The Early Onion Thread

[bridget mc laughlin]

I just sowed a few "Golden Bear" seeds today, hope they do well, my idea was to sow about a couple of dozen seeds each week so that at harvesting time I'm sure to get some good weather to dry them for storing

[gojiberry]

Sowed some onion and shallot seeds yesterday. Had various odd opened packets so just mixed them up and sowed. Did keep the shallots separate from the onions. Am awaiting Santero seed from Kings as I have problems with mildew every year.

Ian

[salilah]

My first year - 8 modules of Rosso de Toscano (I think - Italian seeds through T&M - that's the only brand the garden centre stocked :-( ) in the heated prop...
fingers crossed!
the Rouge de Florence (I think - T&M again heritage) said from March - should I try them early as well? Can grow on in greenhouse if needed...
S
S

[StephenH]

My home-made seed medium, in which I sowed my onions, certainly proved to be good for germinating seeds, but because I didn't sterilise it, it was soon covered with hundreds (slight exaggeration, perhaps, but only slight) of weed seedlings. I think I identified a few onion seedlings in there as well, but weeding was going to be a hopeless task, so I decided to sterilise the lot and start again with the rest of the onion seeds - I had plenty left. Therefore, last night I put both plastic seed trays, complete with seed medium and weeds, in the microwave, one crossways on top of the other, cooked them on half power for five minutes, swopped them round and did them for another five minutes, and took them out. They were steaming and quite hot, so hopefully that killed the seedlings and any ungerminated seeds (I may be wrong, but I have reason to believe that microwaves are pretty good at sterilising things directly, quite apart from the heat). This morning, the seedlings were wilted, so I dug them in as a sort of mini-green manure with a kitchen fork, then sowed more onion seeds. Maybe I should have been bolder, cooked them on full power, and got the medium really hot, but I don't want to do that in case it causes deleterious changes to the medium.

[watfordjc]

The boiler is broke, my nose feels cold, I can't feel my feet, I can see my breath... is it too cold for me to sow my onions in modules indoors?

Assuming my fridge is 3-5C, my room is about 4-6C. If that is too cold for onions to germinate, would a heated propagator be any good or would it struggle running at "room temperature"?

My window has some condensation which isn't icing up, and my "room temperature" stored Coca-Cola passes the ice cold drink test... am I taking a risk chitting my spuds before British Gas fix the boiler (they need "parts")?

[pauco]

My Kelsae Onion seeds sprouting well, in a nice warm outhouse. Also a few Onion sets are in our unheated greenhouse, spreadout looseley in trays, well i say a few, my wife says a lot! Whats a few Onions between man & wife lol.

paul.

[Aberdeenplotter]

The boiler is broke, my nose feels cold, I can't feel my feet, I can see my breath... is it too cold for me to sow my onions in modules indoors?

Assuming my fridge is 3-5C, my room is about 4-6C. If that is too cold for onions to germinate, would a heated propagator be any good or would it struggle running at "room temperature"?

My window has some condensation which isn't icing up, and my "room temperature" stored Coca-Cola passes the ice cold drink test... am I taking a risk chitting my spuds before British Gas fix the boiler (they need "parts")?

I think you need to get down to A & E and tell them you are suffereing from hypothermia. Do take your seed trays with you though because you will undoubtedly have a long wait since it is the weekend, but they do tend to keep the waiting rooms very warm.

[SarzWix]

I'd go for the heated propagator watfordjc. That raises the temperature by a few degrees. I have 2 cell trays of onions in 2 propagators in my just frost free porch and they're all starting to pop up now

[LolaLou]

I've got the first of my onion seedlings emerging - from Marco and Red Pearl seeds. They are currently living on the dining room table but will be banished to the small outside unheated plastic greenhouse thingie at the weekend to keep them in line. Only problem I've got is that I used up a few/about 30 of the degradable fabric pots (bought in error last year)....and they have all gone mouldy on the outside of the pot. I'm hoping the mould stays on the outside (its not effecting the soil in the pots yet) and that the cooler temps will kill off the onslaught or I'll be resowing in a few days time.....

[zazen999]

Degradable pots should really only be used when the plant will be put in the ground quite quickly....if I were you, I'd wait until they get to about an inch high, then get a spoon and scoop the lot out and replant into a plastic pot which can be used to hold them for longer.

[Alison]

Pleased to report my Up to Date saved seed are coming through nicely now - was a bit worried as it's the first time I've saved onion seed but they are HSL so thought that was a good start point. Now just got to hope they turn out as well as the originals