Growing Onions in Haiti



Growing Onions in the Tropics

 

There are two main types of onions, based on the daylight hours required for bulbs to form. Short-day varieties start forming a bulb when days are about 13 hours of sunlight; long-day varieties don't form a bulb until days are 14-16 hours long. For both types, bulb growth is slowed or stopped during hot, freezing or dry weather. Near the equator, where days are 12-13 hours long throughout the year, long-day onions will never form a bulb; and in Canada, where days are 14-20 hours long during the growing season, short-day onions will not be successful.  The seeds you find in the southern United States will be short day varieties.  Seeds in Haiti are questionable since well-meaning missionaries carry in all sorts of seed, many which will not grow in the tropics.  Short day onions tend to be milder in taste but will not store as long as the long day variety.  The Vidalia onion is a short day variety.

 Short day onions almost always must be started from seed.  Seed should be started in December/January and then transplanted in February/ March to the garden. I have found that planting the seeds in trays or beds inside the shade house to be equally successful.  If you use a tray, don’t use an insert just fill with planting soil and sow the seeds in the tray.  Scatter the seed and cover them with about ¼ “of soil and water liberally.   After the plants reach 3 to 4 inches in height, they can be transplanted to beds either in the shade house or outside beds. Extreme hot temperatures and drought will prevent good heads forming.  The beds should be loose soil and the onions plants should be set about 4 inches apart, onions don’t like close company.  Don’t keep the beds damp but water a couple of times per week.  If for some reason the heads do not develop or are small, don’t worry, green onions also taste great. 

 If you can get onion sets, which are long day onions, into Haiti they make wonderful green onions in a very short period.   They will not make large heads but as green onions they are a wonderful addition to Haitian cooking. 

 Hours of day light for Port au Prince will reach 13 hours about May 15, reach a peak of 13 hours and 15 minutes June 20 and decline again to 13 hours at the end of July.

 

Good Shepherd Ministries Quatzeltenango, Guatemala

 

 

 

Ron Lusk and Ben Frey completed a second greenhouse for Grossman's Good Shepherd Ministries in March 2016.  The original greenhouse has been producing food for the past 4 years and the pictures below show that it is still in use.  The location is 8,000 feet up in the mountains so a greenhouse rather than a shade house is needed.  The conditions were chilly and windy with a little rain mixed in.  In addition the PVC is slightly smaller in diameter so the ends had to be constructed of wood rather than PVC.  

 

 

 

 

 

News from the Baker's in Atrel, Haiti

 

We are always excited and encouraged to hear from missions or individuals using one of our shade houses.  This note and picture are from the Baker family.

From Deborah Baker

Thought you might enjoy seeing how great the shade house is growing. We have had great success with the shade house. Beets, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, green peppers and zucchini have all done well. So, well that we have been able to share vegetables with others. Many people stop and look at the garden and are amazed that these vegetables are able to grow here.  We are excited to see how this interest in growing vegetables will develop. Thanks again for blessing us with this shade house.

 

 

 

 

January 2016  Terre de Negra, Haiti

Terre de Negra is a small community located in the costal plain of northern Haiti.  This area is mostly desert and life here is very difficult.  A gentleman here constructed a shade house of sticks and palm fronds where he grew plants, carrying water to keep them alive.  This was our incentive to build a shade house to assist his efforts.

 

January 2016  Atrel, Haiti

When Jaime and his crew arrived at the Baker family missionaries in Atrel, Haiti to build their shade house in January, they had a special request.   "Could you put screen on the ends to help control a particularly nasty moth."  The moth laid eggs that hatched into caterpillars that ate every green thing in site.  Jaime assured them that he could. Now that in itself is one of God's miracles. Two years ago we sent three rolls of high quality nylon screen to our storage depot in Haiti. This year we were quite sure that Jaime would not have enough poultry wire for two shade houses so we asked them to load two rolls of the nylon screen on the truck. As a result Jaime had exactly what he needed to fill the Baker's request. God prepared an answer for a problem two years before it was needed.  Isn't that just like the Lord?



Destructive moth

BUREAU OF NUTRITION AND DEVELOPMENT

November 2015 - January 2016

BND is a totally Haitian NGO dedicated to providing nutrition to school aged children and developing sustainable agriculture for local farmers in the area surrounding Maissade, Haiti.  The farmers are organized into 140 coops.

The "nutrition" part of the Bureau of Nutrition and Development includes providing school lunch and a breakfast snack for 165,000 children prepared from locally grown products. Here is a cake reinforced with honey and flavored with locally grown cinnamon and anise. The other is a cassava cake filled with peanut butter, sesame seed, and cane sugar. The milk is from the Brahma cows with cinnamon and cane sugar added. Yes that is pure cream on top

 

 

The coops work in animal husbandry with cattle, goats, mules, and oxen. Ample vegetation and water in this area makes it possible to work with larger animals. We were surprised to see abundance of mules and not so many donkeys.

 

 Manioc and sugar cane are processed into manioc cakes and raw sugar or rabadou.

 

 

 

 

 Shade Houses at 4 sites