I ordered the right number mathematically for the space, but I ended up with enough to plant another whole 45 foot bed. I love Dixondale!

Also I am trying to plant short day and intermediate day onions. Usually I only plant intermediate day onions, so I hope this works out!

Here are the onions in my one of my stationary tunnel. Onions on the right, carrots on the left (they are starting to germinate)

Onions in one of my movable tunnels

Here is the bonus bed of onions. I had to plant them 2 inches apart to get all my extra bunches planted. I will pull every other for green onions, then pull them as smaller onions for bunching. That will allow me to leave the first two plantings to get to mature size.

Jay

Here is a pic from one of our October Markets. We bring about this many onions to each market. On a good day, we will bring home part of one tub. On a bad day we will bring home 2 tubs.

Tom:
I appears you understand the onion marketing game. If you don't sell them one week, they will hold til the next! I purchased and planned on planting 3,000. Mathematically, I ended up planting over 5,000. Last year I ruined a huge portion of my crop because I let them "Dry" too long in the hot sun and they got sunburned bad. I learned my lesson and won't do that again.

Madroneb: Space and time that is why I buy my plants instead of starting them myself. I don' have a greenhouse to get them started in. It is easier for me to spend $140 on onion plants and not think about when to plant them, care for them, tend them and then replant them. I am too busy with school and all my winter markets in November-February to worry about this. Now all our grow lights are set up and growing early tomatoes and greens to transplant.

Jay

Of course that's your choice. With a baby coming and markets going well, I understand your decision to make the concession here. We all have to do it sometimes.

I guess i'm more confused by growers that complain that they make so little, then they go ahead and buy plants that are cheap and easy to grow. Asides from the chemicals, the difference of $125 in savings seems quite a bit when onions only sell for $1-1.50/lb.
I think cutting costs like this is what's made my farm so profitable over the years and others not so much.

I hope you don't mind me asking. I am just curious.

Lynn

Madroneb:

I am sorry we don't see eye to eye for how we farm. Please don't tear down what I do to build yourself up. I know what my costs are for my onion seedlings. You say it only costs you $15 for seeds? What about the Greenhouse, water, soil cost, your time to care for them, electricity. Figure all that stuff in and we are probably very close.

Nice website!

Jay

Jay, let go of your ego for just a minute, posting here is not just for showing how awesome you are. This isn't about knocking you down or building me up. Others read these posts and might think, "I'll just order from Dixondale too, it's easier". I want to give them another option, because, yes, I think for most growers it's better for many reasons to grow your own starts.

As far as costs:
My greenhouse has 10'x30' dedicated to germination and starts, the other 75x30 grows crops. It's quite well paid off by now. Regardless, a small germination hoop can be built for less than $50 and last a long time (mine did).

The water is from the rain barrels I have set up. Its free.

Soil costs, there is another thread about how cheap is if you make your own. Onion soil cost me about .002 cents worth of peat.

Electricity for a 15W heat mat? Pennies.

Lastly, which is really my point. My time is next to nothing to care for onion starts, they are about as easy as it gets, slow growing and don't need potting up.

-Mark

I'm super sorry to piss you off. Please don't get me wrong, I think almost everything you do is wonderful and well thought out. It's just when you post here, you are accepting that others might comment or criticize. If you don't like it, don't post....

Mark:

I am sorry we got off on the wrong foot here. I guess I didn't read your message as you wanted me to. It does make sense to me now. I guess I shouldn't have tried to eat lunch and "relax" by checking on here. I didn't give your message the rereading it deserved. I don't feel as if I have an big ego, but if it comes across that way sorry again.

Onions are very easy to start and don't take much time to care for, but it is time that I don't have, or the space. In a few years when we build that large outbuilding with complete greenhouse, I may go that route. For now, I am going to stick with what I know works.

