Zone 4 Onions

I've always planted onion bulbs. My onions are mediocre. My neighbor grows his from sets and they are beautiful. Two questions:

1. Has anyone had good success growing onion sets from seeds indoors?
2. Is it possible to get big onions by starting from seed outdoors in Zone 4?

Jeff sounds like the bulbs you describe we call sets here and what your neighbor pants you are call ing sets we call plants.

I dont know about your zone but see no reason for you to not grow big onions from what I call plants. Your lattitude must be about the same as mine so the day length should be the same. I grow plants from seed every year and start them in Dec and early Jan to be planted in mid to late march.

Onions need to be weed free and fed and watered well. I fert mine every two weeks early in the season . Maybe Bernie will have some help for you I think he is in your zone.

Dixondale onion farms in Tex is a good place to get plants. Good plants for your area should be the same as I grow Walla Walla short keeper but sweet. Alisa Craig keeps till jan sweet and huge, Red Burgermaster keeps till now a red onion at home on a burger on in a dinner salid.Ernie

eweed,

I think I got my onion terminology mixed up there.

You plant in late March. We usually still have snow on the ground and can still get snow into May. Does that change anything as far as the suggestions on types of plants?

I tried planting some onions from seed last year, directly sowed in the garden in late May. What I got was like the green onions you buy in the store. Not bad for salads, but not what I was looking for.

I also tried onion plants last year. They didn't do too well. By the time they made it through shipping, and transplanting, I think they were almost behind the seed sown ones in the end.

I always plant onion sets, and they do okay for me. My onions don't get huge like the ones we buy in the store, but they are about the size of a small orange. I don't let them flower. I pick those off and once the foliage starts to droop, I gently lay them over so more energy goes into the onion itself, rather than the foliage.

I find that in our hot, windy, and dry climate I need to give them lots of water and fertilizer. I use osmocote for the veggie garden. I don't like to spray anything on the plants I am going to eat. I'd rather they take it up through their roots.

Also, I don't know if it's the soil or climate, but my onions are always very strong. A little onion in a dish goes a long way.

I've just learned recently about long day onions and short day onions.
If you live in the north, you'll need to plant varieties for long day if you want them to bulb. If in the south, short day varieties. Me, I'm kinda in the middle, so I don't know what to plant. I think I'll just plant plenty of each type and see what grows best.
JoanJ, I wonder if a different variety would make a difference ? Mine always seem to be a little too strong too. I'm going to experiment and see.
Good luck to ya.

eweed,

Do you have any Red Burgermaster onion seeds for trade?
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JefeQuicktech,

I sow onion seeds about the end of February in the 72 cell packs and then care for them; moving them to 2" pots I keep on the window sills. They are then ready to be put out as onion sets at the middle of March thru begining of June. I find they are bigger that way. Saving some bulbs to make some seeds for the next year is on my next "Idea" agenda side. I'm trying to keep from buying too many seeds that I don't need a whole lot of each year at one time. Onions are a perennial and kept alive as you do to other bulbs in the colder area regions.

HTH,

~* Robin

JefeQuicktech,

I grew all my onions from seeds last year for the first time and had great results. I grew Walla Wallas, Alisa Craig and Redwing. I also started leeks from seeds. We still have a big bag of Redwings left. The other two were not good keepers but very sweet and good during the summer.

I started them in January in cake pans. One packet of seed for a 9 by 13 cake pan. I kept them on a warming pad until they germinated and then I just keep them in a sunny location and made sure they stayed moist on sunny days. I read somewhere to give them haircuts so they didn't get too tall. I think I did that twice.

When my husband planted them they were not large. We had some cool temperatures and I was sure these little babies wouldn't make it. But I planted a few plants from the grocery store just to compare them to mine and have a backup in case the little ones didn't make it. The ones I grew started smaller but once they got outside they grew like crazy.

They did take a long time to plant. My husband had a little tool that made small holes and he stuck them in. He spent a long time sitting on the ground out in the garden planting them and it was still cool and the ground was cold. I heard lots of complaints about his cold butt! I stayed in the house and separated the plants at the roots so he could plant faster. I had to be careful and gentle but they came apart very easy.

We had such good luck last year and I've got onions growing again this year. I added Cobra onions this year as they keep longer like the Redwings. But the others sure tasted good. I don't know what we'll do with all the onions. We probably harvested 150 lbs. last year. The Alisa Craig onions were very large. We gave many away and I gave some of the ones I had left to the electric meter reader last week. We also had pounds and pounds of peppers. Everyone who came to my door went home with vegetables last August and September, meter readers, UPS and FedEx drivers, workmen, you name it, if they came close to the house they had to take some veggies with them.

I would think you'd still have time to get some started this year, especially if you put them out a little later. We planted ours sometime in April last year. It's an economical way to get a lot of onions and leeks for a low price. We got our seeds from Pinetree and paid about a dollar a pack. So for $4.00 (and a lot of work, but fun too) we ended up with a lot of onions.

