Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 87 Entries. Saturday, January 1 View Page Trying giant onions this year. Seedlings starting to emerge. Ordered seeds from Fosters Seeds. Variety is Ailsae.   Sunday, January 2 View Page Everything I know about growing giant onions I have learned from this grow guide that Fosters Seeds included with the seed order. I knew zero before and now feel like i at least have some direction. I have just been following GiantVeg and trying to learn by doing similar to what he is doing.   Monday, January 3 View Page Here they are today - about 4 weeks old. Transplanting into 4 inch nursery pots. Been in the grow tent under 24/7 light. Three of the plants are doing noticeably better than the others. Hope all goes well with the transplanting and they keep on truckin.   Tuesday, January 4 View Page Transplanting done.   Wednesday, January 5 View Page Raised the light and back into the tent.   Thursday, January 6 View Page Made supports out of pipe cleaners. Good for now.   Friday, January 7 View Page Giant onions doing great. Planted 11-17, potted up into 4 inch pots 12-14, been under 24/7 light. The onions have 3 true leaves now and I will pot up into 8 inch air pots when they are in 5 leaf stage.   Thursday, January 20 View Page Onions potted up, four into 15 liter autopots, and four in 6 liter airpots. I have culled half of what I started out with and these eight will be what I take into the greenhouse come spring.   Tuesday, March 22 View Page A shot of the giant onions. 4 in 15 liter Autopots and 4 in 6 liter Air Pots. Hoping to get the greenhouse set up and get them outdoors. Been running 16 hour of daylength for a couple weeks or so.   Tuesday, March 22 View Page 2   Tuesday, March 22 View Page 3   Tuesday, March 22 View Page 4   Tuesday, March 22 View Page 5   Tuesday, March 22 View Page 6   Tuesday, March 22 View Page 7   Tuesday, March 22 View Page 8   Saturday, April 2 View Page Got 4 of my giant onions into their final bed. I will be potting up 4 more larger ones into 10 gallon grow bags tomorrow. I think they are doing ok, I have never done these before and have little to compare to.   Monday, April 4 View Page Got the bigger onions potted up to 10 gallon fabric pots.   Monday, April 4 View Page Another shot   Saturday, April 9 View Page A shot of my granddaughter with the giant onions.   Saturday, April 9 View Page The bed giants. These were the smallest of the 8 I culled down to.   Saturday, April 9 View Page My biggest onions planted into 10 gallon fiber pots set up the same as autopots. Aquavalve installed.   Saturday, April 9 View Page Blue   Saturday, April 9 View Page Yellow   Saturday, April 9 View Page White   Saturday, April 9 View Page Pink   Saturday, April 16 View Page 1 1/8 inch gain last week.   Saturday, April 16 View Page yellow gain 1 1/4 in last week   Saturday, April 16 View Page blue, 1 1/4 inch gain last week   Saturday, April 16 View Page white, gained only 3/8 inch. This is the one that the root ball fell apart during transplanting.   Saturday, April 16 View Page A shot of the 4 hydro onions. The ones just prior listed.   Saturday, April 16 View Page My four giants planted in a soil bed. These where the smallest of the eight I culled down at transplanting.   Saturday, April 23 View Page Blue markered onion grew 2.25 inches the last two weeks.   Saturday, April 23 View Page Pink markered onion has grown 2.75 inches in two weeks.   Saturday, April 23 View Page White markered onion increased 1.5 inches in two weeks. This one had some trouble at transplanting. The root ball fell apart, but she has hooked on and is gaining nicely.   Saturday, April 23 View Page Yellow marker has gained 2.75 inches in the last fortnight.   Saturday, April 23 View Page Pumpins germinated and doing well. 963 Johnson, 1211 Borgers, and two 260 Boggs. Want to use the 260 Boggs as a pollen donor on either the 963 Johnson or the 1211 Borgers, whichever looks best at culling time. A few tomatos just coming up, 7.19 Hill, 7.66 Hill, and 6.32 Borgers. I know the 6.32 Borgers are Mega Mutt D, but I have no idea what the Hill maters are as far as variety. If anyone knows the varieties, please let me know.   Saturday, April 30 View Page Blue onion increased 1 3/8 inches last week.   Saturday, April 30 View Page Pink increased 1 1/4 inches last week.   Saturday, April 30 View Page White increased 1 1/8 inches last week.   Saturday, April 30 View Page Yellow onion increased 1 5/8 inches last week.   Friday, May 6 View Page Plants are in the ground. 963 Johnson and 1211 Borgers. I will let them fight it out until they have landed, then one will be culled.   Friday, May 6 View Page Two 260 Boggs that I planted in a 10 gallon pot. I want to use one of these as a pollen donor, then both will be culled. I think I am as close to guaranteed orange with this cross. the 260 Boggs has some good lineage.   Friday, May 6 View Page First round tomatos got potted up yesterday. Yeserday I planted a second round of tomatos.   Saturday, May 14 View Page Onions are gaining about an inch/week.   Saturday, May 14 View Page Pink   Saturday, May 14 View Page White   Saturday, May 14 View Page Yellow   Saturday, May 14 View Page First round of giant tomatos.   Saturday, May 14 View Page Second round giant tomatos.   Saturday, May 14 View Page Nice pot of potatos.   Monday, May 23 View Page Blue   Monday, May 23 View Page pink   Monday, May 23 View Page white   Monday, May 23 View Page yellow   Sunday, May 29 View Page 1211 Borgers on the left, 963 Johnson on the right. 1211 will be the selected one and 963 will be culled as soon as I am sure the 1211 had a safe landing.   