Green onions. A full sun crop?

[Cameramonkey]

I have tried repeatedly to grow early green onions like grandma did. She would plant the seeds along with the lettuce around st Patty’s day and by late May we would have plenty of both for her famous wilted lettuce salads. (Basically a hot bacon vinaigrette tossed like a Ceasar type salad)

Fot it the life of me I can’t figure out why I can’t get the onions to grow. *IF* I can get them to germinate, they just don’t grow to maturity. But the last 2 times I planted them they wouldn’t even germinate.

This is year they sprouted, bu after they reached about 6” tall and about the diameter of a coffee stirrer straw they aren’t getting any bigger. The lettuce 12”away is growing great! They just don’t get any bigger than perennial wild onion that grows in lawns; nothing like you buy in stores with the thin white bottom parts.

The only thing i can think of is maybe being nearest the mini barn to the east it’s not getting enough sun? It only gets direct sun from about noon on.
Ideas?

 

[VUPDblue]

How’s your soil? Sun from noon on should be plenty.

 

[churchmouse]

How’s your soil? Sun from noon on should be plenty.

This. We had terrible luck last year. Turns out I had the soil all screwed up. Bought the meter.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Its fine for everything else except corn. Sweet corn grows, but the ears dont develop fully and end up dry and tough. Lettuce right next to it is growing faster than I can eat it, we get TONS of tomatoes, and the stuff I planted last weekend is already germinating.

 

[JeepHammer]

Salad Veggies!

I suggest growing beds, and my onions always did better when grown with radishes.
I have no idea what radishes have to do with onions, the onions always seemed to grow better next to or even with radishes.

Slightly alkaline (5.5-6.5) seems to to do best for me, tomatoes, radishes, onions, etc.
My cabbage & sweet potatoes like the alkaline side of things too.

Most of my lettuce likes it REALLY alkaline, (6.0-7.5)

I don't know if I agree with everything here, but this is a reference for what crop & pH requirements.

https://harvesttotable.com/vegetable-crop-soil-ph-tolerances/

Carrots couldn't care less, they will grow anywhere!
Back in the 80s I was in Afghanistan and they grew carrots EVERYWHERE, from limestone basins to alkaline flats.
Corn grows about anywhere too...

ONE (of several) ways to control acids is small limestone chips in the bedding soil.
They are a little hard on tiller blades, but keep working year after year and won't make a bit of difference to shovel turned garden patches... Just work quietly with no issues.

My grandpa used white cloth & purple or red cabbage juice to determine growing soil pH. (Soil as opposed to 'Dirt')
My dad used litmus paper strips. (Which used to be dirt cheap in military surplus stores)
I use a hand meter. (Progress?)

Make no mistake, I still know how to use cabbage to determine pH, it's a "Just In Case/SHTF" thing...
People *Think* farmers are 'uneducated hicks' but the exact opposite is true, we learn chemistry as a matter of survival, from concentrating acids, to determining pH, to making things like baking & washing sodas, etc. To refining nitrates from soils...

Sweet corn dries up? That's weird...
Did you consider there might be something going on with the soil besides pH?
There are a LOT of coal mines down here where I live, great tracts of land useless for farming, and the reason is mine runoff.
(The reason EPA and DNR got into reclaiming of coal mines, if it's not done correctly, or at all, the land is virtually useless)

Have you rubbed a magnet in the dirt you are growing in?
If you have a lot of heavy metals, and in particular iron, nothing but broad leaves are going to grow well... (Like lettuce)

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Salad Veggies!

I suggest growing beds, and my onions always did better when grown with radishes.
I have no idea what radishes have to do with onions, the onions always seemed to grow better next to or even with radishes.

Slightly alkaline (5.5-6.5) seems to to do best for me, tomatoes, radishes, onions, etc.
My cabbage & sweet potatoes like the alkaline side of things too.

Most of my lettuce likes it REALLY alkaline, (6.0-7.5)

I don't know if I agree with everything here, but this is a reference for what crop & pH requirements.

https://harvesttotable.com/vegetable-crop-soil-ph-tolerances/

Carrots couldn't care less, they will grow anywhere!
Back in the 80s I was in Afghanistan and they grew carrots EVERYWHERE, from limestone basins to alkaline flats.
Corn grows about anywhere too...

ONE (of several) ways to control acids is small limestone chips in the bedding soil.
They are a little hard on tiller blades, but keep working year after year and won't make a bit of difference to shovel turned garden patches... Just work quietly with no issues.

My grandpa used white cloth & purple cabbage juice to determine growing soil pH. (Soil as opposed to 'Dirt')
My dad used litmus paper strips. (Which used to be dirt cheap in military surplus stores)
I use a hand meter.

Make no mistake, I still know how to use cabbage to determine pH, it's a "Just In Case/SHTF" thing...
People *Think* farmers are 'uneducated hicks' but the exact opposite is true, we learn chemistry as a matter of survival, from concentrating acids, to determining pH, to making things like baking & washing sodas, etc. To refining nitrates from soils...

I think you have acidic vs. alkaline mixed up. 7.0 is neutral. Lower is acidic, higher is alkaline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH

 

[JeepHammer]

I think you have acidic vs. alkaline mixed up. 7.0 is neutral. Lower is acidic, higher is alkaline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH

You are correct, but it's a gardener/farmer thing...
Most Indiana plants are in the 5.0-7.5 range, so the old chemistry standard of 7.0 being 'Neutral' isn't exactly a farmers or gardeners best friend...
In Ag classes, one of the first things they *Tried* to teach the chemistry geeks was to slide the scale slightly acidic or they would loose their minds (and I did loose my mind).
Every 'Chemistry' scale will show the best 'Range' for plants is 7.5, and that's an oxymoron to start out since 7.5 isn't a 'Range'.
A 'text book' that lies to you, What are the odds of that...

