some ?'s about starting onions indoors

14 years ago

I've been Googling and looking through my garden books, but I still can't find very satisfactory information.

I'm trying growing regular bulb onions from seed for the first time instead of buying plants. In my area I was told to start short-day onion seeds in October and then plant the plants out in late Jan./early Feb.

In Oct. I planted my seeds in my garage under grow lights. I just leave these lights on all the time, since I don't have a timer and I have trouble remembering to turn them on and off. Leaving the lights on all the time is how I've done it for years and it works find with tomatoes, peppers etc. The garage is cool but rarely freezes. I have a thermometer in there and lately it's been in the 50's at night and 70's in the day.

The worrying thing is now my onions have a definite swelling at the bottom of each plant, even though the plants are still tiny (the leaves are about the thickness of chives). Then it occured to me that onions are day-length sensitive! Maybe by leaving the lights on all the time I've confused them into thinking it's summer and they're trying to grow bulbs?

Or is everything ok and they're supposed to look like that? The transplants from the garden center look just like green onions from the store, with no suggestion of a bulb at all, so that's what I was expecting for my home-grown transplants.

If I've totally messed things up, then what is the right way to grow onion transplants? If I put them on a timer, how many hours of light should they get? (I really can't find specific info on how many hours of light baby onions should get.) Should I just have planted the seeds directly outside?

Thanks for any help.

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Comments (5)

cyrus_gardner
14 years ago
You are in zone 8 , where?
I am in zone 8 in GA and have direct sowed some onions in my garden. they are 4 -6 inches tal, but not thick. They will overwinter here and will take off next spring.

If your winter lows do not get under 15F, you can transplant your onions in the garden. But before doing that you have to harden them by bringing them outside.
Onions do not need to be kept/grown at 50 -70F. They can overwinter in the garden in subfreezing temperatres.They may stop growing but certaily will not die off. If only it gets down close to 0F or lower, their top may die but they will resume growing in the spring.
neohippie
Original Author
14 years ago
I live in central Texas.

Ok, I'll consider planting them in the garden. Maybe I'm being overprotective of my babies. :-)
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There also appear to be some knowledgeable people in the Allium forum. I didn't do a search of that forum, but did see this thread. If I didn't do the link right, it's still on the first page of the allium forum. (I should spend some time in the test forum learning links and pics.) I will be interested in your experiences. I'd try seed myself except we're planning a month-long trip east in April and I don't think I could find anyone willing to baby seedlings for that long. Ah well, maybe next year. Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: some ?'s about starting onions indoors
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Thanks for the replies. After reading posts on here until almost 1am this morning, I'm rethinking things. I thought once they germinate I would have enough light with the window but now I realize I won't. So, I'm going to set them up in the basement instead with the mats and hang some shop lights. It's about 50 degrees down there today but I do have heat if I need it. I also forgot I had a $10 credit on Amazon so I went ahead and ordered 2 of the heat mats. I will get the peppers started as soon as they arrive. I bought 4 of the 36 count peat pellet trays instead of the bigger 72 ct trays so that I could keep some things separate based on planting dates. I do know I will have to transplant them, I just didn't want to do it right away because I'm afraid if they are too small I'll hurt them. A couple years ago I got tons of plastic containers from someone on freecycle so I just have to find the smaller ones. If I run low, I will pick up some clear plastic cups. I also found a store near me that carries the 72 cell trays, covers, and refills pretty cheap so now I'm thinking of doing some flowers too. Once all the veggies germinate, I will start my herbs in the 72 cell pack and I'll grab another and some flower seeds. It seems like most people use one cool bulb and one warm bulb instead of the special plant bulbs. While reading thru here a little while ago, I found someone mentioning natural sunlight bulbs. What would be best? I'm getting so excited now!!
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You could have/ should have started earlier. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT FROST when it comes to onions. My onions (planted in fall) were in the colds down to15F this past winter. They did not budge. But, they will not grow much or not at all if it is , say under 40F. So, go right ahead and start your seed inside, where the temps will be 55F -65F. and plant them when they are abou 4 - 6 inches. Better yet , get some sets and plant them. "sets" are grown from onion seeds, by a commercial grower. They just pull them up, cut the top, make bunches and sell them for home gardeners, to give them a head start. As long as your garden soil is not frozen solid, you can plant seeds and pearl onions any time.
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I have wondered about storing potatoes in peat moss, David. That's where the dahlia roots are. I've wondered if it would change their flavor or anything. I've never left much of anything in the garden during the winter. Just about never. I can still remember my tracks out to the far end of the garden to get kale leaves! I mean, I was wading up to my hips in the snow that year! I didn't know anything about kale then. Probably harvested the oldest, coarsest leaves even during the winter. I haven't even had the nerve to leave the leeks until very hard frost. They last a couple months in the crisper drawer of the fridge. Not really so great because the sweet onions do real well in the basement room with the dahlias on the floor & the onions on the shelves. I have Walla Wallas & similar until December. The less sugary ones last much longer than that. There are still onions classified as sweets in the basement - Ovation. But anyway, I'm eating leeks and sweet onions just about as fast as I can from their harvest until January. Steve
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TJG911
14 years ago
i'm in ct but how to start onions from seed should be the same here at where you are. i have always read that you need to leave the lights on 16 hours and off for 8. plants need a rest and the 8 hours of dark gives them that rest. regardless of the type of plant 16 on, 8 off... buy a timer they don't cost much.

my onions will have a bulge at the base when i plant out. for time reference i start the seeds in mid february and put them out in mid april, so 8 weeks. i like the bulb at the base, showing they are doing well.

maybe the garden store plants are so crowded they have no room to form a bulb? onions i have seen in greenhouses are planted so close they have no room between plants.

tom
neohippie
Original Author
14 years ago
Tom, I'm glad to hear yours have a little bulb at the base and turn out ok. That's a relief.

I actually planted the seeds really thickly in flats, and then when the sprouts got big enough to handle comfortably, I transplanted them so they're farther apart. That's when their little bases started expanding and I was afraid I had somehow triggered them to prematurely turn to bulb growth.

Maybe they just like having more room.
TJG911
14 years ago
i always plant my seed in 4" X 6" containers and put the seed into rows, 8 or 9 per row going in the 4" direction, i use tweezers to put 1 seed in the right spot tedious but it works well. one year i just sprinkled seed to see the difference. i decided that sprinkling seed did not produce seedlings that developed as well as when i did rows. maybe they were too close? i went back to planting in rows. greenhouses have onions in containers that are very crowded and they seem to do ok as far as attaining a good size for planting out but i'm sure they over fertilize for the growth otherwise people may not buy them if the plants were small and thin. personally i prefer allowing the plants to have more room. i have 1 4' X 6" of red wing about 75-80 plants and 2 containers of copra about 150-160 plants.

tom

some ?'s about starting onions indoors

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some ?'s about starting onions indoors

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