Yes, you were supposed to separate the individual plants before planting and it might be too late to do so now. Depending upon how big they are, you could pull them as needed to use as green onions.

However, are you sure you planted the right type of onions at the right time of year for your location? Being in zone 10, I assume you are in the south. And in the south I believe you are supposed to plant short-day varieties of onions during fall/winter. As opposed to planting long-day onions in the spring for northern folk. Although I'm sure someone more knowledgable than me will give you better info.

Rodney

Thanks Rodney,
I actually live in southern California and the weather is pretty mild here. I got those onions at lowes and it is quite possible I planted them out of season but I assumed that lowes does not sell actual plants out of season but is very possible that I bought the onions at the end of their season.

Thanks Rodney,
I actually live in southern California and the weather is pretty mild here. I got those onions at lowes and it is quite possible I planted them out of season but I assumed that lowes does not sell actual plants out of season but is very possible that I bought the onions at the end of their season.

Yes the onions should definitly be pulled apart. I plant my onions plants 6" apart. As far as your location it has more to do with the hours of sunlight for onions than the actual temperature.

Here is my 2 cents:

I hope , the people who sold you the seedlings, knew that it is the right variety for your location (short days), that time .

Second (as pointed out) you should've planted at about 6 to 8" spacing. What you can do now is to thin( as much as you can, leaving a min of 2" space). You can enjoy the thinning as scallions.

Concur: except that Parade is a bunching onion. They do fine for green onions at 1-2 inch spacing. Red Zeppelin is a long day Spanish type that only requires 14-16 daylight hours to trigger bulbing. Should do ok as a spring planting in your area at 6 inch spacing. Sweet onion could be anything, but if labled Texas Sweet would be a short day White Granex. They do best winter grown. All bulbing onions need space. Bunching onions not much.

Planting Long Day onions in SoCal is really problematic in my experience. Use a Grano or Granex Type. Candy does well but plant super early. This season I am planting all of my bulb onions in Winter (January).

My season of spring planting experimentation was last year. I was able to develop some onions but very few and small. Not enough time was my determination.

This year I am direct planting from seed. As most of you know our weather here in SoCal is 80 to mid 70s starting in December this year. I might wait until February in our normal weather/temp cycle.

Where I live in Riverside, our last frost is on St. Patrick's day (that's the date I use it's really close to the data >.05 difference).

This post was edited by psient on Fri, Jan 24, 14 at 13:29