Walla Walla Onions

[RuHappy69]

I bought these seeds from Gurney's and they said to plant them and they would germinate in 7-12 days but I thought that they should be planted in October (I live in Northwest NJ - zone 6). If they start to germinate they'll die (we've already had a freak snowstorm just this past week. Advise please?

I also ordered Garlic!

[Bobberman]

I would say the seeds get planted in the early spring!

[digitS']

I don't know that they'd die after germinating, RuHappy69, but they may not germinate or may not grow until next year if they do. You will probably notice that the seed of a number of weeds have germinated and the seedlings are just sitting around now, waiting for warm weather that won't come for months and months.

For an onion crop, there can be other problems besides delayed growth.

I have planted Walla Walla seed in late August before. That proved to be risky for this location. Come warm weather, the seedlings would sometimes begin to grow and behave as one would hope. However, in 2 years out of 3, the plants would bolt to seed rather than forming bulbs! The final year I used this August sowing method, nearly ALL the plants bolted in the spring .

The commonly subzero winter cold must just be too stressful here. They perform just as well as they would in a "good year" started in an unheated greenhouse about February 1st. Bolting from that late winter greenhouse start just hasn't happened.

Steve

[RuHappy69]

What's the verdict? Do I plant the seeds now or do I wait until March -ish?

[Bobberman]

I have always planted onion seeds in march and april and had onions in aug and sept!. I would mix them with a bed of lettuce in late march and also plant some by them selves! You can start them in a greenhouse in feb but plant them thinly so they don't stress and go to seed too soon! If the soil is too dry they will go toseed quick! Hope my 2 cents helps!

[applestar]

Try reading this thread and see what you think.
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34147

I haven't found the ideal way to grow bulb onions from seed yet.
This year's was good but still not perfect. I believe the ones seeded in late December-early January were most successful -- I.e. Grew to a respectable size.

Also, I found that LEEKS are much easier to grow from seed to full size -- at least for me.

All in all, I'm going to go with planting onion sets in early spring and/or buying onion plants (I plan to experiment with purchased plants next spring if I'm not up to growing from seeds in winter)

EDIT: You know I read thru that thread and it wasn't what I thought it was.
Here's another one:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21238

But this isn't the one I was thinking of either. Somewhere, there's a thread in which I described starting onion seeds last year from November to something like mud February... And Eric/DDF extensively described his greenhouse set up.

[plainsman50]

I planted my Walla Wallas in an outdoor unprotected garden bed on Sept. 28. I think they need to be planted early enough so that they are large enough to survive the winter cold, but not so early as to get too large before winter. If too large before winter they will bolt rather than bulb in the spring.

Last year I planted on Sept. 21 and had a very good harvest this past June.
They are grown commercially from a late summer planting in Zone 6 areas of eastern Washington and Oregon.

I would say wait until March or start earlier indoors or in a cold frame and transplant out at the proper time in the spring.

By the way, they look pretty good today and we are expecting our first hard freeze (28 ) tonight.

[plainsman50]

Sorry about the odd symbols in the previous post; should be 28.

[jal_ut]

I would plant the seed in April. The other option is start the seed in pots in early February for transplanting out later.

[Bobberman]

Plant in the greenhouse in feb in a cut cardboard box. Cut any cardboard box so it is 3 inches deep and any dimention . Place the box on something that will allow you to move it into the garden in 2 months even though it may be soggy at the bottom. Slide the box of onions off the holder into the prepared area of the garden and just leave it alone but water it.
+++ The cardboard will dissapear over time and the onions will florish with a little thinning! You can also cut the sides of the box and flatten with dirt once in the garden. Works great and does not disturb the tiny roots! You can do it with other small seed crops also like carrots!

[jal_ut]

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/onions_fm_seed.jpg[/img]

These onions were planted from seed in April. They are small, but good dry onions. They would probably have gotten larger if I had thinned them better.

[jal_ut]

I also ordered Garlic!

The garlic should be planted in the fall.

I wonder what your conditions are like in March? March would be a good time to plant onion seed outdoors if conditions permit. Walla Walla is said to be a day neutral onion. It will likely do well planted from seed in the spring.