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Planting Onions

May 1st, 2017

I’ve been starting all my onions from seed for many years, but this year I was a little too busy and purchased onion plants instead. They arrived last Thursday, which meant that Friday afternoon was spent planting onions.

Since I purchased plants, I’m only growing two varieties of onions this year: a yellow storage (Patterson) and a red storage (Redwing). Generally I grow six different varieties, but options are more limited when purchasing plants instead of packets of seed.


There were around 1000 plants, way more than I need as storage onions, but I planted them closely in order to have green onions throughout the summer. I like to have around 600 onions in storage for the winter, this is enough for us if we augment with other alliums, like leeks, green onions, shallots, etc. It will be interesting to see how these plants perk up and grow, I’ve never really grown onions from purchased plants before.

What’s your favorite kinds of onion?

7 Comments to “Planting Onions”
  1. bonnie knox on May 1, 2017 at 10:36 am

    It’s interesting the way you modified the rake to make the furrows for your onion rows.
    Little tricks and “know-how” like that are things I look for when I read gardening blogs.

    Reply to bonnie knox's comment

  2. Nebraska Dave on May 1, 2017 at 10:58 am

    Susy, every year I try to grow onions from seed but so far I’ve not had much success. The young seedlings alway get over powered by weeds and struggle to survive. I’m careful to weed but still many get pulled out of the ground. I have about 100 ready to plant so maybe this year will be the year of onions.

    Have a great onion planting day.

    Nebraska Dave

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  3. Joan on May 1, 2017 at 2:40 pm

    I got my onions in yesterday. I’ve grown my onions from purchased seedlings for the past 5 years or so. They grow GREAT, much better than sets or seedlings that I grow myself. My favorite sweet onion is Ailsa Craig (and they grow HUGE), and my favorite for storage is Copra. Good luck with yours!

    Reply to Joan's comment

  4. Randy on May 2, 2017 at 3:17 pm

    Where did you order the starts from? Thanks.

    Reply to Randy's comment

    • Susy on May 3, 2017 at 8:43 am

      I ordered mine from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. Dixondale farm is also a place I have heard has good onion plants.

      http://www.dixondalefarms.com

      Reply to Susy's comment

      • Randy on May 4, 2017 at 6:25 am

        Thank you.

        to Randy's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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