Sunday, May 29 View Page The main reason the 963 is going to be culled is this fused together leaf stem that divides into two seperate leafs at the end. Freeky things happening this early is too much of an omen to me. I remember the 1211 Borgers that grew the 963 Johnson had some weird male flowers and some fused together parts in a few places. Might have just run into the maximum number of self pollination a line can take without inbreeding problems. I have a couple nice 260 Boggs in a ten gallon pot that I will use for a pollen source for the 1211.   Sunday, May 29 View Page The 260 Boggs in their pot.   Sunday, May 29 View Page Giant tomatos going into the ground the next few days. 6.32 Borgers (Mega Mutt D) is a real agressive plant, outdoing all the others.   Sunday, May 29 View Page After two unsuccessful years trying to get a long gourd to germinate, I finally succeeded. Guess I wil have to get going on some type of trellis. Very excited.   Sunday, May 29 View Page The giant onions are blowing my mind. These things are getting huge. Hoping for a US record which is currently held by Jack LaRue at 7.3 lbs.   Sunday, May 29 View Page Still getting some new leaves which is great as giant onions cease to grow new leaves after the spring equinox.   Sunday, May 29 View Page Nice tape.   Thursday, June 9 View Page Trouble started literally overnight and is spreading quickly. Applied Merit about 3 weeks ago other than that only worm tea and rain has been on the leaves. Another pic in the next post.   Thursday, June 9 View Page Another in next post.   Thursday, June 9 View Page One more in next post.   Thursday, June 9 View Page Final pic. Anyone know what is happening?   Friday, June 10 View Page Have a nice mega on the first tress but plant is only a little over 1 foot tall. Do I try to pollinate this one, or wait until the plant is bigger?   Friday, June 10 View Page Mega bud.   Sunday, June 19 View Page 1211 Borgers, 10 ft, female in the tip, will probably wait until I got more plant to push it before pollination. Been getting worm tea weekly. Applied Tree & Shrub a couple days ago, following up today with a fungicide and surface active insecticide.   Monday, June 20 View Page Games about over for this giant onion. This is my first onion harvest and I have better ones still growing big. Just under 20 in circumferance. 186 days from seed.   Saturday, July 2 View Page First pollination on 1211 Borgers. Only one male open on my 260 Boggs but went on with the cross using only one male.   Sunday, July 3 View Page Lifted two of my eight giant onions. These were the runts of the bunch and the leaves were spent. The bigger one weighs 3 lbs 7.5 oz.   Sunday, July 3 View Page On the scale   Sunday, July 3 View Page Pollinated this 3 lober on the 1211 Borgers. Crossed with 260 Boggs. It's only been a couple days, but appears like it may have took. I pollinated the second female today 7-4 A four lober. Selfed.   Thursday, July 28 View Page 1211 Borgers at 20 DAP, cc 68, ss 46, fb 43, OTT 157, Est Wt 94 lbs, 400 sq ft.   Thursday, July 28 View Page This was a practice pollination on the vertical side of the trellis about 7 ft up. Just started to pollinate off the top of the trellis.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Now here is my best ever megabud. I think there are at least 4 maybe 5 fused together. I hope this will turn into a big one before the weigh offs.   Saturday, August 27 View Page 1211 Borgers at 50 DAP. Taping 425 lbs. Gaining 6 lbs/day over the last 5 days. Old leaves are going fast, I only had 350 sq ft to start with, so need to keep them green as long as possible. Finally getting orange. I grew my 963 from the same mother and both selfed, the 963 was orange as orange can be by DAP 20. This one has more of a wheel shape than I expected, The 963 was a 5 lober and this one is a 4 lober, could account for the differences. This line has been selfed for the last 6-7 generations. I thought it may be getting close to a stable progeny, but it looks not to be the case.   Saturday, August 27 View Page My long gourd is 32 DAP and has all but stopped lengthening. It sits at 92 1/4 inches, just 1 1/2 inches from tying the State record. I have pollinated a couple more hoping to get a good fall gourd before the weigh offs.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Long gourd sprang a leak, I'm sure this is what caused the stop in growth. Another leak broke out just above this one. They appear to have stopped oozing and I keep it dusted with sulfur and things are looking OK. Time will tell.   Saturday, August 27 View Page Here is the biggest of my giant onions. Will be lifting it next week to enter into the State Fair. It measures just over 23 inches in circumference and I am hoping it will go 8 lbs and be the new USA record currently held by Jack LaRue at 7.3 lbs.   Monday, October 3 View Page Rounding out the year. 92" long gourd. 1st Place @ Downtown Pumpkin Festival   Monday, October 3 View Page 6 lbs 1oz giant onion Best of Show at SD State Fair   Monday, October 3 View Page 1211 Borgers X self is now the 428 Johnson. 3rd place at Riverview Pumpkin Festival She had so much green they gave me a gag green squash award! LOL Genetics is a very strange bedfellow.   Monday, October 3 View Page I continue to be the worlds worst tomato grower. I had some absolutely huge megas, but lost every one to BER. Started some late in hydroponics and think this may be my answer to not getting BER. Not one mater to the scales. One more year and if I don't get a big one, I'm giving up on tomatoes.   Wednesday, October 5 View Page This is what it's all about for me this year.