Re: [gardeners] Wednesday
Liz (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 10 Sep 1998 09:19:20 +0000
Margaret Lauterbach <gardeners@globalgarden.com> wrote:
> My only concern
> is that the skins are thin, and I'm expecting a hard La Nina winter. Don't
> onion skins toughen and thicken just before a hard winter?
Nope. Onion skins toughen only in response to previous experiences,
not future ones. Dumb as that sounds (and like you didn't know that
without me saying it), there has been nothing in the weather this
summer that indicates there will be a hard winter and it's the summer
weather that causes changes in the onions.
That's not to say we won't have a hard La Nina winter. It's just
that the El Nino didn't dissipate early enough for the associated
weather changes to affect the onions.
I've lived in the Inland Northwest since 1990 and we haven't had a
normal winter yet. Winters have been warmer than normal. Pullman,
WA hasn't gotten below 0F in that time -- something positively
unheard of. In fact, it's only had a handful of days, about 30 or
so, that the temperature got below 10F. I'm hoping that we can make
it one more winter before the usual cold sets in -- I don't have a
single bit of winter clothing and really don't want to have to spend
big bucks on something to get me through sub-zero days. It's the
fact that I am completely unprepared for cold weather than makes me
believe we really will have a frigid winter. :-)
Liz