A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum tarOnion seeds started today , Indoors in zone 5.

I started my Onion seeds today inside . In a heated room . Start in January for set to plant come spring here in zone 5.

Here is the way I did it .

Got a kitty litter tray
Filled it with seed starting soil
moistened the soil

Made tiny rows with a small board
put the seeds in my palm
Pick them out with industrial tweezers
Place them in each row. Some had 50 seeds.
Again I put water on each row with a Kitchen Baster.

Cover the lot to keep moisture control.
Then hide an watch.

Not a bad Idea on these 3 dog nites.

dodge

You have different kinds in there, Dodge. What sorts do you grow?

Yellow Spanish Onion grows best in our area. Is what I do on a large scale.

The other 2 were given to me so I just put them in other pots .

I know the vidaila Onion , is everyones favorite. But it doesnt adapt to our climate.

b

no it needs a longer warm season (but still my cool season) to do well. As well as maui.

Won't the plants be big and leggy by spring?

I really dont know. My 2nd try of it only. Last year it was Feb I started some , and they are quite busy trying to make bulbs first , which might delay leggy.

I will find out .

Did the shout box just move to the left now, or is my machine goofy?

b

no it has been moved to the left--if you read the shout box you will see that Bill changed some things--trying to help us, he is.

Thanks for the advice........
Now I will check around here.

I've never grown onions so I was just asking. I don't know how long it takes them to germinate or anything except I like the flowery seedy looking part they make. We don't eat a lot of onions. How do you store them?

I can answer the part about storing onions, sheri.

My dad would store his onions one of 2 ways.

1) he would gather the harvested onions up in lots of say 5 or 6 bulbs, and tie them together around the green parts so the air would flow freely thru the bulbs and tie these "groups" up in a string so that when done he would have a long rope of onions (each bulb ending right before the green of the next one began). Mom would begin using from the bottom & work her way up the rope of onions.
Or
2) he would cut the onions so nothing but the bulbs were left & lay them on an elevated screen (he used an old screen door) to dry. when Mom needed an onion she just picked one from the screen.

Mom made sure to use them up before the winter freeze, so they would not have a chance to turn to mush.

We do ours different .

Let the onions dry with the tops on , In the sun.
When they are nice an dry we braid them or tie them with twine an hang in the basement inside. Ours is cooler than the upstairs.
They keep well.

You have to buy the right types.

b

how long will they keep? I know potatoes will keep for a long time if done properly.

Some keep into the spring an longer. Mine do. But start to sprout about march.

We love onions.
My neighbors are 2 potato farmers, those keep till they start to sprout in the spring also......They usually have them all sold by then......They are so good fresh.

I hate store bought ones.

b

Barb, I have to agree with you about the potatoes. back "in the day" I used to grow enough potatoes to feed the 4 of us from in the fall up to January--- sometimes later , depending on the size of my harvest.
I do so love to eat new small potatoes though, so I often would have a lot of mine eaten by the time it was time to dig them all up. :wink:

I tried growing the small. red potatoes this year without any luck. They take forever to sprout.

well I have not had the pleasure of being able to plant a veggie garden for several years---I am hoping to at least get in a few things this next year.

Giant sunflowers for one.......