Re: When to start onion seed

**camprn** 2/1/2013, 1:28 pm

NHGardener wrote:Are there other seedlings that need to be pinched besides onions?

I pinch the following plants: basil, determinate tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, flowers........ There is more, but I am at work, will add to my list later.

NHGardener 2/1/2013, 1:39 pm

Glad you mentioned the pinching camprn, because I hadn't realized peppers and eggplants are on that list.

**Turan** 2/16/2013, 3:31 pm

I just planted my onion seeds. First seed starting of the season! For some strange reason onions have always had me spooked, even though I start chives from seed with no problem. So now there is a whole packet of sweet spanish red onion seeds starting. I hope this means they can be planted in the garden in May and have bulbs by fall. cyclops

CapeCoddess 2/16/2013, 3:50 pm

I hear ya, Turan. Onions seem so complicated to me. Not the straight up and down ones, like leeks, chives & scallions...those seem to grow no matter what. But the round ones - do this in fall and that in spring and then dry and replant whenever....holy moly.

My round onion starts seem spindly now that they are about 2 weeks above ground. Do we pinch the leaves back on the round ones also? ANSFG says to do it when we go to put them into the garden...at 16 plants per square. That seems crowded to me...does it work?

CC

elliephant 2/16/2013, 4:12 pm

I found onion plants at a local farm to market produce place I shop at this time of year, so I'm trying them for the first time. There were bunches just labeled "red onion" and others that were Texas Sweet 1015. The whole question of when to plant and the different day length varieties had always stumped me so I'd never given it a shot until now. Reading up about the sweet onion variety I got I discovered that the planting date was in the name (1015) as it was developed in this area and named for the ideal (from seed) planting date of Oct 15th. At only $2/bunch, with a "bunch" being far more than I have room for, I couldn't resist.

**Turan** 2/16/2013, 4:40 pm

elliephant, did they give you a spacing for those sweet onions?

CapeCoddess, I have always grown from sets before using them to mark a grid Wink

. Some of them would want to flower and would get pulled for green onions. The biggest bulbs were from the onions with the most room. The seed packet I just planted from says final spacing 2-5". 16 per sq is 3" apart, so right in the middle. So, for bigger onion varieties I might go to 9/square and for lots of green onions I would plant 36. You can always thin an onion for a summer salad as needed if 16/ sq is getting too tight.
This year I intend to grow the onions between 2 long trellis of peas. Hopefully I will not curse this by pea picking time.

elliephant 2/16/2013, 4:51 pm

They didn't come with any instructions whatsoever. I planted them 9/sq.

sarah465 5/13/2013, 2:08 pm

Lavender Debs wrote: I pulled a clip from a video I did last spring to give an idea of what I am trying for.

Thank you for posting this!! This is the first year we're trying leeks and onions and I'll definitely be using your technique to plant them out. thanks

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