he could think of. I thanked him copiously for all that effort. Talk about above and beyond the call of duty! A few days ago I planted in a Water Wise Container Garden the heavily divided "Indian Shallot" that I got in July at the Tampa Rare Fruit Council that I suspect is the same/similar to my "White Potato Onions" from Texas. In other areas of the yard I am trialing one that Jon and Debbie Butts grow at EcoFarm that also goes dormant in summer. I've got a few plants of "Eliska's Bunching Onion" that I feel is very likely the same as/close to my Allium fistulosum. I recently bought from Sweetbay white "boiling onions" but me and a few folks suspect that they are just ordinary white onions (Allium cepa) harvested early and sold under a fancy name at a premium price. My years old colony of Allium canadense in a baby pool Water Wise Container Garden has broken dormancy right on schedule. The perennial sweet leek I got from Josh Jamison is doing okay but I suspect is resenting shade from a nearby Queen Palm and I will likely move it. Chris moved to Live Oak, Florida and up there is trialing red and yellow potato onions plus a species Allium from colder states....A. amperosum (sp?)

2 comments:

  1. Hi John
    This is not a comment on the current post, but I need to ask you a question. I've got a plastic kiddie pool with a crack in the bottom that I'd like to use this season to plant some veggies, mainly leafy greens. Can you point me to a soil mix that would be good, and ready to use right now?

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  2. I don't really have a preferred soil mix, I just wing it using horse stall sweepings, soil from the chicken path, old wood chips, some cheap white clay cat litter.

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