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Gary350
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Need help growing onions from seeds.

I have never grown onions from seeds I have decided it is time to learn.

I probably need short day onions?

I think now is a good time to plant seeds?

I found onion seeds on ebay that say 85 day onions what does that mean?

I am thinking about planting seeds in a pan in the house to get them started then transplant to the garden. We have rather mild winters sometimes no snow. It is very common for us to have 40 and 60 degree days and 20 to 30 degree nights all winter. We sometimes get a few days in the 70s in the middle of winter.

Online says, plant seeds in spring they make about 1 new leaf every 2 weeks each leaf is another ring on the onion. The more rings it has the larger the bulb gets. An onion with 7 rings will never grow as large as an onion with 15 rings. Try to have 15 rings by spring. When days are 12 hours long onion will stop making leaves and start making a bulb.

My garden is surrounded by trees full sun about 8:30 am and full shade about 5 pm June to Aug only in the 1 location that is only 9 1/2 hours of full sun but sun rise is 5:30 am and sun set about 8:30 pm so there is 12 hours of good sun light not all direct sun light.

imafan26
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You may actually be able to grow intermediate onions. Dixondale farms has a good selection and excellent guides on planting onions. You may have to grow the onions in a container since they don't particularly like alkaline soil.

I grow short day onions because my longest day is just about 14 hours and the shortest is about 11 hours. It takes a couple of months from seed for my onion seedlings to be big enough to transplant so I usually plant them in August or September and get them in the ground ideally in October. or November at the latest. During the winter months the tops need more nitrogen to grow the leaves but the nitrogen needs to be cut when the day starts to lengthen around March. I can usually harvest around May or June. I have tested my soil and it has a pH of 6.0 and more phosphorus than needed so I only manipulate the nitrogen. Your conditions would be different.

https://www.dixondalefarms.com/onion_plant_daylengths
https://cdn.dixondalefarms.com/downloads ... gGuide.pdf

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jal_ut
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I plant onion seeds here, but the onions I get from them are for green onions. If let go full season I get walnut sized onions. If I want large onions it is necessary to plant onion sets.

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jal_ut
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I haven't grown onions in Tn though. Perhaps some short day onions and plant them now?

Onions are day length sensitive and bulb when the days are of a certain length. They are also cool weather plants. Here we plant long day onions and plant them early spring. They bulb up when the days are long.
In winter we get severe cold for three months when nothing but ice grows. Its going to be much different there in Tn, and like I said, likely short day onions planted now will do well? For what a few sets cost its worth a try. Can you get sets there now?
Oh, looking back you said you are planting from seed. Yes, plant now. I have had good luck planting onion seed directly in the garden where it well grow.

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Gary350
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3 packs of onion seeds arrived in the mail. 2 packs of short day onion seeds and 1 pack of medium day onion seeds. It has not rained here since Aug 15, nothing grows is dry dust. It has been in the 80s all week, 84 again today. Crazy weather.
Last edited by Gary350 on Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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applestar
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I sowed short rows of Walla Walla and Whitewing F1 onion seeds on 10/7. They sprouted and the little seedlings have unfolded to stand up straight. For me, the question will be will they survive the winter. I really should have obtained Candy F1's too, but didn't get the chance.

I might try to sow another short row of Walla Walla even though it might be too late. Whitewing was planted in a slightly more protected location than Walla Walla which is supposed to be winter hardy in the north.

Here's the description for Whitewing from Park, though I bought my seeds from Fedco.
(Park seed is based in South Carolina, Fedco seeds in Maine)
https://parkseed.com/whitewing-hybrid-on ... 196-PK-P1/

105 days. No matter where you live, you can grow Whitewing! That's because instead of being a long-day (Northern) or short-day (Southern) type, this remarkable white onion can grow in any day length. It's not dependent on season -- and boy, is it ever quick and delicious, delivering big, flavor-packed white globes that hold well after harvest!
Whitewing sets good numbers of perfectly round, very firm bulbs, about medium-size (in onion terms!) and boasting very slender but strong necks. The plant offers great shade coverage for the growing bulbs, so there is far less greening out with Whitewing than with many others. Well-rooted and very uniform, these onions look as good as they taste. And the storage ability is fantastic!

