12 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 305 



The 11-inch rows, however, gave very good results with the same fertilizer appli- 

 cation. 



The sets produced in 1932 were graded and weighed for storage loss after 

 they had been stored for about si.x months. The loss included sprouting, decay, 

 and shrinkage from loss of moisture. On the J^-% inch sizes, the loss was 28 per 

 cent with the sets grown on the 0-12-8 fertilizer as compared with about 15 per 

 cent on the other fertilizer treatments. The losses of the sets grown with 500 

 pounds of the 4-12-8 fertilizer were as follows: 



Size of Set Loss 



Per Cent 



M-Vi inch 20 



J^-M inch 16 



Over % inch 13 



Since the ultimate value of onion sets is for the production of onions, a test 

 was made to determine the influence of the fertilizer treatment used in growing 

 the sets on the yield of plants grown from these sets and their tendencx' to develop 

 seed stalks and multiple bulbs. The sets grown in these tests were also compared 

 with commercially grown sets. Both of the two larger sizes were planted because 

 the smaller size would not give information on seed stalk production. The large 

 size, ^-1 inch, gave a considerably higher total yield, but after the removal of 

 all bulbs which developed seed stalks or multiple bulbs, the difTerence was very 

 slight. With the small size sets, multiple bulbs were negligible in all cases, and 

 less than 1 per cent had seed stalks except for the commercial which had 3.8 

 per cent. The large size, ^-1 inch, gave the following results: 



Fertilizer Percentage Percentage 



Sets Used to with with 



Grow Sets Seed Stalks Multiple Bulbs 



[0-12-8 15.7 3.1 



%-l inch I 2-12-8 18.2 3.6 



14-12-8 (500 lbs.) 18.7 2.1 



[4-12-8 (1000 lbs.) 28.3 8.5 



Commercial sets 37.9 17.7 



This seems to indicate not only that good fields of the desired size of set can be 

 produced locally, but that they compare very favorably with commercial sets 

 for keeping quality and production of onions. It must be remembered, however, 

 that this test is only for one year, and the results may not be conclusive. 



Onion Transplants. During 1933 another attempt was made to study the 

 possibilities of growing onions from transplants instead of from seed or sets. 

 This phase of onion growing is being considered because of the difficulty of grow- 

 ing good crops of seed onions and the expense of planting set onions, as well as 

 the possibility of growing some of the larger, milder types of onions in this section. 



It takes about three months in a greenhouse to grow plants for transplanting, 

 and the labor of transplanting is about the same as it is with sets; so the expense 

 of planting is pretty high. 



In the trials made, seed onions which were planted at the same time as the 

 transplants were not at all promising, but very fair results were obtained with 

 the transplants of some of the varieties. Transplants would generally yield less 

 than sets and would be later maturing, but very good yields of high grade onions 

 can be obtained bv this method. 



