You know what? Never mind...just beat me with a stupid stick. I asked this question last year and found the thread.

It's too early to be this awake. LOL

Even though you found what you were looking for, I'm going to go ahead and link Tom Clothier's database on the relationship between soil temperatures and seed germination of vegetables because your question might make other people ask "hmmm, wonder what the answer is....".

If anyone is looking for the same info on other plants, he has similar data at this website for some perennials, biennials, annuals, trees, and shrubs. Just go to the bottom of the linked page and click on the link "Return To Index".

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier's Germination Data

Ezzirah, they come up very well in the house. I have started all my seed because some were getting old. Last years seed are coming up very well, getting poor germination on the older ones. All will go outside soon. I think I want to try starting the bulbing onions this fall.

Larry

Larry - I am wishing I would have gone ahead and started inside. I am going to direct sow this weekend and if the rain and ice and snow I *just* heard on the news for next week holds out (Tuesday they said) I will be making use of those frost blankets I bought I guess. :)

Larry, I started a lot of bunching onions inside this year, and I just keep cutting them back because they are growing like weeds. It is so nice to have something that wants to grow as fiercely as these onions do. I am toying with starting my own bulbing onions from seed next fall too.

I need for us to have a good, wet year where I'm not running to wildfires every other day, because all that firefighting stuff cuts severely into my gardening time!

Ezzirah, I love my floating row covers. I have them in several weights and they have helped me save my garden plants from late cold spells a gazillion times in the last 3 or 4 years. Before I started using them, I just used old bedsheets and blankets, but the garden looks so much better with real row covers.

We often have snow storms through at least Easter week, so I always expect them even though I am not hoping for snow.

Dawn

Dawn, I have no idea what bulbing onion seed cost, but if they are as cheap as bunching onions a person can grow a lot of them for little money.

Izzirah, I start my onions in rain gutters ( other seed also). I have no good place to start seed and I can place the gutters in the window and still able to pull the drapes
which keep DW a little happier. I have 4 containers out in my tent now and a 24" gutter ready to go out there in a day or so. These that are ready to go outside are Evergreen bunching onions.

I really like the rain gutters because they are super tuff. The only problem is that when you give plants away in them they sometimes cant find their way back home. I may not have to worry about that this year because my garden may not dry out till summer.

Larry

Larry,
I started bulbing onions this year from seeds. I wanted to try it first before I committed to growing all of mine that way. I started my earliest around Jan 1st in flats(plastic containers) in the house. The early ones are growing gang busters now. The earliest have 3-4 true leaves. The cost of seeds depends on where you buy them. The cheapest place I found for most varieties I wanted was Burrell Seeds at Rocky Ford, CO. Some of my seeds arrived late and those plants are some smaller. Most around here who grow several acres of them sow them from late Feb through April. Jay

Larry,

I haven't looked at onions at Burrell's but in general the seed of bulbing onions is priced comparably to the seeds of any other plant, and it varies some with the newer hybrids costing more, which is true of any newer hybrids of any vegetable. I know that the last time I was looking in Johnny's catalog, the packet of Candy F-1 was $3.45 and I think the seed count was 290. The next largest quantity was 1,000 seeds but I don't remember the price.

Don't give up on the ground drying out. The large puddles in our yard have finally dried up, although the ones in the driveway haven't yet. Some of the puddles in the garden have soaked in, and the top inch of the soil is drying out. It still is too wet to plant, but it is getting better pretty quickly.

Jay, I cannot imagine growing several acres of onions. That's a whole lot of onions to send to market!

I'm planting tomato plants today, in containers, not in the ground. : )

Dawn

Dawn,
Burrell's prices vary some on the variety. Most packets are $1.50 postage paid. You can buy an ounce for $6.50 or less postage paid of most varieties. Candy is 100 seeds for $2.50,500- $3.00 and 1,000 seeds $4.00. So you can grow a lot of onions fairly cheap. There are some growers around who grow either 60 or 120 acres of them. Jay

Last year I started some chipolini onions from seed. They sprouted really well, but due to gardeners error they wound up a mess, but they did sprout and do well in the house before that.

