Friday Favorite: Growing Onions from Seed
I love onions, love love love them. I’m fairly certain not a day goes by that I don’t include onions in my diet. As a result I grow lots of onions. After being disappointed in the varieties of onions available in plant/set, I began starting my onions from seed.
This year I’m trying a few open pollinated varieties and would like to try producing some of my own seed for the future. That’s one reason I chose to grow ‘Clear Dawn’, which is a stabilized open pollinated version of ‘Copra’ a popular long-storing onion.
My ‘Redwing’ onions from last year are storing like champs, which is very rare for red onions. I’m growing them again along with ‘Red Bull’ which is supposed to be an open pollinated long storing red onion. I’ll compare how it stores alongside the ‘Redwing’ onions.
‘Red Weathersfield’ is considered to be one of the healthiest onions, it contains high levels of antioxidants and other goodness. It’s also supposed to store well, we shall see how it stacks up to the other two red varieties above.
I’m also starting a few varieties of leeks, they are great when you don’t want too much oniony flavor and they are great for augmenting the onions in the winter since they’re so cold tolerant.
This is the first year I’ve been able to grow enough onions for my kitchen. My onion harvest is still storing well and I have a good number in the pantry. When the garden thaws I’ll have a few overwintered leeks as well to help make them last until the 2014 harvest comes in.
What’s your favorite vegetable to start from seed?
I’ve never had much luck starting onions from seed, but have had great luck with purchasing onion plants. There’s not quite the variety as starting them myself, but I’ve been very happy with the final product. My redwings store great too – almost as good as Copras. I’m just starting to use my redwings now, having used up all the varieties that don’t store as well first.
I don’t have growlights, and so don’t have a lot of luck starting things from seed, unless they can be planted directly in the garden. Broccoli started indoors does fairly well for me, and herbs, but tomatoes, peppers, and others I haven’t had a lot of luck with.
to Joan's comment
Susy, up until last year the only seeds I’ve tried to start inside were tomatoes and green peppers. Last year I grew cabbages and broccoli with some success. At least that’s what the rabbits thought. This year the seed starting station is filled with onion starts. I’ve never tried that before but it seems they are doing well so far. I will transplant the cabbages into the two inch fiber pots next week with hope of harvesting at least six or eight cabbages headed for kraut and slaw. I think this year I’ll try some eggplants as well. Of course cucumbers will be under the grow lights as well for a good start but they grow really fast and don’t need too long before they are planted outside. Yes, I love it. The garden season has started.
Have a great day under the grow lights.
to Nebraska Dave's comment
You won’t be disappointed with the onion seedlings, I love how well mine do!
to Susy's comment
Susy~you are just brilliant how you have figured all of that out! :)
to amy's comment
Cool, I grow both Copra and Redwing – I didn’t realize there’s now an OP version of Copra. I’ll have to check that out next year!
I’ll be staying tuned to see how the Red Bull turns out!
to gabe's comment
I desperately need more space to start my seeds. I always tend to start too much, but co-workers buy tomato seedlings from me.
I can never resist trying new tomatoes. Seeds I saved and will start this year are: Tomatoes: Purple Calabash tomato, Dr. Wyches, Indigo Rose.
Peppers: Chinese Giant, Jimmy Nardello. For the Nardello I saved seeds from a very curled one. It will be neat to see how the babies come out. I love the funky shaped ones, so I selected for it.
I am starting 4 different winter squash. I am obsessed this year with those. Greek Sweet Red, Peanut Pumpkin, Waltham Butternut, and Long Island Cheese.
I am starting onion seedlings: North Holland Blood Red. They are flat, very pungent, and supposed to be good for storing.
At the end of the year I always say I am going to scale back my seeding, but I can never resist. I think, “Is it really worth all of the fuss, when a lot of what I want to grow will probably be available locally?” I have concluded yes. I love seeing the process from start to finish, knowing that I planted the seed, individually brushed each plant to make it strong, and tasted the fruit before harvesting the seeds to do it once again. I love the seed to table concept.
to Reid's comment
Those red onions sound great, I’ll have to see about growing that variety next year. The pungent ones are the healthiest!
to Susy's comment
This year will be my first starting anything from seed indoors. I’m trying onions (since I heard here that they get bigger), leeks, tomatoes (can’t seem to ever find seedlings for black tomatoes) , peppers and squash. And cabbage. And cauliflower. Oh my! I see this becoming like the garden: every year I say less and end up planting more.
to Marcia's comment
I will be starting onions for the first time this weekend. Scallions, to be exact. I enjoy growing anything from seed. I’m just happy it grows!
Tonight we had carrots harvested earlier today, and I have to say, it is very gratifying. Enjoy your array of onions!
to daisy's comment
Really great to see that so many of us are passionate about onions when so many others consider it just a simple, humble and ordinary vegetable. How wrong they are as this clip demonstrates.
http://youtu.be/NBZgnVmJU7Q
to miravos's comment
Could you tell me what planting mix you used for this set of onions? I read your other post about making your own, but this mix looks darker and looks like it might have perilite.
Thanks!
to Andrea's comment
I usually mix my own but my compost was frozen this year – so I bought some from Johnny’s Selected Seeds.
to Susy's comment
Thanks. I’m in MI so shipping would be prohibitive. I think I am going to go back to the Pro Mix. Last few I’ve tried have been disappointing. I cannot find anything that works well with onion seedlings, though. It either stays too wet or too dry. Either way they die. :-(
to Andrea's comment