Check again....Bonnie has (small) onion PLANTS out early this year...I bought mine at Palmers Feed in downtown Orlando....I don't worry about bulbing...I grow mine for the early green onions in a few weeks...

doug

Doug is Palmers back in business? That's where I bought some of mine last year.

Rebuilding Yes....they were getting ready to set new roof trusses....(the old store burned earlier this year)

Operating out of the existing warehouse and temporary modular buildings/trailers......handicapped ramp access... same friendly people....I bought 60 small onions fer $5

The box stores should have access to the same Bonnie stock ?

doug

He said the onion sets would be along "soon"

I have granex (short day) seeds. When should I start them?

Last year I started from small seed onions, not actual seed, in October, and got greens from them for a few months but no bulbing until April. And then not much bulbing. I don't know if they were long day or short day as I got them at the local feed store from an unlabeled bulk bin.

For Granex (Vidalia's) they aren't called "short-day" for nothing. The feed stores and big-box won't have sets any earlier than November for the south, since there's TOO much daylight ;-)

I will be harvesting my sweet potatoes the second week in October - would that be a good time to start the seeds? And they are seeds, not the sets.

I just got onion sets at Walmarts yesterday. :o)

I got some sets at Willow Tree this week. They're called 'Florida Sweets.' I know nothing about onions, but the Florida part appealed to me as in, "Yes Florida, I live there so it should work." :)

I checked Wal mart yesterday but they didn't have them

This is really, really early if you want bulbing onions from sets. I have no idea about starting from seed. The guru's are here, note what they say about day length, we really need to be on the other side of the winter solstice (12/21) before bulbing will start....

Tom

I only paid $1.65 for my onions, so I won't be brokenhearted if it doesn't work out. They already have tiny little bulbs on them. I am going to plant them as soon as this horrible wet heat breaks. Maybe next week.

I grow Texas granex every year. I plant the seed about October 1 and put the plants in the ground at the end of November. It works for me here in Tampa.

I bought some sets from walmart last year. No info on the package, so when got home I googled the producer. They were long day onions, grown in Wisconsin and only good down to about NC. Never made a bulb bigger than an egg. john

I grow Texas granex every year. I plant the seed about October 1 and put the plants in the ground at the end of November. It works for me here in Tampa.

Good info, thanks! What medium do you start them in, what initial containers, how deep, what light source and how do you water them? More info please....

Tom

I also grow Granex from seed.I just sowed my seeds about 3 days ago straight into the beds.I use any thinnings as baby scallions & then feed the young plants about once a month with dilute fish emulsion.Last year I did two seperate sowings about 2 months apart,but the onions bulbed at almost the same time-which I'm sure is to do with the daylength as Tomncath stated.I also grew some Spanish onions,that were much slower to bulb,but did produce good size onions eventually-unlike the Granex,they did not store nearly as well though.I still have a couple of bags of Granex now,that have been sitting in my workshop for months & are still perfectly fine for eating.Hope this helps

What medium do you start them in, what initial containers, how deep, what light source and how do you water them? More info please....

Tom, I use Lamberts mix and 72 cell trays. Each cell is about an inch square. I plant three trays every year. I put two seeds in each cell at about 1/4 inch deep. These I keep on my patio in about 50% shade till they are well up; then full sun and liquid fertilizer. When ready to plant, if both seeds survive, I gently separate and plant a double row in a raised bed - about five inches apart and three or four inches deep. Depending on the width of the bed, you can plant more rows. Just make sure all the plants are at least five inches apart. Any extra plants can go into a separate bed planted thick for scallions. I have been using the same cell packs and trays for years.

Shuffles - with a start date of Oct 1, when do you harvest?

Truscifi, they get ready around the end of March. As someone else noted here, you can plant at various times but they will be ready at the same time.
I forgot to mention, unlike most seeds, onion seeds don't keep well from year to year. I buy fresh seeds every year.

Turns out my 'Florida Sweet' onion is a Granex too. The tray at Willow Tree is now labeled as such. Look at the link below to learn more than you ever wanted to know about Granex onions. It's from Texas Agrilife Extension and they are very proud of their onions.

Here is a link that might be useful: THE ONION THAT CAME TO TEXAS BUT NEVER LEFT THE SAME

Still won't start bulbing until January-February, planting them now with all this rain you only risk rot until we start drying out...sure seems I've lost about a third of my broccoli and Veronica seedlings this week due to dampening off from the excessive rain :-(

Tom

You have done your duty Tom. Consider me warned :) I haven't actually planted the onions yet. They're on my porch along with most of my little seedlings waiting for the "relief" of the mid to upper 80s instead of the lower 90s. Also if I don't get the seedlings to a mature enough size those sow bugs eat them.

Around me (Ocala), we get the big bunches of starter plants later on...I can't remember exactly when. Sparr Hardware and Seminole Feed in Ocala gets a LOT of them. Planted them last year and had the most beautiful sweetest onions Ive ever had. Cant wait for them to get them in again.

This year due to various reasons, including October being unusually hot, I did not get my Texas Granex planted. I just ordered two bunches of "Short Day Sampler" from Dixondale Farms for the week of November 13 delivery. The sampler includes red onions, which I have never grown before. It should be interesting. I will try to report on the number of plants per bunch after they arrive.

I buy from them now. Have had great luck with them. It seems that onions really like a LOT of water...the year we had so much rain during the winter I had the absolute best biggest onions.

Shuffles, thanks to your post I remember to order the onions from Dixondale, I got them today and they look good!

Silvia

Silvia, I also received mine yesterday. Yours look much better - the green part greener and the roots whiter. The roots on mine look almost brown.

I just ordered from Dixondale. Last year, the two samplers did well. I especially liked the Texas Early White roasted. The Red Creole also did well. As for count, I forget, but I know it was more than 75 per bundle. There were quite a few tiny plants that I planted in cell packs to grow some more before putting them in the ground. By harvest the tiny ones had pretty much caught up. This year I am buying three bundles, one each of Texas Early White, Red Creole and Texas Legend. I plan to set any tiny plants in a large container for green onions during January and February.