Whitewing joins yellow onion Candy as one of the very few intermediate or mid-day onions available today. It can be grown as a long-day in short-summer climates, and you don't have to worry if a late frost delays your planting -- Whitewing will continue to grow in the shorter days of fall, unlike most northern Onions that need the long days of summer to complete their growth cycle. It can also be grown in the south by planting in fall and then harvesting in late spring or early summer, like a short-day type. You will love the 'freedom from the seasons' Whitewing provides . . . but you'll love the flavor of these delectable onions even more! Pkt is about 200 seeds, enough to plant 30 feet of row.
...I'll c/p Fedco's description, too --
https://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search?item=2447

2447WW Whitewing Onion (97 days) F-1 hybrid. Sales took wing after we finally did this handsome white onion justice in our description. Its firm, almost perfectly round 1 lb bulbs with slender strong necks will boost almost anyone’s market. Trialer Donna Dyrek, who is lavish in their praise, grew them even bigger, up to 1½–2 lb in 2012, an outstanding year for onions. Very early and well adapted to our climate, Wing can be harvested as soon as late July and in 2012 its tops went down by Aug. 20. In a cooler season they stand till Sept. 1. Hard, pleasantly pungent and moderately sweet. Not a great keeper; with proper curing can last till the New Year. Intermediate to long day-length suitable for mid-Atlantic and northern areas.

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Gary350
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How deep should onion seeds be planted?

Winter and spring we have lots of rain, water stands in the garden for months, 6 months of mud, is that ok for onions?

My sunniest location NOW is about 6 hours of Full Direct Sun per day with trees all around, garden is the center of the donut hole. Summer garden gets about 8 hours of full direct sun per day, sun rise about 5:30 am and sun set about 8:20 pm. I hope 8 hrs of direct sun in summer is ok with a total of about 14 hours of sun light. When sun is low on the horizon behind the trees I'm not sure that counts as good sun light.

imafan26
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Onions need more water when they are actively growing but also need good drainage. I don't know if they will tolerate flooding. They do not like hard clay soil and seem to grow much better in sandy slightly alkaline soil.

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applestar
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I would hill the rows up into raised wide rows if there is any chance of flooding and soggy conditions. You could do this with attachments on your tiller or with a hoe/rake.

You could continue to till the paths as needed or cover them with mulch which can be tilled in later if you want.

Taiji
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This year I had such good success with just planting seeds in a flat, then setting them outside later, I figure why mess with a good thing? I could plant seeds out here and the plants would survive the winter, but don't know if there would be any advantage to that for me here. But in other climates, maybe that is the way to go.

I did trim my onion greens back to about half their length while still in the flat one time, but I don't know if that helped any or not!

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digitS'
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I'd like to toss some information in about the importance of growing bulbing onions of the right daylength. Taiji's comment about his big Candy onions on the Fall Gardeners thread prompts me to do that. And yes, I still read that thread altho even my fall "harvest" is at an end, as of today, despite a warm fall and rainy weather. There was some August-sown chard, lots of Scotch kale, a few carrots, and celeriac to bring home. At 48° North latitude, November 2 is about the best I can hope for, with something from the fall garden.

Anyway - the onions :). This is about 200 miles north of the Walla Walla Valley and it's definitely long-day onion country. Years ago, I decided to try Granex onions, the Vidalia-type that gets so much press in the southern parts of the country. I don't suppose I needed to bother. They formed bulbs when they were about the size of ping pong balls, at best ;).

In the years since, I've grown Walla Walla, of course. Other varieties have been right there beside them because we like to have a lot of onions and find them fairly easy to grow. It seemed strange that Utah Sweet always grew larger until I read this and other things about Walla Walla: "... originally a short day onion, now modified through years of selection by growers." OSU extension.

