Growing Onions From Seed
Growing onions from seed in seedling trays.
We have been trying to grow onions from seed for sometime as they are a staple food for us as we pretty much use onions in every meal we prepare. We have only had a low germination success rate by planting onion seed directly into our vegetable garden beds so this year we decided to plant them into small seedling trays. These trays were the exact ones that most shops sell onion seedlings in so we figured that they must be good.
We planted seeds from different onions types (brown, white, red, spring etc) into separate seedling trays during winter and kept the trays moist. The germination rates were the highest we have ever had, far higher than planting seed directly into our vegetable garden beds where we only ever had a few germinate. It is really important to use fresh seed (<1 – 2 years old) as onion seeds loose their viability rapidly. Also we always label the seedling containers so that we can remember what was what when we get to planting out.
Now in late spring the seedlings are a few months old and ready to be planted out into our vegetable garden beds.
Most onions with large bulbs have a long growing season and like to germinate over the cooler months. But the smaller types like spring onions have a shorter growing season and can be germinated throughout the year.
We are aiming to be able to grow all our onions that we need for the year from seed that we collect. Increasing the germination rates of seed has really helped us to make this more viable by being able to grow larger quantities of onions with less effort.
Click here for more information on other foods that we we grow…
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