Onions: plants vs. seeds

Hello! It's a cold blustery day in CT. Thought I'd put in an order for onion plants, but then I wondered if starting seeds would give me just as good a result? Anyone care to weigh in?

I tried to start from seeds years ago when I was new to gardening, and my onions never got much bigger than scallion sized. I believe I did use long day onion seeds. Copra comes to mind. Of course that was disappointing.

Last year, my father-in-law offered me some leftover onion plants from his order, which he did not consult with me before ordering. One was a short day and one was a long day. I took the extras and planted them out of curiosity. They had been sitting around for weeks before getting to me, so I didn't have high hopes. Both grew almost identical, a little smaller than baseball sized. This encouraged me however because they did grow and bulb up.

So now I want to order my own plants, so I can choose the variety. Father-in-law is offering me some of his seed, he is planting seed this year, but I don't know why he is switching from plants to seed. His onions grew about the same as mine and he was disappointed. Maybe that is why the change.

Anyway, I would like to poll the group. Do you direct seed, start seeds indoors and transplant, or use plants for your onions?

Thanks all.

Jen

Zone 5 - long day area

I usually grow my onions and shallots from seed started indoors - although 2 years ago I did grow from plants (from Dixondale), I just had too many plants because I needed a bunch of THIS and a bunch of THAT and ooh! cippolinis! With seed, I can control better how many plants I start with and how they come out. Last year I had an accident with my seed tray and a windy day which resulted in only a couple of onion plants surviving, so I did buy Candy plants from the nursery. Seed, I usually grow Copra, and sometimes Redwing. I know the big onions are pretty, but I like the medium sized ones for the convenience of not storing a half an onion in the refrigerator. I store my allium seed in a freezer storage bag (with dessicant packet) in the freezer and it's kept viable for a couple years that way.
I've grown mostly Ambition shallots, and I'll start seed for small/medium bulbs, and plant the leftover bulbs from the previous year for big bulbs. Gives me a nice selection of sizes to use.
My onion and shallot seeds have already been started this year. So nice to see green when it's cold outside.

Agree both seed and plants work well. Seeds are a bit more of a challenge, but once you have a bit of experience, relativly easy. You do have more choices, but both Dixondale and Brown's Omaha give you a lot of choices and you will have excellent plants without the effort and time expenditure of seeds. One less thing to go wrong if you will. I have done both ways depending on what varieties I wished to grow in a given year.

I do plants from Dixondale. You get a TON of plants in just ONE bundle! I may try again to seed start some.

Jen,

Are you familiar with your agricultural extension service through the Univ of Conn? I ask this because, while folks here at DG are an absolute font of knowledge about just about everything, I find it helpful to consult my local extension service for vegetable garden info, particularly for the kind of questions you asked above. Your extension service should provide garden info specific to your area, climate, etc.

My extension service at Clemson U provides excellent online information for home gardeners which includes when to plant onion seeds vs sets vs plants as well as which varieties are known to do best in my area and so on. This is the kind of information you need, but you need the one for your area.

I looked through some of the info at your extension service (http://www.extension.uconn.edu/) but offhand was not able to find the information. They do, however, give contact info for master gardeners. I think you should check this website and either contact U of Conn or the appropriate master gardener (they indicate area of expertise for each) and ask if they can provide you with the information you need. Ideally, you extension service should be able to provide a (free) booklet for home gardeners which includes planting times and other specifics for each of the more common vegetables.

Here is the fact sheet on onions provided by my extension service at Clemson: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/crops/hgic1314.html
The information is specific to my area, and thus is not useful for you. I'm posting it just to give you an idea of the kind of information your extension service should be able to provide. Here in the SE, we can only plant short day onions, and onions generally only do well from seeds if planted in the fall here. I'm guessing that's so they have time to develop before the summer heat. This is the kind of information you need, except that you need it specific to your area.

In addition to the information you get from the many very helpful folks here at DG, I hope that you will contact your extension service at U of Conn to obtain information specific to your area for planting onions and other vegetables.

Hi jen. Everyone's certainly correct about selecting the correct day-length onion for your area. In the past, I ordered onion starts from dixondale.com. They have tons on info on growing, fertilizing & keeping onions.

Well last year, the money was kind of tight, so I decided to start them from seed. For the price of 1 dixondale bunch, I get get 3-4 packs of seeds. I used the method shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7sXbzozjTs Start about 2:50 for the onion info. For transplanting the onions, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWiueNUORPQ.

My onions from seeds grow as good, or as better than the ones from Dixondale. Since I'm in New Orleans, I can't give you any info on selection or timing. Consult your extension service for that.
Jo-Ann

I have had good luck both with seeds and plants as well as sets.

In the north the long day onions usually will do best. Candy and Walla Walla have done well for me.

Onions are very cold tolerant.

John

Thanks for the input folks. I'm going to start some seeds, although I may be a little behind schedule for that. I also ordered some plants. So I'll do both this year. Can't wait for spring to come!

Believe it or not I've had very good success with plants from Lowe's.

I get mine at Lowes too. The usually sell bunches from Bonnies Plants. They generally sell 3 or 4 types including Walla Walla....just avoid the short day types. They will probably start selling them in a few weeks. Price is usually very good 3-4 dollars for a bunch.

concur: Bonnie Plants are good. When dealing with nurserys just make sure they have not been sitting there and dried out. Best to get get them the week they are delivered.

I've been doing plants from Dixondale for a number of years. Last year it was 9 cases, that's about 20,000 plants.
I am going to try Candy seed, sowed directly in the garden.
Not far from here they grow huge acreages of field seeded onions, so it should work for me.
I will give a report in later summer. Good or bad.

Meant to add a couple pictures.
3 rows on the left are scallion onions seeded in the garden. Rest were plants.
Lots had been harvested already. Dry onions were harvested about 6 weeks after this picture.

amazing onions

Beautiful onions CountryGardens. When will you direct seed?

Early as possible.