Hello from Victoria, I am a big fan of walla wallas but I haven't had any success growing them. Last year I direct seeded them as the West Coast seed catalog said, in early August. They were too little when the frosts came, and they died. This year I seeded them in flats in mid June, and have just transplanted them out in beautiful raised beds with only residual nitrogen. They are almost the thickness of a pencil. A friend seeded some doubt in me when she suggested that they are now too big to weather the winter. We're in a bit of a cold spot, with regular -5C nights in winter. Am I doomed to fail again? When is the right time to seed walla wallas? Robin
I had pretty good success growing Walla Wallas from seed this year. I started the seed in pots in a sunroom on January 1. Grew them under lights until late March (sheared them back twice). Transplanted into raised beds spacing the seedlings 3-4" apart. We've been eating onions for about 6 weeks now, and I plan to harvest all of them this week to cure.
Thanks Terri for your reply. What I forgot to say was that I wanted to grow them over winter. Has anyone started walla wallas in June and have them succeed over the winter? Robin
I think the recommendation is to start them from seed in mid-August, sowing thickly and fertilizing well, hopefully getting them to pencil sized before the first hard freezes- Steve Solomon says in his book, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, that it is better to have them too small than too big going into the winter, as too big will bolt but not bulb. My own experience is that drainage is a big issue in overwintering them; I can overwinter them in my sandy raised beds but they fail in my heavier soils. Walla Walla onions are day-length onions that need certain light patterns to bulb successfully, and your June sown starts may confused and not form bulbs in the spring but bolt. I chose to start onions in January after reading discussions on another gardening forum here Sow Onions now or in January?. I had pretty good success both with Walla Wallas and with a storage onion called Copra.
