Cebollas!

Over the past few days we have transplanted about fifteen beds of onions.  These guys are quite hardy, so they are often one of the first vegetables to go into the ground and they are only planted once a season.  Some onions will be harvested as spring onions in a couple of months.  The rest will get picked in August/September, after they spend the summer growing into delicious cooking ingredients and tear generators.

Two of the onion varietals were planted by hand.  This is quite the labor-intensive process as each bed contains four rows of plants, planted about three inches apart.  Luckily, we utilized the Prescott College students that visited the farm for one of their classes yesterday and managed to finish the process relatively quick.  The rest of the planting can be done using a transplanter, which is pulled behind the tractor.

Stix ready to plant some Amaryllidaceae

Two people sit in the back of the transplanter and stick the plants into holes made by a spikey wheel.  For these onions, we did three rows per bed and there is less user error in the spacing thanks to the spikes.  This is an easier operation as there is less bending and overall body movement - you are sitting after all.  However, it takes more concentration to keep up with the tractor.

Steph cleaning mud off the spikes on the trasplanter

After throwing some pungent fertilizer on the newly planted beds, the last step of the process is to lay irrigation. At Whipstone, we use drip tape to ensure maximum watering efficiency; it virtually eliminates evaporation and is easy to use.  Rubber hoses are laid between each row (usually two per bed) and attached to a master hose that runs along the heads of the beds.  The drip tape is secured into the ground with staples for when that high desert wind picks up speed.

Planted onion beds with drip tape