Can I grow my own onion starts from seed this winter, indoors. I have grow lights and wondered if I started early, could I come up with my own starts? Has anyone here tried this? What kind of a timeline would I have to keep to have them ready for garden planting in the spring?
Willow
onions from seed
You sure can. Plant about mid January. Sprinkle the seed around on a flat of soil. Miracle Grow or something like that. Lightly cover seeds with fine soil mix. Keep them moist & dark. Onions like dark to germinate. Once they germinate, get them under lights. No need to transplant, just let them grow in the flats. They will come apart easily when you are ready to plant them out. Trim the roots a little. They will be quite long.
Don't let your cat near the flats. They tend to make a litter box of it. LOL!
Bernie
Oh Bernie, thank you so much. I figured there was a way to do it, just wasn't sure where and when to start. Thank you for sharing, and I definitely won't let my cat near...she's tried to use my seedling trays as nice places to nap before, but thankfully not for a litter box. However, I don't intend to even let her come up with that idea as I'm sure it would be next.
best regards,
Willow and Misty the cat
They overwinter in my zone. I just set out some a few days ago that were tiny and already they've doubled in size. I had started them in 3.5" pots which are shallow and the roots had hit bottom and started entangling. I really think they need to be started in something deeper because the roots seem to grow more vigorously than the tops at first.
The fact that they're growing so fast now has got to be because they have more space or that the soil is a lot cooler than the little pots were. They've been outside in the full sun since they germinated and the days have been very warm.
We seed straight into the ground in spring. Evergreen bunching. They are table onions you use with the green tops. We thin them & sell bunches in late summer through fall. What we don't pull will be there to use in the spring. They are very though. A row we planted 3 years ago had a few left. They have been dug , disked, & even sprayed with Round UP. They live on, of course we don't plan on using them.
Lots of the big onions that are bad & we don't pull, will come back the next spring.
Hi Willow - I've been growing my onions from seed, starting under grow lights, for the last few years now and have had great results with it. The only thing I would add to the above good advice is if the tops start getting too tall, just give them a little haircut - mine tend to end up all tangled together if I don't do that. That's a beautiful cat - mine love napping in the flats, too; makes me wonder why I actually spend money to buy them their own beds!
Thank you all for the helpful information. I will definitly plan on starting mine inside this winter so I'll be ready for spring planting. I love the "haircut" tip Weedwhacker. I'll definitely do that as I can imagine a snarled mess if I don't. I've tried seeding outdoors in my coldframe before, and I do grow very small ones by summer that way, but they just are too cold to really take off until it's too late to reach maturity.
CountryGardens, I was interested to hear about your bunching onions, as someone has given me a packet of seed and I wasn't quite sure how they grew or were used. Looks like I'd better seed those in a more permanent spot if they're that tough.
I complain to my cat when she sleeps on my seedlings, but I do love to watch her curled up on a windowsill in between the big plants. She looks like a small lion. I also love the way the barn cats keep my small greenhouse mouse free. The cracked corn for the ducks is kept in there so the mice like to visit, but they don't last long. The outdoor kitties find greenhouse sunbathing to be the best around here, and they repay me well!
Willow
I make succession plantings of bunching onions, trying not to plant too many at once. I thin them for salads when very small, and they grow rapidly when not crowded. I dig up the last ones and pot them for winter salads.
The ones that overwinter will sometimes get big and fat like leeks before they send up a seed stalk and go hot.
I wonder what would happen if you planted onion sets in the fall just like we do garlic and shallots. I have onions that I miss pulling in the fall and they always live through the winter. It would be one less thing to plant in the spring. Has anyone ever seen onion sets for sale in the fall?
I think the onions sets are grown from seed in one year, pulled up in the fall to be sold the next spring.
It's very common in the South to plant sets in the Fall of the year, I do it every year as part of my fall/winter garden. I'm not at all familiar with growing in your State, Helen, but if your "missed onions" survive the winter just fine then I'd go ahead and do as we do.
And yes, sets are sold here both fall and spring. I wonder if it is just a Southern thing.
Shoe
I would imagine by the time they are harvested, the ground would be frozen here.
Hmm, good point, Bernie. I wonder though if they wouldn't just stay semi-dormant until conditions were good for them to continue growing. I have friends who grow garlic as far north as Canada and it overwinters just fine. My onions, and garlic, when fall-planted grow a root system, very little top growth, then just sit there during the cold months, kicking back in as the temps rise again. I sure look forward to those fresh green onions! That's probably one of my favorite greens in late winter/early spring/summer. Yummy!
Shoe, who seems to be having as much rain as you're having snow. Lots of mud here!
We have a garlic lady at our market. She plants it all in the fall. Some went in just before the ground froze up.
I planted my garlic last fall and will harvest in the spring, but I think those are the instructions for garlic about anywhere you live. When I miss onions in the garden, they will regrow in the spring, but when I first pull them up there is often a mushy, obviously frozen outside bulb with the center actually growing up. I haven't left them long enough to see if they would go ahead and form another good onion. I have, however, grown onion seed over the winter in my cold frame and had nice, small bulbs by mid summer, but they never have enough time to really grow into good sized ones. I wonder if someone like Helen, who's in a colder area could plant sets either into a cold frame, or cover over the top with straw bales through the coldest part of the winter, and then get them off to a really early start by taking up the bales early in spring. Maybe the root system would already be established. It would be fun to try! I think you might be able to order the sets in the fall through a mail-order company. Obviously they can be grown at that time of year in some areas so most companies should be willing to carry them.
Shoe, you might have to become the distributer to us mid and northern state gardeners. We have lots of mud here too, but also snow and ice. Ours freezes hard every night, while the dogs are in, and then gets nice and mushy by the time they're ready to go out and run in it. Yuck!
The best way to raise onions is from plants. Either order them from Dixondale or buy them at a super market. Just make sure they are fresh.
Finished product.
Are those yours? What a wonderful harvest! I've always been told that the plants are the way to go, which is why I wanted to find out if I could start my own inside, ahead of time. I have my seed and am planning to get started next week. Hope it works!