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Too late to get good top growth on onions from seed?

10 years ago

My biggest garden fail thus far this season was my onions from seed endeavor.
I started at least 100 plants and ended up with about 15 surviving, but surviving they are and they are finally starting to bulk up in the onion bed. My question is how can I promote more top growth so that when they start to bulb I get decent sized onions. Right now they have about 4 or five leaves and are seriously only about 4 inches tall.
Do I still have time to get some good top growth before they start to bulb? I amended the soil with compost and time released all purpose fertilizer at planting time but I would really like to give them a boost, what should I use?
TIA!

Comments (2)

planatus
10 years ago
In my experience, small stressed onions will produce small bulbs no matter what you do. My bulb onions keep growing into early July, so there is time yet. You can drench them with a water-soluble fertilizer, which can make the flavor sharp rather than sweet when done late, but has no other drawbacks.

The onion year isn't over. Now is a good time to start seeds of leeks and scallions so you will have seedlings to set out later in the summer.
AiliDeSpain
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you planatus, i just fertilized them. Will see how it goes.
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