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Best Way To Grow BIG Onions
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Jun 13, 2025
Discover the best way to grow big onions with our step-by-step guide! In this video, we share essential tips and tricks to help you cultivate large, healthy onions in your garden. From soil preparation to watering techniques, learn everything you need to know to achieve a bountiful onion harvest. Perfect for both beginner and experienced gardeners. Don't miss out on our expert advice!
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is there a best way to grow onions I
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want to find out I've been growing these
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bulbous bad boys for many years now to
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great success but in this video we're
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trying out three different methods to
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see which one is the best bulbing onions
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are challenging to grow for many
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different reasons but the primary one is
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that they take a really long time and it
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really depends on what variety short
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medium long day onions they really
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respond to what's called your day length
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or how long Sun light hours exist in a
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particular day so a long day onion is an
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onion that likes to start bulbing or
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creating that nice fat bulb when the
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days are longer which counterintuitively
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actually means when you're further away
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from the equator think about going to
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Alaska in the summer it is a very long
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day actually when I was up there for my
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30th birthday I was fishing at midnight
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and I could see perfectly fine so what
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I've done here in this patch first of
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all I have a grow bag and I've planted
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some yellow white and red onions in the
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grow bag spaced about 6 in apart or so
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so this is one test but then over here
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I've got a pretty unique setup so I've
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got yellow white and red onions but on
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this half I spaced them out about 6 in
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apart in a row and then I put a line of
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fertilizer in a trench and then 12 in on
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the other side I've got another row of
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onions so this particular set right here
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there's a lot of space between the row a
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lot of space between the onions and a
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whole line of granular organic
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fertilizer running right down the middle
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and the idea there is will they access
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that fertilizer as they grow and will
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that boost their growth either as far as
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how quickly they grow or how big they
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grow and then over here right up at the
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front I spaced them way closer together
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both between themselves and in the rows
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and I didn't use any fertilizer at all
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and what you're seeing now is about 2
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months later the process of that growth
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so as we look at this patch the first
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thing I'm kind of shaking my head at
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myself is that I planted it right next
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to the Epic Greenhouse right here which
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does cast a bit of a shadow out to about
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here so that's why you see some of the
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ones over here being a lot taller than
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these ones no matter what method that
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I'm using and then the grow bag was just
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kind of chilling over there in full sun
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so these actually look arguably the best
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there's nothing I see wrong at all and
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on these I do see a couple weird things
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so I see these little flower bulbs
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coming up on an onion so what an onion
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is is it's a banial crop it grows
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actually over 2 years and the first year
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it's going to produce a bulb the second
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year it's supposed to produce this
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flower stock and unfortunately for some
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of these onions it's doing that in year
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one so the weird part to me though is
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that it's doing it on some onions and
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not others for example I just cut one
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off this onion right here but this one
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is completely fine now when you see the
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flower stock you kind of cry a little
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bit because it's triggering a phase of
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growth that's not really reversible so
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these onions that have flowed aren't
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really going to get a whole lot bigger
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whereas there's this little guy right
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here that has not flowered and I can
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already see a bulb starting to develop
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which is really good news so right now I
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actually don't have enough information
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to say what I think is going to do the
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best the only thing I can say is that
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the fertilized trench seemed to bulb a
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little bit more than the non-fertilized
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area over here I only see a couple bulbs
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there I had maybe like six or seven over
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here and then in my grow bag I have zero
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bulbs so I guess we're going to have to
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just check in in a month or two and see
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which one wins cuz right now I'm
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actually pretty confused they look
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pretty good I have to say even the ones
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in the containers but the ones in the
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containers are bulbing at a slower rate
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in fact in the last couple weeks these
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ones in ground regardless of method have
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bulbed quite a bit over here on the
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trench side I noticed that these seem to
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be a little bit larger as far as the
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bulb diameter goes but height-wise they
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kind of look the same remember that
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sunlight issue is probably what's
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causing this growth kind of decline as
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we get closer to the greenhouse but over
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here I still see some pretty nice bulbs
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though I would estimate they're about
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50% smaller just with a quick visual
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than the ones grown spaced further apart
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both in the row and with the fertilizer
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so we're getting pretty close to harvest
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remember you want to harvest an onion
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when that neck breaks so when that flops
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over we'll see I'll do a full weight
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measurement every metric you could
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possibly want in probably another few
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weeks the onion patch is looking strong
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not only that I'm finally starting to
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see some developments where I feel like
