Onion (bulbing)

This is the one piece of onion guidance that matters more than any date: day length at Walton County latitude is what triggers bulbing, so short-day varieties, and to a lesser extent intermediate-day ones, are what form bulbs here. A long-day variety sold in a national seed catalogue will grow leaves all season and never bulb. Onions are started in a seed bed or bought as transplants or sets, then set out through the autumn, and lifted in late spring. UF/IFAS gives 100 to 130 days to harvest. That column is measured from seeding, so onions started from sets or bought as transplants reach the same point sooner.

From the guide: UF/IFAS gives the North Florida planting dates for this crop as September to December. It gives 100–130 days from seed to harvest, 4–6 inches apart in rows 14 inches apart, sown ¼–½ in. deep. On the crop itself it says: Depending on type, onions may be grown from seed, sets, transplants, or division. Bulbing onions must be planted in fall and be short-day varieties.

Where these dates come from: the North Florida column of the UF/IFAS Extension Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide (SP 103/VH021), which defines North Florida as everything above State Road 40. Walton County is well inside it, and the Central and South Florida columns of the same table give different months. The guide is written for home and market gardens, so its spacing and days-to-harvest figures are a starting point for a field planting rather than a commercial schedule, and days to harvest varies by variety.