Starting Onions from Seed for the Next Growing Season
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, patches of snow and ice still cover the ground, but inside my greenhouse there's a flurry of spring activity. I’ve spent many hours watering, trimming and cleaning, while my gardener, Ryan McCallister, has been busy repotting, and starting vegetables from seed in preparation for the coming growing season.
Starting onions from seed isn’t difficult. They can be planted closely together in seed starting trays, and because they are shallow-rooted, they can be pulled apart easily when ready for transplanting outdoors. Many of our seed trays and supplies are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds - we've been using Johnny's for years. Once planted, the onion seeds remain in the greenhouse until they’re moved to my vegetable garden. And by mid-summer, we will have lots and lots of beautiful, fat bulbs to harvest.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Seed starting trays come in all different sizes and depths. We use trays with shallow compartments for planting onion seeds. These trays are from Johnny’s. https://www.johnnyseeds.com/
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- Each tray has 200 square cells. Because I use a lot of onions for cooking and for sharing with my family, we plant many trays of onion seeds.
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- Ryan fills the seed starting tray with mix and pats it down lightly into each compartment.
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- It’s best to use a pre-made seed starting mix that contains the proper amounts of vermiculite, perlite and peat moss. Seed starting mixes are available at garden supply stores.
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- Ryan uses a scraper to level off the soil mix in the trays. The soil should be level with the top of the tray.
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- To create a quarter-inch deep furrow in the middle of each compartment, Ryan places one tray over another and presses down lightly, so the bottom of one tray makes indentations in the soil-filled compartments of the other.
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- You can see the small indentations in each compartment – this is where the seeds will be planted. This is a great method when planting multiple trays.
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- Another way to create a quarter-inch deep furrow in the middle of each compartment is to press fingers gently into each cell. This can be done pretty quickly especially if only seeding one or two trays.
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- Once the trays are all prepared, it is time to drop the seeds.
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- Our onion seeds are started in February every year, which is about two months before the last frost in this area.
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- Ryan labels the seed markers and keeps them together with the matching packets.
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- Once he is ready to drop the seeds, Ryan places a marker into one of the cells, so it is clear what variety is growing in what tray.
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- Onion seeds are very small, so be sure to take your time dropping them into the tray cells. It’s also a good idea to keep a record of when seeds are sown, when they germinate, and when they are transplanted. These observations will help organize a schedule for the following year.
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- This is a hand seed sower from Johnny’s Selected Seeds – it is one option to help drop the seeds into the trays.
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- Just pour a generous amount of seeds into the center dish and then screw the plastic top back onto the hand seed sower and adjust the amount of seeds that will be released at one time.
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- Here, Ryan begins to drop onion seeds evenly into each compartment.
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- If preferred, you can also use your hands. These are ‘Cabernet’ onion seeds. ‘Cabernet’ produces medium-large globe-shaped onions with deep red color.
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- It is good to start larger onions from seed, so they can be harvested the same year. Smaller onions can be planted directly into the ground.
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- These seeds are ‘Pontiac’. ‘Pontiacs’ have very large sized onions and strong, bronze-colored skins that protect the bulb well in storage.
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- One to two seeds are dropped into each compartment and will be selectively thinned in a few weeks. This process eliminates the weaker sprout and prevents overcrowding, so seedlings don’t have any competition for soil nutrients or room to mature.
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- Blackie loves to watch gardening tasks from the table.
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- We grow several varieties of red, white and yellow onions every year.
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- Once the seeds are dropped, Ryan adds an additional light layer of soil mix, so the seeds are completely covered. Be sure all the appropriate labels are inserted, so there’s no confusion later. When possible, prepare several trays in an assembly-line fashion, and then drop all the seeds. Doing this saves time and simplifies the process.
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- Ryan uses the scraper again to level the soil in the trays. He does this carefully, so as not to move any of the seeds in the tray.
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- Ryan also started some leeks – leeks have a mild, onion-like taste. These ‘Megaton’ leeks have upright plants with beautiful blue-green foliage. Fortunately, my greenhouse is large and can accommodate lots of seed starting.
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- Once the seed trays are done, Ryan will take them to the temperature controlled greenhouse where they will get ample light and heat. He’ll give them a good drink and then cover them with plastic humidity domes until germination begins. These seedlings will remain in the greenhouse for another four to six weeks until they are ready to be separated and transplanted into the ground. What seeds are you starting? Share your first gardening chores of the season in the section below.
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