They arrived less than a week from being harvested and I can put them right back into the ground in my garden! The grower that I buy from ( Dixondale Farms) harvests and packs the seedlings right in the field and then ships them out to me. So if you figure they are already a week old by the time they arrive at the store, then you really need to hurry! Find out from your local garden shop when they will be receiving their shipment and go buy them right after they arrive, and then don’t waste much time getting them in the ground! Third, you can buy them directly from the growers, online! The one thing you need to be aware of is onion seedlings only last about 3 weeks from harvest until they need to be planted. That often means you will be starting them in January or February. Starting onion seedlings is fairly easy to do, but remember that your seedlings need to be ready to go out in your garden 6 weeks before your last frost. We will take more about this in a bit! How do you get Onions Seedlings? First, you can grow them yourself. My overall production of onions has also increased dramatically since I started planting onions using seedlings! I’m getting more than twice the overall weight in onions that I used to get! I also love that you can plant some of these onions for harvest as green onions and get an extra early harvest. Many years I don’t have any that send up flowers. Since I switched to planting onions using seedlings I only ever have maybe 1 or 2 onions that send up a flower head during the season. These seedlings are this year’s plants, so you will find that they are focused on growing bulbs not flowers. These onion seedlings are usually transplanted out into the garden when they are around 6 weeks old. They look like a smaller version of a “green” onion that you would buy for cooking. Planting onions using seedling is by far the best and most productive way of planting onions that I have found. Now don’t get me wrong, many people are very successful at growing onions from sets, but you are missing out on larger, longer lasting onions if you plant this way. So you have many more problems with flower stalks, and the bulbs never develop as large because the plants are focused on growing flowers and setting seeds. The problem with sets is the plants “think” they are in the second year if planted by set. If the bulbs are not harvested in the first year then they sprout again the second year and send up a flower stalk and set seeds. Onions are biennial plants, which means they sprout and grow a bulb in their first year. The problem with onion sets is that the sets are actually in their second year. ![]() This is the way I planted onions for the first 10 years we gardened and we always had a decent crop. Many folks plant onions this way and have great success. These sets are planted just below the surface in the early spring and they sprout and produce a mature onion bulb. They are usually no larger than an inch or so. ![]() ![]() For the bulk of us in the northern hemisphere planting onions by seed outdoors is just not an option. ![]() No way that is happening in my Zone 5/6 garden! This will be the case for most of you. In order for me to have them ready from seed, I would need to plant them in the garden in early February. I want my onions to be ready in early August each year. Only those of you in the mildest of climates will really see good success by planting seeds directly into the garden. It takes a long time to grow onion from seed. Planting onions using seedlings is the only way to go in my humble opinion. Build your own PVC Drip Irrigation System – Video Course.Growing Tomato Heaven!! Our latest Video Course.
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