it's time to plant onions!

I sowed my first seeds of the season. A tray with several types of onions, leeks, and celeriac. My planting calendar said it was time.



I couldn't find my leftover plant labels from last year, so I cut up a plastic tofu container. I'll get better labels before I need to mark the rows outside.

I'll start up a post soon with a list of the onion varieties I planted. I'll continue fill in this list as I plant more seeds. Next on my planting schedule are cabbages and escarole, but that's not for another two weeks. Until then I'll just watch my onions germinate. (That usually takes 7-10 days.)

getting ready to plant onions and celeriac

Yeah! It's time to begin planting indoors. This weekend I'll clean some of my old planting pots and trays and get out the seed packets and potting soil. So fun to get my hands into soil again.

I used to plant onion sets instead of seeds, but onions grow bigger and are less disease prone from seed. It's a stress on the plant to hold it as a little bulb then get it growing again. its really easy to grow onions from seed. Only two tricks, get the right variety for your area - in the north, grow long day onions. I like Pontiac, White Wing and Red Wing from Johnny's Seeds, but there are many long day varieties. The other trick is to start them early, 11 weeks before your last frost. Count bhack from your frost date, or download my calendar app.

Onion seedlings like to grow fairly dense. Scatter the seeds about a half inch apart in a small tray, like a saved lettuce container. I'll use smaller pots so I can grow fewer amounts of more varieties. And I like to have some small pots to give away. you can still fit a lot of onion seedlings in a small pot.

my first seedling!!!

It's a little onion sprout. Variety: Red Wing. Actually there are two of them. I feel like a new parent.

how to grow "comically huge" onions

I was so thrilled with Sara's comment on how to grow "comically huge" onions that I have spent some time reading up on onion culture.

Sara wrote: Onions: plant very shallowly, feed, feed, feed and water to put on as much leaf mass as possible before your daylength reaches the # of hours that your variety requires to bulb. Used organic fertilizer and compost last year and grew HUGE onions. Comically huge.

These are my tiny onions:


Here's a really great link I found: Growing Onions, TexasA&M

The size of the onion bulb is dependent upon the number and size of the green leaves or tops at the time of bulb maturity. For each leaf there will be a ring of onion; the larger the leaf, the larger the ring will be.

My onion varieties are all "long-day" onion varieties. They will quit forming tops and begin to form bulbs when the day length reaches 14 to 16 hours. In the Boston area, that happens (15 hours) on May 29. (I used this daylight calculator.)

Sooo.... My plan is: plant shallow, then baby my onions until the end of May. Lots of food and water and sun.

Onion varieties I'm growing this year: Pontiac, White wing, Red wing, and Ailsa Craig.

onion sprouts!

My onion seedlings are up!

These are all 1 year old seeds. The 6 year old seeds haven't come up yet (but they did last year).

onion and celeriac seedlings

tiny new onion sprouts!!

I found a first onion sprout today. Yippee!!

I guess one of the reasons onions and celeriac are planted first is that they sprout slow and they grow slow. I'm wishing I had sowed a few broccolis just to get things going! This evening, I used a toothpick and checked around in the onion pots for sprouts. Since I like to use up my old seed, and onion seed doesn't last long, I often have trays that don't sprout.

The Pontiac onions are sprouting, but apparently not Frontier, Ruby Ring, or leeks. I had an email from Fedco today that my new onion, leek and shallot seeds are on the way. I'll get some pots ready so I can plant this fresh seed as soon as it arrives.

Go sprouts, GO!

Egyptian walking onions

I was given a single perennial walking onion three years ago. I planted it, then didn't pay much attention as I didn't really know what to do with them. The onions didn't have a specific time when the needed to be harvested and they had these funny topsets bulbs.

But I've gradually become braver and have been pulling up a few plants now and then. They look like scallions or bunching onions, but the flavor is unique and pungent - similar to a shallot. They tend to disintegrate with cooking, so I like to add them to a stir fry or an omelet as it finishes cooking.

I haven't yet tried eating the topsets. I hear some say they are tasty and some say they are not. My walking onions have multiplied fast, and without any help form me. Sometimes I move a venturesome topset from a path and put it back in the bed. In midsummer, as new shoots come up and old ones die back, I clean up the clump by pulling out the dead onions. Mostly, they do their own thing. I have quite a big clump of them now and am growing quite fond of them.

onions in storage

Onions were pulled, washed, dried a couple days in the sun, then trimmed and bagged in mesh I saved from supermarket onions. Hanging now in basement. It will only take me a couple months to go through these, so they don't need to keep very long.

