I have always planted onion sets, but it is also always a race to get them locally. As I only go town every couple of weeks, I began to order them a seed company. They emailed me that their supplier had 100% crop failure and they would not have sets this year. Last year I purchased a packet of onion seeds, so I decided to start them in January with my leeks. I have read that if started early enough, they will grow much bigger than an onion set and have better success. The sets sometimes think they are supposed to go to seed rather than produce a bulb, and there is no control over whether a set is a short, long or mid day onions. So here I am, with onion babies for the first time. I am treating them as I do my leeks, keeping them trimmed to about 3-4 inches under a grow light, and hoping for the best. I am experiementing with a pot that is a little crowded ( about 2 cm apart), and one a little less crowded, and one quite spaced. I am hoping the crowded ones will still produce large enough to plant, but I'm unsure ( partly due to my growing season ending by the end of august to mid sept at the latest). I am hoping they can go in the ground between the first and fourteenth of May. These is just so much snow, I'm unsure when my soil will be able to worked. Has anyone started onions from seed before? I am particulary curious about how spaced the seeds were and how the onions handled a little close quarters with each other while seedlings. Thank you
Hello Mel, There is a chap on here called Odif. He is a great gardener and does some pretty neat things. I believe that he has grown onions from seeds. Why not send him a PM? Good luck meid.
I grow mine from seeds every year. Pretty much like you have yours. The tolerate crowding very well until planted outdoors. When it comes time to plant them outdoors, I wash off the seed starting medium with water so they come apart easily. I treat shallot seedlings, scallion seedlings, and bulb onion seedlings all the same way. By starting them early, they do better. I'm aware that a lot of people give theirs haircuts. I don't. Mine do fine, usually good crop, big onion bulbs in the summer.
I tried seeds but its way too much trouble since I can get the started onions so cheap ! $2.99 for a bunch of about 50 sets !
That's great Daniel, thank you so much. Your photo really helped. I did wonder about " to cut or not to cut". I think part of my itch to cut their hair is sanity......like my little Bonsai sanity job while I look at the snow. I'm going to leave one pot to grow and see if I have a difference when I plant in a few months......maybe.
