About 20 viable plants out of 40 seeds in this pot.

The second round of sowing.

Here, some seedlings are drying out or dying at least at the tips before even fully emerging. Some of these do recover and continue growing, but a lot of them just runt out and stop.

The air is very dry. I have been misting them, so I suppose it could be damping off, but my media is extremely well drained, maybe it’s *too* well-drained?

If it is damping off, would Captan or Chlorothalonil work? Those are the two fungicides I currently have on hand, and I realize it won’t stop what is already started, but might prevent any future affect.

They are in my basement. Ambient temps run in the mid to upper 50s, but during the day when the light is actually on, there’s enough heat from the grow light that it reaches the mid-70s in the immediate vicinity underneath the lights. Humidity is usually under 30%.

At least I have a nice dry basement! Haha.

I had poor germination with onions this year too. I don't know that I have any recommendations for you since I'm in the same boat.

Maybe it was just a bad crop year.

There looks to be green algae on the soil surface indication excess water. I'd water from below and stop misting.

I always seem to have trouble with alliums as well, although germination doesn't seem to be the problem and shallots from shallots seem to do alright. I once did okay with shallots from seed as well.

Garlic does okay, but gets more frustrating each year.

Not sure if that's some problem ( tree roots, nematode, fungus) that is getting worse (and I only do container gardening with fresh promix in sanitized containers), or if I'm just trying more challenging things. )

I seem to have the most trouble with onion seedlings, so I am hitching a ride to see what I can learn with you.

Have no answer but I tried to grow onion seedlings too in pots inside with problems. No problem getting the seeds to sprout but the seedlings get 2-3 inches tall then basically waste away looking sickly. I've got new good growlights this year, and have a fan but I have the same problem as last year.

Too wet?

Too much light confuses the seedlings?

Soil?

How long each day do you have your lights on? They love full direct sunlight outside, which is more intense than anything you can do inside, but onions are daylength sensitive.

LoneJack

I'm glad you responded to this thread. I was thinking of this thread yesterday, when you advised me similarly.

Sorry to hear your onions germinated poorly. I started 3 paks of onions on March 1st. Came up in 5 days and are really doing nice. I started leeks March 15th and they did not come up nearly as good as the onions. I got about 40 leeks up so I will be ok but I sowed 3/4 of a packet of Lancelot leek seed that was supposed to have 250 seeds in it. Strange as I have grown leek plants before and they always came up better than that.

People sure like Candy onion. I grew it last year. While it grew great, it is too mild for cooking for me. This year I am trying Patterson. I like a sharp onion when I use them in cooking.

I too cut the onion tops back with a scissors every 4-5 days or when needed. OTherwise they flop over and really make a mess when they get too tall under my lights. I do fertilize every time I water them using 1/2 strength Miracle-grow.

John - it WAS kind of like Deja-vu all over again! I need to thin my photo portfolio because there's about 4 years worth of pictures in there and I have to scroll thru them all to find the ones I want to add to a thread!

Spartnapples - Patterson should be a more pungent onion for you compared to Candy. They are also longer keepers. As a rule the longer onions store the stronger they are. I'm growing Candy, Red Candy, Superstar, and Patterson this year. I've grown Copra the last 2 years for long keeper but my favorite gardening store opted to carry Patterson over Copra this year. These are all onion starts from Dixondale.

I only started bunching onions, Megaton, and King Richard leeks from seed this year. I started them on New Year's weekend and planted them out last week.

How old were your Lancelot seeds? That does really seem like poor germination! Leeks seeds stay viable longer than onions seeds in my experience but still drop off quite a bit after 2 years. I only got about 50% germination on my 2 year old King Richard seeds this year but I still had 3 more seedlings then I needed! lol

Lonejack:

My Lancelot leek seeds were purchased this winter and were "packed for spring 2019". In the past I too have keep leek seed and had it germinate the following year successfully. Not sure why this fresh leek seed did not come up so well. Onion seed is another story. I do not even bother storing and buy fresh seed every year.

Speaking of leeks, how does King Richard do for you? So far I have only grown Lancelot, Lincoln and American Flag leeks. Lincoln is a tall leek so nice yield but I did not like the flavor as much as the other two. American Flag can get gigantic in size. Lancelot is a short leek with a very dark blue-green foliage but the flavor is very good.

I've always grown King Richard as my early leek if I grow them from seed. Johnny's always has them on sale for $1 for 250 seeds. They are a couple weeks earlier DTM at 75 days than Lancelot (90) which I've grown once from Dixondale bare root starts.

They don't get huge in diameter, usually around 1.5" max, but they are very sweet and uniform. I can usually get up to 8" white shanks if I hill them up a little more after the 5" deep trench is filled in.

Megaton F1 (90 days) is now my favorite leek. They have a very short core at the root end and long, thick shanks. Very dependable. They are a Johnny's exclusive and pretty expensive as far as leek seed goes.

I've also grown American Flag, Bandit, Gevaria, and one other that I can't recall at the moment.

ETA - Giant Musselburgh is the other one I've grown but I don't remember much about it. It was about 10 years ago or more and it must not have impressed me much since I haven't grown it since.

Thanks lonejack!

After reading all that I am now hungry for leeks. My family just can't garden without them. Shame not too many grow their own. They are super expensive to buy at the supermarkets.

We use them many ways. Creamed leeks, vichyssoise, cock-a-leekie soup, in scrambled eggs, in quiche lorraine ect . My wife always wants me to chop and freeze extra leeks so she can enjoy them in numerous dishes she prepares over the winter (if I was not too hospitable and gave too much of the crop away to visitors and family every Fall like I often do).

I will have to keep an eye out for the King Richard leek seed next year. The current seed company I use does not offer it.

