Onions like well drained soil. They don't seem to need as much water or light as tomatoes and other veggies. I water my bunching onions every other week. If you're using regular potting mix, you may need to mix 1/3 part perlite to the soil to help with the drainage.

tam,

As a bit of a lark over Winter here in San Jose, I planted 2 EarthTainers with Maui onion seeds, and Candy onion seeds. The Candy are so-called "day neutral" (not sure what impact that will have in N. California latitude). So far, they seem to be tolerating the cool weather, although we did have a week of 70 degrees all last week.

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As the 'Tainers were idle over the Winter awaiting tomato plants in April, I thought I would give the onions a whirl and see what happens in the Spring.

Raybo

The tiny stalks are very fragile but fun to watch growing. I grew impatient and stuck some scallion bottoms in with the babie plants. They grow quickly next to the new sprouts.

I grew onions in containers last summer - 3 window boxes and 2 small tubs (~18"w x 9"h). They didn't get huge but tasted great. We had a really wet summer and I think they may have been a bit waterlogged at times. Per vrkelley's suggestion, I'm going to add some perlite this year.

rnewste
My seedling starts look just like your picture. The young plants look so droopy. Eventually they stand up. They take along time to grow but it's worth it! Less water seems to work best and I water them every 2 weeks.

vr,

I planted them in early December as a bit of an experiment in the unused EarthTainers over the Winter. The package (Candy onion) said 90 days, but I really don't see how they will be ready for harvest 45 days from now. In any event, I will let them continue to grow to see how long their DTM really is.

Ray

Ray,

Re maturity dates: Some people harvest full sized onions like your Candy onion as smaller scallions. 90 days for a full size onion is pretty optimistic optimistic - OK exaggerated!

The day neutral idea is about flowering, so I don't think that's an issue for your onions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoperiodism (scroll down)

How come produce, store bought greens have such a heavy stalk? When I buy theirs, use the greens and then plant the bulb. The stalks look like my seedlings. How do they do that???

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I grow my Onions in 16 oz cups. These will be ready to pull about September. There more than a hundred in that space.

When onion sets became available here in January, my garden wasn't ready to plant yet so I rounded up all the pots I had laying around, threw a bunch of garden soil in them and planted most of them. Ten day later I planted the rest in the garden.

The onions in the pots are doing much better than the ones in the garden and will be ready to harvest soon. I like the idea of all those 16oz cups in the post above and will plan on doing it that way next year, though I believe I will use a proper potting mix then too.

georgeiii, what mix do you use in cups and how often do you water?

bernie

Now how do I explain this???? I learned to grow from "old people" There wasn't a Master Gardener among them, but they could pick the soil up, squeeze it, taste it, tell by it's weight and color. Look at was growing in it, what insects lived in it. So with that said start with 2 parts "old potting" mix. One part garden soil and one part manure. In the 16 0z cup put a 1/8 inch hole one inch from the bottom. Only one. I usually push my Onions one inch into the mix. As for watering the cups are clear, just look. Right now it's 1 liter for 16 Onions as it get's hotter it'll be 2 liters for 16 Onions. So far there are White, Red, Green and Yellow. About 118. I'll start another 48 (6 trays)friday.

Here are my Winter Onions from Sets:

Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Onions & Lettuce

I grow my Onions in 16 oz cups. These will be ready to pull about September. There more than a hundred in that space.

Are you after small onions? You could just pick them young if that's the case. Most mature onions won't fit in a 16 oz cup.

Well justaguy didn't you also tell me I couldn't grow corn in a 2 liter bottle a few years ago? Give it a try. The big problem is compaction, that's what the "old mix" stops. Now too remember I grow for the roots not leaves for a salad. I intend to fry these bad boys up. As for fit, they fit just fine. You know I'll post pictures. Give it a try.

tam: No special containers are required. Yours should do just fine. I'd have to see them, but i'd say, if they're 1.25ft x 3ft, plant two rows of 7-8 in each row. My onions from seed didn't work too well this year. I think i'll start some inside in the late fall maybe. Anyways, I bought a bunch/set of Texas sweet onions that i'm growing in containers and they're doing quite well. I think I have 6 in one container that's about a 16 inch diameter v 1 ft deep and 7 in another that's about a 20 inch diameter & 1.5 ft deep. Here are some picstures of them that might help with spacing. These were taken only a few days after planting. The onions are huge now; about twice this size.

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Wow! The things I have learned since reading this forum. I was really interested in the onions growing in the 16 oz cups.

We eat LOTS of scallions, and I never knew that you could plant the "bottoms". I always just threw them into the compost pile. But now I would like to try my hand at growing some. My question is, does the container have to be around 16 oz, or would like yogurt containers work? My family goes through lots of yogurt, and I have always just recycled the empty containers. But if these would be sufficient to try the scallions in, that would be great.

Sassy
(gammie to 2 beautiful girls)