Next year I will try for a bigger crop - not necessarily more onions, but bigger ones. That means giving them their own space with no other plants competing for their sunlight. And maybe start the seeds a little earlier. I sowed Feb 25, a bit too late. I like the variety, "Pontiac".

onion harvest

I pulled these yesterday before the rain. The rain cleaned them for me. I'll let them cure in the sun here a few days so they store well. Most are not as big as I hoped since I let the big volunteer squash grow in the middle of their bed.

harvests: basil, onions and beets

onions

onion sprouts

More and more little onions sprouts keep popping up.

first seeds planted

These are my first seeds planted this year! They are in seed cells inside under lights. Its 83 days (11 weeks) before my last spring frost.

List:
Echinacea (enormous purple cone flowers hand collected)
Lavender augustifolia
Celeriac, Brilliant
Onion, Frontier
Onion, Ailsa Craig
Onion, Yellow Sweet Spanish
Onion, Rossa Lunga di Firenze
Onion, Ruby Ring
Onion, White Portugal

I am also collecting plastic gallon milk bottles as I'd like to set out a few types of wild flowers and perennial flowers for winter sowing soon.

Sowing 2009
Sowing 2008

this week's harvests

I pulled a bunch of beets this week: Chiogga, Lutz and White Detroit. Also carrots: Oxheart, Mokum and Bolero (a lot of funky shapes!).

And my onions grown from sets: variety is Stuttgarter. Onions will stay in the garden 3 or 4 days to dry for storage. Its a good time with several days of dry weather ahead.

perennial onion

A friend of mine grows perennial onions and I asked for one. I planted it in the corner of a bed at my community plot. But I'm still confused about what on earth this is.... I'll have to ask more questions next time I see her.

I have read about perennial onions at Bifurcated Carrots. OK. I guess they are like chives, but they make bulbs as well as greens. Sounds reasonable. And they also make top sets that are like little onion bulbs that can be planted for more onions. OK. Patrick also writes that their best use is for green onions. Super. I'll look forward to this.

Right now its just a scrawny single onion stem. I assume it will turn into a clump after a while. Another new veggie to watch!

real onions sprouts and more sowing

My onions finally sprouted. It took 8-9 days. Of the 3 varieties I planted, I have low germination of one (red), none in another (White Portugal), and good germination of the third (Sweet Yellow Spanish). Pretty little sprouts. So brave and bright!

Today I planted seeds for lavender, thyme and celeriac. These are supposed to be started 8-10 weeks before frost.

I also started 4 pots of tomato plants - very early, just to see if I can get a very early tomato. These will need to be transplanted to large pots long before they can go out to the garden, not something I can do for many plants. But I've read this works for others. Sure would be nice to have a real tomato soon!

I used my coarse planting soil in the bottom half of the cells and new fine soil at the top. The sun is very warm a bright as it shines in the window on my planting trays. At midday, I think its brighter than the lights. The lights extend the daylight hours though.

2009 sow-what-and-when

first seeds sown

Right on schedule, my onions are sown: one flat each of white, yellow and red onions. 11 weeks before my last frost date - April 30.

onions drying

I pulled all of my onions a couple days ago. I have noticed other gardeners are drying theirs in their gardens, though with all the rain, I'm not sure why. So I have half my crop on a counter in my kitchen (bottom left photo) and the rest in the sun in my garden (top photo). I'm hoping to find Gino in his garden (his onions are the bottom right photo) so I can ask him if its important to leave them outside.

what's wrong with my onions???

I often have trouble with onion seedlings. They shrivel up and die a week or two after sprouting. The ones in the tray (the photo on the left) started dying a couple weeks ago. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Fortunately, I also did some winter sowing and seeded onions outside in plastic bottles (photo on the right). These are doing much better. They look good to me. They are growing very slowly, but surely.

Last night I picked up my new book, The Gardener's Bible (my bedtime reading), and read about onions. "To grow good onions, give them what they need and then don't bother them. Come harvest time, you'll have a crop that will bring tears to your eyes" says the author, Edward C. Smith. I think this is the problem. The onions don't seem to like all the attention of my seed trays under the bright lights and warm room temp.

What is it about onions? Are they shy? My other seedlings are doing well.