I wish we had rain barrels. If we did all they would be doing is collecting dust! We haven't had a decent rain since last April. We are 15 plus inches short on rain fall coming into this spring. I am not sure how things are going to work out, but I am going to keep on planting and hope for the best.

I know I am opening up for comments and critical analysis (positive and negative) but that is what makes us stronger and what we do better. I have very few people to bounce ideas off of and share what I do. I have found the internet is a great way to share information and get thoughts from others doing the same thing that I am doing, just in a different location. There are many times I think I am doing the right thing in the wrong location!

Jay

I would like to get back to starting my own onions. I hate buying from Dixondale; they are the only company I buy from that deals with Seminis/Monsanto. I will not buy the Seminis onion varieties but normally I would boycott the company too but Dixondale is THE onion supplier and the prices are cheap. Right now I do not have enough room for starting onions and all the peppers and tomatoes and stuff. Plus they never get big enough, even started in late January to plant in a planter like the Dixondale ones. And onions are my cash crop so I tell myself there is a huge profit even with buying the plants (nice big fat plants too!).
I make $1 per onion or leek when they are nice sized. I spent $77 on onions and $55 on leeks (I had a leek crop failure last year with my puny seedlings so decided to buy this year but they are so expensive). That is 1800 onions and half will be sold for $1 each I figure. So for $77 I will make $900 not including CSA onions!

I figure 768 sq feet to grow the 1800 onions (4.5 beds). I might share some of the leek seedlings with friends since I have too many. And I always plant the best of the onion seedlings and give away all the extra ones they send since there are usually so many.

I visited another market grower this summer and I was very impressed with the short day onions he planted these and intermediate day. He planted them outside much later than me and had got along well. I am trying to copy his success. I have always planted the intermediate ones.

What varieties to you plant?

Jay

Because of the drought last year, my leeks never sized up well. However, I started selling them as baby leeks and ran out in two weeks. I was surprised that many preferred them over normal-sized ones. I usually leave them in the ground well into winter to size and sweeten them up, but I think I'll harvest more a lot sooner from now on.

I like planting onion sets for green onions too, I always try to plant some in the fall for green onion, but it is hard to keep them all summer. I have very few people have sets to sell in the fall. I wish I know of a better supplier. This year I vow to plant scallions early enough to have them to sell in the winter. I am thinking it will have to be August!

Last year I gave up on my Leeks and just let them die. When water was lacking and they don't really sell great (we love them). I focused more on the crops that were selling and made us money!

Has anyone started leeks in the summer, planted in August and sold in the December-March?

Jay

I seed leeks in April, transplant densely into a nursery bed a month later, then dig them again a month later, and set them in the field. If you bury them super deep the second time, at harvest the whites go almost all the way to the top. You don't have to hill them.
I start harvesting about 50 lbs a week in October and am just finishing up the last of them now.

IIRC Monsanto did not have anything to do with the loss of the Mars onions. When Dixondale announced that they were no longer going to be available Dad called down and reserved them for us as long as they had stock (they bought up all the available seed supply from the wholesaler). They told him that the seed was proprietary of a family farm that raised the seed and they were retiring and had decided not to license the seed to anyone else. Dixondale tried to either license it or buy it outright but no joy. When Dixondale ran out of seed that was the end of them unless at sometime in the future something changes with the licenseholder. We can only hope.

Tom

Jay, I buy several hundred extra sets in the spring and store them in a paper bag in the crisper of my fridge to be used in the fall. They work great that way.

Tom

It cost about the same as the one in your link.

I found it a little difficult to hold the onions plants, jab it in the ground and reset. I really wanted to make some sort of box to strap about my chest/waist to hold the plants but I didn't take the time to do it. If you had two people, I am sure it would go super fast!

Jay

I jab my planter, then a drop, then rock the planter forward. That way works for seeds or sets, not sure if it would work for plants.

I'm tired of bending over so much. I am ordering one of those transplanters this year (and making a box too).

His onions were a little drier than mine.