-------

What the 'Text Books' NEVER cover is WHAT ELSE IS IN THE 'DIRT'?
The first thing is microbes. Without the correct microbes, nothing you want to grow will...
That's the reason farmers & serious 'gardners' spend so much time & effort composting to build the 'Dirt' Into 'Soil'.

Microbes, and even some kinds of plants, won't grow in heavy metals.
There are also persistent chemicals, like weed killers, fungicides, pesticides that will keep garden plants/crops from growing, or keep them from producing seeds/fruits.

Lawn supplements that contain gluten for instance, will keep most seeds from germinating.
That's fine if you are trying to stop dandelion seeds from germinating in the lawn, but drift over from the lawn to garden is deadly.

The OP wrote his sweet corn doesn't develope, and while sweet corn isn't as pH tolerant as starch corn, the ears not developing *Sounds* like a herbicide for grasses with stems/seed heads simply not allowing the plant to make seeds, for a herbicide this would interrupt an annual life cycle, exactly what it's supposed to do...
Not good for the corn, but exactly as designed for something like Johnson grass.
Lawn 'Weed & Feed' products are full of these herbicides since lawn grass has roots, is established, and can reproduce through rhizome shoots, the seeds aren't particular needed, and get mowed off on a lawn anyway...

Anything that has been an artificial lawn is usually a bad place to put a garden, unless you raise the bed and use prepared soil.
Artificial lawns get a crap ton of persistent chemicals dumped on them, and even surface prepared soil beds will get the chemicals leaching into your bedding soil mix when it rains.
Since they are 'Persistent' and just waiting to get into the new soil, a raised bed is often the easiest way to get clean soil, and keep it that way.
Keep in mind YOU don't have to be the one laying down the persistent chemicals, it's there from previous owners, it washes over from the neighbors just fine... Too well in fact... That's why they are called 'Persistent', they just keep coming & coming...

I cover my garden beds for two reasons,
One is during the growing season, just plants sticking up through ground cover keeps weeding to a minimum WITHOUT chemicals or a ton of work.
When the beds aren't being used, cover keeps my hard won soil/fertilizers in place, not washing out when it rains.
And just like weed seeds, the cover keeps the bad stuff out, bugs don't get to burrow, lay eggs, the drift over from production crops around me doesn't get into my bedding soil...

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I know all about microbes and what you have to shovel and till in to make good soil. My dad used to work for the county health department and had connections at the stockyards. About every other year, he'd have a big ol' pile of it delivered. Guess whose job it was to spread it with a pitchfork by the wheelbarrow load? And it wasn't the nice composted stuff either. It had that lovely mix of feces and ammonia smell to it. And bits of straw. Dad's garden was decent sized too. About 75' x 40' or so. I was probably 9 or 10 when I started doing that. Maybe younger. Fun times!

ETA: I continued helping after I'd moved away. At one of the places I rented, I put in flowerbeds and wanted to bring some of that fresh stuff home to Lafayette for the beds. I took probably 4 30 gallon trashbags full in the back of my car. When I got home I said to one of my roomies, "Hey man, can you help me get some **** out of the car?"

 

[JeepHammer]

"... Stockyards... Bits of straw..."

'Pre' or 'Post' consumer?
(while city kids scratch heads trying to figure out why that's *Supposed* to be funny...)

Since horticulture microbiology isn't my field of study,
I personally have a 'System' that works for me, and I'm just relearning the old timers had much of it figured out!

Alfalfa is GREAT!
Throw handfuls of alfalfa rabbit food in the compost pile, and it supercharges the compost.
Run it through a rabbit (Meat!) and it works even better.

Earth worms do the final finish, nothing better than earthworm castings, and the compost pile makes for easy bait when it fishing time. (Fishing = Meat & fun!)

Everyone gets bored & rolls eyes when I start bragging about my compost pile, but it really is the beginning and end of good, sustainable food crops...
Since its ancient 'technology', it's also pretty simple on its surface.
4 bins, turn over, water, some alfalfa and worms, that's all it takes to break down & balance for great soil additive.

I've shoveled more than my share of livestock stalls,
Farm kids have a full time job, and you had to work an outside job to have cash money...
Your 'Allowence' was a bed, clean cloths, food on the table...
CASH was something you worked EXTRA for, a good lesson to learn.

Surface gardens, my grandpa used to have a low pH side, neutral in the middle, high pH on the other.
Plants arranged to where they grew best.

I forgot a LOT, or didn't understand back then, and had to relearn how to do the things... I spent 16 years away from growing much of anything, and memories faded.
The pre petroleum chemicals generation had it figured out, and I'm trying to figure that out or explain why the things they didn't worked so well.
Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, I'm a little slow on the uptake, but rabbits & worms still do the job!
(so do 'Hay Burners')

It's like growing mushrooms, it took a while, but I figured it out (took 3 years)...

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I think it was a mix of pre- and post-consumer straw.

 

[JettaKnight]

[video=youtube;ar-Z_l907DY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-Z_l907DY[/video]

 

[Expat]

Corn needs a lot of sun, fertilizer and water to do well.
If you have tree roots growing over into the garden, they will suck the water and nutrients away from the corn.

 

[100Xkid]

The last 3 years we have had great luck in raised bed in full sun.