Onions from seed

[steve1967]

Hi all,

I intend to grow my onion from seed next year. I am going to sow them in cell trays under unheated propagators in my conservatory from late December. I plan to use a multi purpose compost. The seeds are Bedfordshire Champion. I did this last year and had good success with propagation although the awful weather we had led to a not so good crop.

I would appreciate any hints or advice especially with the propagation.

[steve1967]

[antipodes]

Ppfff not for me. I have tried every year by every possible method, I can never get them to look like more than a blade of grass, if they deign to germinate. It's sets for me, foolproof and excellent harvest.

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

Good luck. When planning my new allotment last April I reckoned given the price of a bulk bag of onions from Lidls, it was scarcely worth my time growing them.
Errrr, then I saw a seed packet this summer of a flat onion and wondered what it might be like so I'm going down your route
I do know that despite having a good crop from everything else on my plot, the spring onions still look like plump chives after 9 months in the ground. I can't explain that.

[manicscousers]

We do long red florence every year, over winter, planted out march, usually get a good crop. I got a freebie bedfordshire champion pack so am doing them too, in january.Only tip I have is find a deep,plastic box to transplant into, I save the deep meat boxes from the supermarket, gives them a bit more depth to put roots into. I transplant when they look like blades of grass. The potting compost only has nutrients for 6 weeks, I've been told and they're hungry plants 

[goodlife]

I like growing my onions from seeds. This summer I did grow some Walla Walla's but those, every single one bolted..
Zebrune shallots (from realseeds) did really well AGAIN..they are so reliable..and not a single one bolted!
Other than those I do grow shallots from saved 'sets'.
I used to struggle grow onions from seed...but then I started to use gravel-compost mix to 'dress' the seeds when sowing and that did the 'trick' for me..it must be that the weight of the gravel give the seeds better contact into compost or prevent drying out or give better moisture and temperature conditions for germination and growing...even spring onions been success!
So now I'm not bothering buying anymore sets..

[goodlife]

We do long red florence every year

I like them too and they've been good...zebrune is very similar and has replaced RF for me....for now..who knows what seeds I shop next..

[Squash64]

I've tried to grow onions from sets in the past and never had any luck.  This year I
decided to have a go with seed and they did really well.  I sowed them in late December
in cells in the greenhouse and transplanted them into bigger pots when they needed it.
I think I put them outside in about May.

[chriscross1966]

I generally start my onions (and shallots) off from seed in December adn January, heated propagators until they hatch then unheated in the house then transfer to teh GH .... plant out April sometime, they odo need feeding, and you can't really beat dried blood whne they go out and again mid-may as a top dressing....

chrisc

[laurieuk]

I grew Kelsea onions for many years from seed , sowing at Christmas with a small amount of heat. I always pricked them out if possible before they got to the second leaf stage as then you only have one root to deal with so they do not check so much. I saved my own seed for around 14 years unitl I changed jobs and had to leave everything behind and the new gardener did not bother to keep the new seed crop going.

[steve1967]

Thankyou all for your advice.... Laurie I am interested in how you went about saving your onion seed.

[small]

Piggybacking on this thread, are seed sown onions any more resistant to white rot than sets? I've done the garlic watering treatment on a bed, and I want to give myself the best chance of a clean crop.

[small]

Here's an extra, are any varieties less prone to white rot? You can see I'm desperate to get back to growing onions!

[chriscross1966]

Almost nothing onion-wise is less susceptible in terms of resistance, depending on the conditions it varies from year to year as to whether overwintered or spring sown get worst hit tho... warm and wet spring will butcher the overwintered ones as there by now large root coverage will mean they're bound to get hit and it gives them a chance to transmit form one to another, equally a wet mid summer doesn't affect them much as they already dying down anyway and aren't taking up water so don't need their roots.... the opposite is true of the spring sowings, they'll get hurt badly by wet midsummers when they're growing strongly and have their full roots system,...

I have anecdotal evidence for F1 shallots like Prisma being a bit hardier but it might be down to the small roots they tend to grow so there less plant-to-plant transmission, plus that year they sort of dodged the wet weather.... they were pretty much full grown when it got wet....

[carolinej]

I've just moved and am feeling sad that the growing season is over. I cant wait till the Spring to get started :o)

Onion seeds, eh? Sounds like a goer for the end of December :o) I'll see if I can get some seed (wyevale , on Wednesday at 10p hopefully  ))

Any reason to grow red or white from seed, or are they both as likely/unlikely to succeed?

[chriscross1966]

I'd recommend Santero (gets less mildew issues) Long Red FLorence and the shallots Prisma and Banana...Kelsae's make enormous onions, brilliant for French onion soup cos you peel fewer onions.....

[carolinej]

Kelsae's make enormous onions, brilliant for French onion soup cos you peel fewer onions.....

I like that idea :o)