Onions and Potatoes Harvested, Other Updates

All of the onions were harvested yesterday and one of the potato raised beds were also harvested. The potato harvest from this new 20 inch high and 4 ft square plot was pretty good (see pics below). The nine Yukon Gold seed potatoes planted in this plot yielded nearly a full old beer box. One of the chickens, Nugget, could hardly wait for the harvest to complete, so she could scratch around in the rich soil.

The onion harvest was also good this year (see pics below). The yellow Candy onions produced very well, with many medium to large onions. The Red Candy did not produce as many large onions, but it still netted a decent harvest. I wish I could find a red onion that grows as well as yellow Candy. I do like the fact that Red Candy is a fast maturing variety, just like the yellow Candy. They both matured about the same time this year. Overall, I harvested two 5 gallon pickle buckets full of onions. I pulled up the onions, cut off what was left of the green tops, trimmed the roots, and then placed them on fencing elevated by several bricks to dry in the sun for about a week. I will then sort them by size and place them in mesh bags and store them in the basement.

I harvested all of the small topsetting onions and pulled up the “mother” plants and discarded them. I am drying the small topsetting onions in the barn over a small piece of fencing.

A few Roma tomatoes were harvested a few days ago, along with the first harvest of green beans. This first harvest of beans is a little down from years past, probably due to the cool rainy weather. Speaking of the weather, it has been very cool for the last week or so. Yesterday Indianapolis recorded a high of only 71 degrees, which was an all time record, for the date, for lowest high temperature.

I harvested a few cucumbers a few days ago. at least 2 of the Diva cucumber vines have withered and are near death. I suspect that I might have some vine bore problems, but I have not been able to determine for sure. The other six cucumber plants are growing reasonably well and have started to push on many new flowers. Harvest also continues on the lettuce, peppers, celery, broccoli side shoots, and cabbage. Happy Gardening!!