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Vegetable Gardening

My onion seedlings are dying

AmericanGardner

11 years ago

I am planting heirloom yellow onion seeds for the first time this year (last year I tried sets).

I sowed about 100 seeds in an open tray about 12 x 12 x 3". Soil is mostly sphagnum peat moss with some perlite and vermiculite. To get the soil moist at first, I had to get it overly wet, and then tipped the tray to drain all excess water out.

The seedlings emerged after 3-8 days and most are now 1/2" to 1" tall. Some have stood upright but most are still bent over with both ends in the ground.

--- however --- a growing number of them seem to end up with their root end up in the air, and the top end still in the soil. Does this mean the soil is too moist and the plant is rotting? The surface seemed to be drying so I added some more water yesterday.

Thank you!

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Comments (5)

planatus
11 years ago
Shallow planting often results in onion seeds germinating at the surface. Sometimes these can be tucked in a bit deeper and saved, otherwise pluck them out.

What are you using for light? Onions need at least a two-bulb florescent suspended one inch above their tops. No way around this because their skinny upright leaves are such poor solar collectors.

Keep some small scissors handy and snip off the tops of the seedlings when they hit two inches. You will then wait a while for a new leaf, then two, at which time the original leaf will shrivel. All this time, keep the tops trimmed to three inches. When you get three leaves, go to four inches. Weekly trimming is the only way to keep onion seedlings grown indoors from falling over. When days get longer, warmer, brighter and they can go outside into a cold frame or tunnel, they will quickly stiffen up in response to more intense light.

Fascinating crop.
jimster
11 years ago
"Some have stood upright but most are still bent over with both ends in the ground."

Expanding on what Planatus said:

The tip of emerging seedlings such as onions often is stuck in the seed coat for a while, Sometimes I help them along by gently tugging them out. That probably isn't necessary though. They probably will do it themselves.

Jim

This post was edited by jimster on Thu, Jan 3, 13 at 12:08
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Edymnion
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Just a side note, but trying to remove a stuck seed coat can do more harm than good, as you're more likely to simply tear the new leaves in half as you are to get the coat off cleanly (and if you could just lift it off, it would have fallen off by itself in the immediate future anyway).
AmericanGardner
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you all. I freed up the tops of the plants (from the soil) a couple of days ago and they started to look better. However, now the plants, which are 1/2" to 1-1/2", are withering away from the top, down. Most have 1/4-1/3 of the plant withered away to almost nothing. Is this OK?

Thank you!
sunnibel7 Md 7
11 years ago
No, not really. I would suspect that they are too close to the lights if that happened in my setup, but I have no clue how yours are being kept. Anyhow, you know it isn't lack of water because the whole seedling would wilt. No worries, onions are tough and also you have plenty of time to start a new batch to perfect your methods on, if it comes to that.

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