Thanks all! I was wondering why the haircut. Mine are outside, and I'd like to separate them a bit. Can that work?

nanelle_gw - Is this your leek's forever home or do you plan to transplant them to ground beds or another container? If this is where they will stay until harvest then yes they are too close to develop into full sized leeks. Minimum 4" spacing is preferred and I space mine at 6" to get nice 1.5-2.5" shanks.

If this is where you intend the leeks to stay you can separate them and the sooner the better. You will inevitably damage some roots because the plants like the four(?) in your second picture will be intertwined. They might be set back a bit but should recover pretty quickly. Another option is to harvest some of them as baby leeks roughly the size of your pinky and leave others to grow on at wider spacing.

Regarding the haircuts...we only do this for the first couple months when growing under lights from seed. It keeps the plants manageable at around 5" tall and promotes thicker stemmed seedlings. When growing leeks or onions from seed I shoot for seedlings that are about 1/8" at the soil line. Once the seedlings have been transplanted into their final growing location the haircuts stop.

Good luck!!

Spartanapples - Yes leeks sure are expensive and they charge you for the green leaves that I rarely use. That's one of the major reason I grow them. We use a lot of them in Chinese stir fry dishes, leek and potato soup, and in grilled vegetable medleys.

I usually freeze about 1/2 of our harvest to use during the winter months. I've also planted starts mid summer for a fall/winter harvest. Some varieties are extremely winter hardy and stay firm down into the single digits or even lower with a thick layer of mulch to protect them.

LoneJack, thanks! They are Bianco di Maggi onions, not leeks. Sorry for the confusion. I had planned to separate them, but some of what I'm reading says they might do fine, perhaps if I plan to use them small. I think I'll separate some, and leave some. Thanks again for your help.

Yes, I was a little confused. I thought I saw flat leaves in the first picture indicating leeks. Onions would most likely push each other apart and bulb up OK but with somewhat misshapen bulbs. I think your plan is solid! Cipollini type onions don't get very big anyway so 2" spacing should be plenty.

To confuse things even further, there are a few garlic seedlings in the box as well.

Dueling alliums!! I thought those flat leaves on the left were awful green and wide.

Thank you for mentioning "seedlings that are about 1/8" at the soil line. ". I have been trying to understand the best way to grow onions in my climate and latitude, and latched on to two ideas I've read in Golden Gate Gardening".

I've been focusing on shallots and cippolini onions since they became "trendy" in recipes. Shallots from sets (bulbs?) seem fine, but I usually have to find the right onion seeds, then start the at just the right time.

Don't mean to hijack the thread. This might be a pretty particular set of circumstances.

Hey Jack, how do you freeze your leeks? I freeze my sweet and hot peppers diced and that works real nice, just take out a hand full out of the bulk bag and you have about a single pepper's worth and you can mix the colors for some visual interest. I understood that freezing the onion family did not work too well. You don't have to blanch the peppers or do anything at all past chopping them. I would like to be able to handle onions similarly and maybe mix some colors in them, too, if possible. I use maybe 2 small peppers and about 1 medium sized onion a day cooking for myself, along with fresh potato and of course fresh garlic. It would sure be nice to do one afternoon of chopping for weeks of cooking!

Dutch - I freeze leeks and onions without blanching. For leeks I julienne cut them lengthwise along the shaft and put a cup+ in a small foodsaver type bag ( I use the Walmart Mainstays brand which are considerably cheaper than Foodsaver bags) and vacuum seal them. Onions I cut 2 different ways. Chop some at ~1/4" for using in soups, chile, tacos, omelettes, etc or thin slice them for use in stir fry and fajitas. Then I package and vacuum seal them the same as leeks in about 1 cup amounts. When using them in cooking I'll use them frozen or partly thawed.

As long as you don't try to keep them in the freezer to long you should be OK not vacuum sealing them but there is so much water in leeks and onions especially that they will get freezer burned if kept too long in just a Glad type freezer bag or tupperware.

Nanelle - in your location you can probably get away with planting out short day onions in the late fall and intermediate onions in late winter. I start all of my onions and leeks indoors under lights about 10-12 weeks prior to the date I want to transplant out. This gets them to the desired 1/8" girth at the soil line. I haven't grown bulbing onions from seed for a few years though and timing isn't a concern for leeks and bunching onions because their not day length sensitive.

Heck, at your latitude of about 37.5 N and 14' 45" hours max day length you should be able to get away with planting some of the long day types. Some long day onions like Walla Walla and Bridger are adapted for latitudes as far south as 35N, while others like Ailsa Craig and Patterson are adapted down to 38N which is probably close enough to grow in the bay area. Red Wing on the other had is only adapted down to 43N so it likely wouldn't bulb up well for you.

Johnny's selected seeds lists the latitude range for almost all of the onion seed and plants they sell. My latitude is 38.5N and max day length is 5 minutes shy of 15 hours. I buy Dixondale onion starts from a gardening store locally and usually stick with intermediate day types but I've grown long day types Copra and Walla Walla to nice sized bulbs without a problem.

Looks to me like freezing diced onions works just as well as freezing diced peppers. I will know more as time goes along and I use more of them. Thanks Jack.

I forgot that I froze the last of my leeks when I picked them last November. Found the ziplock bag in the freezer. Used them in omelettes over the weekend. Mighty sweet and tasty. They stored well in the freezer. We tried some commercial frozen leeks over the winter from a local grocery store and hey were not very flavorful. Those I chopped and froze myself were just fantastic. Not sure if it was the variety I froze or if the store bought frozen leeks were really old. I just wanted to mention this in case others have had mediocre experiences with frozen leeks if they bought them from a supermarket.