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neohippie

some ?'s about starting onions indoors

neohippie
14 years ago

I've been Googling and looking through my garden books, but I still can't find very satisfactory information.

I'm trying growing regular bulb onions from seed for the first time instead of buying plants. In my area I was told to start short-day onion seeds in October and then plant the plants out in late Jan./early Feb.

In Oct. I planted my seeds in my garage under grow lights. I just leave these lights on all the time, since I don't have a timer and I have trouble remembering to turn them on and off. Leaving the lights on all the time is how I've done it for years and it works find with tomatoes, peppers etc. The garage is cool but rarely freezes. I have a thermometer in there and lately it's been in the 50's at night and 70's in the day.

The worrying thing is now my onions have a definite swelling at the bottom of each plant, even though the plants are still tiny (the leaves are about the thickness of chives). Then it occured to me that onions are day-length sensitive! Maybe by leaving the lights on all the time I've confused them into thinking it's summer and they're trying to grow bulbs?

Or is everything ok and they're supposed to look like that? The transplants from the garden center look just like green onions from the store, with no suggestion of a bulb at all, so that's what I was expecting for my home-grown transplants.

If I've totally messed things up, then what is the right way to grow onion transplants? If I put them on a timer, how many hours of light should they get? (I really can't find specific info on how many hours of light baby onions should get.) Should I just have planted the seeds directly outside?

Thanks for any help.

Comments (5)

  • cyrus_gardner
    14 years ago

    You are in zone 8 , where?
    I am in zone 8 in GA and have direct sowed some onions in my garden. they are 4 -6 inches tal, but not thick. They will overwinter here and will take off next spring.

    If your winter lows do not get under 15F, you can transplant your onions in the garden. But before doing that you have to harden them by bringing them outside.
    Onions do not need to be kept/grown at 50 -70F. They can overwinter in the garden in subfreezing temperatres.They may stop growing but certaily will not die off. If only it gets down close to 0F or lower, their top may die but they will resume growing in the spring.

  • neohippie
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    I live in central Texas.

    Ok, I'll consider planting them in the garden. Maybe I'm being overprotective of my babies. :-)

  • TJG911
    14 years ago

    i'm in ct but how to start onions from seed should be the same here at where you are. i have always read that you need to leave the lights on 16 hours and off for 8. plants need a rest and the 8 hours of dark gives them that rest. regardless of the type of plant 16 on, 8 off... buy a timer they don't cost much.

    my onions will have a bulge at the base when i plant out. for time reference i start the seeds in mid february and put them out in mid april, so 8 weeks. i like the bulb at the base, showing they are doing well.

    maybe the garden store plants are so crowded they have no room to form a bulb? onions i have seen in greenhouses are planted so close they have no room between plants.

    tom

  • neohippie
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Tom, I'm glad to hear yours have a little bulb at the base and turn out ok. That's a relief.

    I actually planted the seeds really thickly in flats, and then when the sprouts got big enough to handle comfortably, I transplanted them so they're farther apart. That's when their little bases started expanding and I was afraid I had somehow triggered them to prematurely turn to bulb growth.

    Maybe they just like having more room.

  • TJG911
    14 years ago

    i always plant my seed in 4" X 6" containers and put the seed into rows, 8 or 9 per row going in the 4" direction, i use tweezers to put 1 seed in the right spot tedious but it works well. one year i just sprinkled seed to see the difference. i decided that sprinkling seed did not produce seedlings that developed as well as when i did rows. maybe they were too close? i went back to planting in rows. greenhouses have onions in containers that are very crowded and they seem to do ok as far as attaining a good size for planting out but i'm sure they over fertilize for the growth otherwise people may not buy them if the plants were small and thin. personally i prefer allowing the plants to have more room. i have 1 4' X 6" of red wing about 75-80 plants and 2 containers of copra about 150-160 plants.

    tom

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