Utah Sweet is considered a long-day variety despite the state of Utah being quite a ways south of Walla Walla.

I've had Candy onions 3 or 4 seasons and they did better this year than ever. They were about baseball size. That's okay, smaller than the others but okay. Candy is supposed to be an intermediate-day variety that can be grown most anywhere, if you believe the seed catalogs.

At the size of the biggest Utah I've grown were the hybrid SV4058NV onions. There were plenty that were larger than a softball. This was the first year I've had these and I hope that they last well in storage. They were very late in maturing. That might be a reason for me not to grow them but they did so well, it will take a disappointing experience in my basement for me not to grow them again.

So, Taiji can grow BIG Candy onions and I just cannot ... nevertheless, some varieties perform well. It seems strange given the short distance to Walla Walla that this variety is not the best but ... there is more to appreciate with an onion than just size. I'll probably even continue to grow the "little" Candy ;). Granex is definitely out!

Steve

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jal_ut
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Qupte: "3 packs of onion seeds arrived in the mail. 2 packs of short day onion seeds and 1 pack of medium day onion seeds. It has not rained here since Aug 15, nothing grows is dry dust."

I have found that when planting small seeds which you can only plant 1/2 inch deep, it works to lay a board over the row to hold in moisture. Take it off in 3 or 4 days when the seeds have germinated.

Do you have the option to irrigate? Here in high dry Utah, without irrigation we would not grow much.

Taiji
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Yes, tell me about the right day length. When I got my monster Candy onions this year it was only the second time in my whole life I ever tried to grow a winter storage cooking onion. The other time was about 20 years ago. I read about Copra onions, and thought well, that sounds good, I'll try some. I got the proverbial ping pong balls as you described, since Copra is a long day onion. I just thought, well, some people can grow winter onions and some can't. Obviously, I can't. Then, this year read about Candy and paid attention to day length for once. Wow! It matters.

Was thinking if I had planted more than just an 18 inch by 4 foot area with 20 onions, what if I had planted 5 or 10 times that many? Relatively maintenance free except for water every few days. I was thinkin there might be some serious money there at the local farm market, don't know. Could call myself the onion man...I can always dream! :idea: 8) (of course, there's always the food bank, that might be better)

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digitS'
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Americans eat onions, Taiji. They use them in salads and sandwiches as well as being willing to cook with them.

Maybe lettuce fits in here but onions certainly must be at the top in vegetable purchases. Other vegetables are neglected but onions have a large and loyal fan base.

Something I don't especially like about them is they don't take competition well. When they are small, most any weed can out-compete an onion.

Steve

Taiji
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Yes, it seemed like after I set the little plants out, it looked like they were never gonna start growing. I wasn't very hopeful. But I don't remember a lot of weed competition at that time either. I did mulch lightly at first then more heavily later which probably helped.

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digitS'
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One might think that their pungency would act as a retardant against weeds. But, no.

The onion's thoughts, "Yikes! A Salsify!" "O woe is me, Kentucky blue grass has somehow broken through the garden border!" "Chickweed?! I'll just be sitting here, doing nuthin for months and months ... You should have set me free!"

Tired of their boo hoo's, ya have to drag out the garden stool and, oh so very carefully, remove anything that causes them the slightest distress. Nutrients! They will then feed like madmen and grow big, fat bellies with time and privilege.

;) Steve

Taiji
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:D :wink:


The pungency does help a little with the predators though: sometimes I will find the little greens nipped off but since some people prune their onions anyway, maybe that helps! :)

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jal_ut
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Onions are day length sensitive and make a bulb when the days are of a certain length.
Onions are an early Spring cool weather crop. In the USA in the southern states, they are planted January/February and mature when the days are rather short. So "Short Day" onions are used. Farther North they are planted in April/May and mature when the days are long, so "Long Day" onions are used. In this area we can get onion sets (little dry onions) to plant for growing large bulbs. Unfortunately weeding is part of the gardening process. You must plan on weeding whatever you grow.



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