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I can make a little bit of a call on
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what's going on and why so on this
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section which is the trenched and well
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spaced section with fertilizer I'm
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seeing some very large bulbs I'm talking
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a bulb maybe about this big so kind of
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the biggest that I would expect it to be
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for the varieties that I planted here
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and then when I Meander On Through To
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this side which is planted closer
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together no fertilizer I'm still
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honestly seeing pretty darn good onions
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but none of them are massive like some
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of the ones on this side so I suspect
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that this spacing and fertility perhaps
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is contributing to that but to be honest
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with you guys I would not be upset to
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have all of these onions as my only
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Harvest so I'm very excited only time
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will tell and then we're going to do a
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count and weigh and see if we actually
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learned anything my friends it is time
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we planted This Together almost 6 months
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ago in early January and I'm sitting
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looking at what looks like kind of a
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pile of trash these don't look that good
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but that's actually the perfect time to
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harvest so when onions have what's
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called a broken neck when the top flops
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over that's our signal to harvest so
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what I want to do now is come through
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and harvest lay them all out on the
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table with the labels and try to figure
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out if this planting technique made any
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difference at all and then finally what
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I'll do is provide my recommendation on
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what i' do with my onions next year all
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right I I have a lot of onions guys I
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don't know exactly what I'm going to do
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maybe over on the Epic homesteading
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Channel you will see what we turn these
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into that's where I explore kind of what
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to do after you harvest from the garden
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that you're growing but what we need to
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do now chop all the tops off and weigh
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and count them and see what kind of
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difference there was already I'm
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starting to see a couple differences but
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I'm going to let the results speak for
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themselves so to start the measuring
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process I am going to remove the tops
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just to level the playing field normally
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when you're growing an onion like I said
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you're waiting for this to break and
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then you're curing your onion and you're
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leaving it out and like dappled sunlight
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for at least a few days for the skin to
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get nice and papery and for this
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Junction point to be completely dry so
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if I cut this off there's a little bit
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of juice still up in here definitely
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smells like a little onion juice
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normally I'd want that to be perfectly
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dry for this use case but I got to
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figure out how much these things weigh
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so I'm going to chop it off that's
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number eight and number nine and we are
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at 7 lb 5.2 Oz on our yellow grandx that
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was trenched and fertilized 10 6 lb 7 oz
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that's 10 at 7 lb 2.4 Oz 9 at 5 lb 2 oz
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9 at 6 lb 4.2 o and 10 6 lb 4 oz 10 6 lb
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3.3 Oz 10 3 lb 11.2 Oz forgot about the
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grow bag onions I've got 1 two woo 3
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four five and six and actually a buried
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seventh right here which is a white
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onion so not the best comparison but we
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did what we could do in the grow bags
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and I have to say if you only have space
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for grow bags these are some pretty
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decent looking onions like I'd be proud
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of these onions if I was growing in grow
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bags exclusively so let's toss these in
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here and seven 2 lb 6.3 Oz I have to say
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one of the cooler onion harvests that
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I've ever had so what you see here on
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the table is each variety yellow granx
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we got white Bermuda Texas super sweet
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and our red onion with our fertilized
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trench and broader spaced on the right
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side and our tighter spaced with no
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fertilizer on the left side and it goes
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down we'll put a chart up for you but
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it's no surprise that giving it more
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space and fertility resulted in on
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average more pounds of onions per row so
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in every single instance the trenched
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fertilizer row that was broader spaced
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outperformed the tighter space no
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fertilizer row but some interesting
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nuances on the Texas sup we have nine
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onions here with the same weight as 10
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onions over here so clearly on average a
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heavier onion over here way more Stark
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the red onions this is almost double the
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weight about I don't know about 40% more
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weight than the exact same onion variety
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that just didn't have any fertility and
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it was tighter space so my
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recommendations if I have the space and
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I do in my backyard I would space my
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onions out a little bit more and doesn't
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hurt to throw a little extra fertility
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in there hard to say exactly which was
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the contributing factor I would guess
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just giving them more space cuz onions
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tend to not want to to compete so I'd go
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6 8 in apart maybe 12 apart in rows or
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beds but frankly I've got my grow bag
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onions right here if this is the space
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that you have to grow I'm not crying
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about getting these onions right here so
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do what makes sense for you but we
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thought this would be an interesting
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experiment to run if you have any other
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ones you want to see us do we're doing a
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whole series of garden experiments so
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subscribe check out the playlist shop
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our onion seeds at Botanical ins.com
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good luck in the garden and keep on
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growing