Jay,

Those are great prices. I've been deliberately avoiding going to Burrell's website because I know when I go there, I'll decide I just "have to" order some seeds, and the last thing I need is more seeds in the seed box, which is overflowing. You're just trying to make me go to that website and order more, more, more seeds, aren't you? Huh? Yes sir, yes you are. : ) You know if I go there I'll just have to order Burrell's Jumbo melon and some tomatoes and who knows what else would temp me. I used to be able to find Burrell's seeds on a couple of seed racks in Fort Worth when we lived there, and Livingston seeds too, but that was a long time ago.

Ezzirah, Onions are ridiculously easy from seed, but when growing your own transplants for bulbing onions, it is the timing of the growing that is tricky. In order to have them the right size to transplant in February, I'd have to start the seeds indoors when I am still busy with holiday stuff. That's why I haven't done it in the past. Still, I want to start doing it, and probably next winter. I've moved the lighted seed-starting shelf unit from the guest room to the weight room this year, so that any guests who come won't have to share the guest room with plants. That will make it easier for me to start onions next year since no one sleeps in the weight room. As a bonus, we can talk to the plants while walking/running on the treadmill or lifting weights.

Several years ago I planted leftover onions in a flower bed so we could enjoy the blooms the following year. (Beneficial insects love onion flowers.) Those onions reseeded themselves for several years after that, although I only saw 1 or 2 onion plants in that bed last spring. It makes me think that if I wanted to, I could turn a raised bed into a sort of perennial bulbing onion bed if I left some onions in it every year to go to seed the following year and provide seed for the next onion crop. It might not work in the worst wet and flooding years, like we had in 2007 for example, but years like that are few and far between at my end of the state.

Dawn

I had sown a small packet of the bunching onions seeds while planting cilantro in the raised bed last November for early spring head start, I forgotten about the onions corner since then. But yesterday I was surprised to notice lot of tiny onion plants there, I pulled couple of seedling to see their root system, they are having very long roots. I am going leave them in that bed till they get little large then thin and transplant the thinned one to gaps. -Chandra

Chandra, That's a fun kind of surprise. I get surprised by chives and garlic chives like that every year because if you let them bloom, you end up with little chives coming up everywhere. I always let the chives and garlic chives bloom because their blooms are very attractive to pollinators and other beneficial insects that I want to attract to my garden. So are the onion flowers. It is always fun when someone new is visiting my garden and the onions and chives are blooming. When they ask what the onion or chive flowers are and I tell them, the reply is always "I didn't know they bloomed!" I guess non-gardeners often don't stop to think about vegetables and how they grow because the flowers often catch them by surprise.

Dawn

Dawn,
I wasn't intentionally tempting you. Their selection isn't great like many other sites. But what they offer is varieties that have proven to grow well for commercial growers especially along the Arkansas Valley. Although they do carry a short season onion variety or two. But if they have what you are looking for their prices and shipping is as reasonable as any I've found. Especially for those looking for larger quantities. Odd you mentioned their jumbo melon. I don't usually grow melons. As I'm not a big melon eater although several in my family are. Anyway couldn't resist buying a packet. I used to go up to their fair and rodeo in the late summer every year. They would give away free slices of their melon every year. As good as any I've ate anywhere. I'm growing their onion variety now. And will grow their tomato variety. I'm not sure why I've never grown it. Have ate it several times. And a very good all around type. And has proven to do well in this general area for years. Like I said before most of their varieties are not glamorous but are proven. And any family business that is 113 years old has proven they are doing something right. Jay

I know you're trying to temp me even though you deny it. You are the Great Enabler. lol

I mentioned the melon because it is the first variety of theirs that I ever grew.

I agree that a business that has managed to survive that long, especially in the highly competitive seed industry, is doing things right.

I am not going to go to their website and order more seeds. I am not going to go to their website and order more seeds. I am not......

But, if I do, I'll order the melon seeds too!