Nancy

Thanks for all the information.

JoanJ,
I was hoping you might have had experience with both methods and chime in. Your weather and season conditions are much closer to ours (though it is quite a bit drier out in the western part of ND than here in the Red River Valley).

Sowing in the field obviously won't give them enough time here.

Your mention of the transplant and shipping challenges are exactly what I anticipated. My experience is that rarely do the live plant companies send plants at the right time for our zone. By the time they finally send the plants, it is like coming to the Super Bowl party and getting in the food line in the 3rd quarter. Everything is all picked over and the plants are beat up. Local nurseries aren't carrying what they used to. Can't blame them. There can't be much money to be made in onion transplants these days.

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NatureWalker and Nannybee,
Your info about inside growing and giving them a hair cut will be very useful. I might try it.

However, thanks for the reality check. Indoor sowing + babysitting seedlings + transplanting = A whole lot of work.

I'm thinking the organic farmer's market growers will probably have an onion customer this fall.

My local garden center carries a nice assortment of live plants by the first of April. They are much cheaper than mail order ones. I don't know how much money is in the onion plants, but I suspect that other things are bought while there.
They carried Walla Walla, Candy, 1015Y , and perhaps a couple more.
All of those three plus Alisa Craig does well here.

Jefe...you should try getting onion plants from Dixondale Farms. Not only do they ship excellent plants but they ship them according to your zone (unless you designate a different ship date). I've ordered from them for years and have always rec'd great plants as well as excellent planting info, etc. It's a family-run operation, has been around for decades, and they are the greatest people in the world to deal with. Also, their prices are much cheaper than I can buy onion plants around here at our local garden centers PLUS they offer quite a few different varieties. I can't say enough positive things about them.

Indy, it sounds like your nursery is getting all their varieties from Dixondale..they are the main suppliers for many garden centers. (By the way, I wonder why they are selling 1015Y so far north...that is a short day onion. Has it bulbed up good for you in the past?) Just curious

Shoe.

Edited to provide a direct link to Dixondale Farms:
http://dixondalefarms.com/index.html



This message was edited Feb 6, 2006 8:42 PM

Shoe,

The 1015Y was as good last year as the others....in fact I lost track of the labels and could not tell them apart in the bed.

Thanks. I had read they would bulb up but not get as big as they could get. However, it's the taste of them that I like so much, plus I like to cook the green tops! Yummy....green-top onions cooked "browned" in a bit of oil/butter, then simmered in a broth a short time. Ain't nuthing better for ya!

Shoe.

Jeff the onions I mentioned to you are all long day they will grow for you Shoe is right about Dixondale and there is enough money for them to grow lots so they will not be picked over or from laying around stock not sold to others. They harvest mondays and ship right away so you get your plants before the week end. If the onions are not fed and watered and weeded well they will be small. I know this to be true because I grew small ones for years blaming not enough sun bulloney not enough of the three above lol

Nature Walker no sorry I planted them all but they are easy and I think you can still make it if you hurry

Indy I formed a mini co op for a couple of friends and we bought a mixed case from Dixondale for 191 per bunch inc postage not bad.

Nannybee we still have a few burgermaster and just finished the Alisa Craig I have not grown Redwing but did buy some seed for it because it is touted to be almost as good a keeper as copra.

Not an onion but am still harvesting leeks but they are starting to grow again at least the huge ones. Ernie

Ernie...just a note. Dixondale called me today...they are running short on leeks so if you want some plants you might want to call them ASAP. I ordered a case of 30 bunches but they didn't have enough (right now) and said I could only get 5 bundles at this time. (Case lots will be available again in April.) Just FYI.

HorseShoe,

You Mean Dixondale out of Carrizo Springs, TX, right?

I checked there website. Look like the kind of folks with which I like to do business.

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Any body have any experience on this....Do you think they will still have any good plants to send me yet when late April rolls around? That would be the earliest I probably could plant here in MN.

Jefe...Dixondale has a "zip code" shipping schedule on their site. You can view that and see when they'd send you your onion plants. (Or if you want to speicify another date you can also insert that as well.)

Those folks grows hundreds of acres of nothing but onions, and they provide them for many nurseries, garden centers, and families all over the Zones/Locations. I feel confident you can get what you want in April.

By the way, you could also call (toll free) or email them and put in your order now...that way you'll be sure to get what you want when you want it.

While the Vidalia onion is mild and sweet, sometimes I feel that it is somewhat tasteless.
I once raised an onion from Burpee about 30 years ago that while strong it had an excellent spicy flavor. Likely it was Southport Yellow Globe and if not then Danvers Yellow Globe.

Thanks for the link Horseshoe, I just ordered the short day sampler. I really liked the site and I'm sure the plants will be great.

roseone...I really think you'll be pleased. I loves my onions!! Gotta have 'em!

Well, lately, my onions haven't done well due to crab grass, that stuff is tough! But I bought a torch flame weed killler and if I can give the onions enough space to kill the weeds and not the onions I'll be really happy.