Monday, April 20, 2015

Potato Onion Spacing


Of all the things that have been misplaced, I miss my memory most.  During my six years as an undergraduate student an appointment calendar was never needed.  If an obligation to be in a certain office in ten days at a specified time was told to me, I simply remembered and appeared in the named place on the correct day ten minutes early.   The need to use six years to complete a four year course of study was not due to insufficient intelligence or poor memory but was the result of a lack of focus.  The object of my focus and I will celebrate fifty years of marriage this year.  Looking back, it was time well spent.

This year I could not remember the spacing for the potato onions.  The protective wire cage is inverted  to serve as a marking grid but how many rows and how many plants per row was information that simply could not be retrieved this year.  This post will provide the lost information next year.  A forty inch wide bed contains five rows of seed.  Sixty inches from path to path accepted nine onions.

Multiplier onions is another name for potato onions.  Each onion planted will grow into a clump of approximately six onions.  We can expect to harvest at least two hundred seventy onions.  This will supply next season's seed and satisfy our need for this food for a full year.  A second similar planting was made for the shallots.  We feel that the shallots possess a milder taste and that they are kinder on aging digestive systems.  



My manner of dress requires an explanation.  Recently a passing car began to stop while we were working on the flower bed near the road.  Frightened by my appearance, they sped off.  I am not a cult fanatic to be avoided at all costs.  Decades of working on hands and knees while tending my plants has left me with sun damaged skin.  The white hood and shirt by Solumbra effectively screen out harmful sun light.  I find the clothing preferable to chemical sunscreens.  Still, there is widespread concern about the mental viewpoints of one that would appear outside dressed like that.  Many just drive quickly by.  

The first picture does show several errant holes in the rigidly uniform spacing.  They were made while trying to figure out the correct spacing.  Unused for planting, they were simply brushed closed.   

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