starting onions from seeds ?

[rus_geek]

We always used onion sets growing up, so that's what I used in my gardens. Last year, I wanted more variety of onions, so thought I'd start some from seeds. The ones I started indoors with all my other plants sprouted nicely, but got about two inches tall and very stringy and then died off on me. The ones I direct seeded in the garden seemed to grow okay, but only got about six inches tall and never developed the onion bulb larger than about an eight inch.

Is there a trick to getting these started indoors? I don't think my outdoor season is long enough to direct seed in the garden.



-rus-

 

[Egon]

Try seeding a few in the late summer. They should over winter and start growing again next spring.

Some onions have very nice blossoms and seed heads that seem to stay colourfull for a long time. I use them as flowers.

Picture of leek flowers. With these I bought some fresh leeks in the grocery store and planted them. That was about four years ago.

 

[bp fick]

Try to imitate the flat of onion settings you bought for transplant. Plant them fairly thick, like a lawn in a old flat. I assume your ph, sunlight, food, moisture were all conducive to proper growth.

In Wisconsin, similar to Michigan, the season is not long enough to grow them from seed, say from June to September. I will be starting mine around March 20th in the flat, indoors. If I run into a failure such as you stated, well, then, I will just have to buy some from the green house guy down the road. He's mighty proud of them, though.

 

[charlz]

Last year, I wanted more variety of onions, so thought I'd start some from seeds. The ones I started indoors with all my other plants sprouted nicely, but got about two inches tall and very stringy and then died off on me.

This could be 'dampening off' which is a fungal problem. Use only sterile starting mix like Pro-Mix which is a 'soiless' mix. This way you don't introduce fungus from the soil. Next, once the seedlings are up and going uncover them, you don't want it to be really humid and moist as this promotes fungus growth.

Keeping them under lights is key, keep fluorescent lights just 1-2 inches above them for maximum light. Also running a fan on them 10 minutes or so a day will help them thicken up. This also works for tomatoes, peppers etc.

If you are planting them in one open tray thin them to about 1" spacing when they come up. If you are growing in cells you can use a pretty dense cell tray.

Start them 1.5 to 2.5 months before your transplant date... which can be up to 28 days before your typical 'frost free day' if you want really early onions or you can start them a bit later and put them out on your frost free day. They tolerate cool weather well and they are some of the first plants you can put out in a growing season.

When you put them in the garden space them 4-6" apart and clip them down to about 5" or the tops dry out before they get rooted. Then keep lots of water on them or they get real strong

The ones I direct seeded in the garden seemed to grow okay, but only got about six inches tall and never developed the onion bulb larger than about an eight inch.

Eight inch!! or maybe you meant eighth inch There are long day and short day onions, you have to grow the type for your latitude. You are in the north so you need long day onions. Most likely your direct seeded onions didn't get going enough until late in the summer when the nights were not short enough to induce bulbing. Possibly you planted 'Bunching' onions which are the 'green onions' you buy in the store so don't plant those unless that is what you want.

 

[charlz]

In Wisconsin, similar to Michigan, the season is not long enough to grow them from seed, say from June to September.

They grow Walla Walla onions here commercially from seed. They start way earlier in the year than you would expect. Onions are cold tolerant and will germinate in soil temps as low as 34-37 F. They do much better with soil temps above 52 F. Here they plant around the middle/end of April. Harvest is around early September.