Onion sets verses seed

15 years ago

Hi all, This year was my first time at planting onion seed,beacause I have never had luck with the onion sets.

Started in Feb /March , planted out in May, Onions did not get very large, mostly the size of onion sets that I normally buy,

So i was thinking , what if I planted the sets in the 6 or 9 cell paks around March/April indoors,

Do you think I will have success ?

I was at a Hutterite colony last week to buy some potatoes , and i couldn't believe the size of their onions,

Unfortunately the person i was buying from was not the gardener, They are 1 hour drive from me, so I know it is possible to grow large onions here,

any comments, suggestions would ne greatly appreciated

.

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Comments (3)

yopper
15 years ago
My first choice would be plants and then seed, sets are OK for green onions.IMO planting the onions you grew this yr.next spring would be a waste of your time as they will just go to seed.You don't say what kind of onion seed that you planted?I would sugest that you google [dixondale farms]. They have a lot of information on onions that should help you decide what kind you should plant for your neck of the woods.
Good Gardening To YA YOPPER
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
15 years ago
I'm in a warmer zone, but I start mine from seed and much easier, direct seed in the garden with soil-warming film and row cover for real cold temps. You must thin early and feed the tops heavily at first, I side-dress with blood meal at planting, then liquid hi-N fert bi-weekly thru spring.

Dan
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farmerdilla
15 years ago
Concur with Yopper. Size is dependent on variety. Sounds like you want a large long day variety. Sets are long day varieties, but tend to be small to medium size varieties. As stated Dixondale has a good selection as does Browns Omaha Plant Farms. I expect plants are also available in Canada but I can't find one just now. Stokes offers a large number of varieties as seed. They offer 10 varieties of the Spanish which is a Jumbo sweet long day onion. If you can start seeds about 10 weeks ahead of your last average frost date, you should be able to grow from seeds.