Picked this beauty last night for making relish, pretty good sized onion. We had great success with our onions from seed again this year. We direct seeded the majority of them to see if transplants were really necessary. I would say that if you get them seeded in as soon as the soil is workable, that is when these ones were planted, that transplants may not be necessary. I would still start shallots, leeks and maybe some onions for an earlier crop even though I will probably direct seed all the red and yellow onions.
Wow! Mine are never that big. Perhaps I should start direct seeding mine instead of doing sets?
ReplyDeleteI planted sets at least one, maybe two years. I was never really extremely happy with their growth and storage. I kept reading constantly how planting onions from seeds results in a better onion, tried them out and never looked back. Every other year we started them indoors, trimmed them and transplanted them outdoors. I tried direct seeding them as an experiment and don't think I'll bother with the transplants again. The thing about the transplants is they take up a lot of room and if the weather isn't just right for transplanting them, they don't really dig staying in their containers.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll give that a try next year.
ReplyDeleteAnother perk is that it's cheaper to buy seeds than sets. Also, the sets are basically a year old when you plant them and more likely to go to seed/respond to stress. I've been really impressed with onions from seeds, I'd never go back.
ReplyDelete