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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Trying Onion Seedlings

Jessica Walliser
Hobby Farms Contributor

Lettuce seeds
Photo by Jessica Walliser
The lettuce seeds are ready to plant in the garden.

And so the work continues here. I’ll post some new pics next week of how the new patio is progressing. It will be a few more weeks until the grading work and retaining walls are done. In the meantime, it’s a big muddy mess out there, but it sure is fun to watch the progress happening.

I have finally gotten around to spreading the compost in the veggie patch and planting my lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and onions. I was very excited to find onion plants at a local nursery as I have always grown onions from sets and then read some research about how you get bigger onions by starting from seedlings. I called around to some local nurseries and was surprised that I could locate onion seedlings at only one store—and it’s almost an hour away! Thankfully, we have some friends that live close to this nursery so we made a stop on our way to a visit with them last week.

The seedlings came in bundles of 30. I got Walla Walla and Red Candy—two varieties that are supposed to be great for northern gardens. I’m tempted to plant a row of sets just to do a side-by-side comparison of the final product. I’m all about those kinds of experiments in the garden. 

I was feeling kind of guilty about dedicating so much garden space to onions, but then I decided that they are one vegetable that we eat a lot, and because they store so well, they are worth the amount of real estate they take up out there. I still have to plant the peas, carrots and some beets. Hopefully that will be done by the week’s end.

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Trying Onion Seedlings

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Reader Comments
Nice article.
Carl, Livermore, CA
Posted: 12/21/2011 10:55:24 AM
Oh my gosh this is my frist year with onions so I really hope that I can get them to grow. I love to read what you have to say.
Coral, Odessa, TX
Posted: 4/30/2011 8:31:10 PM
Cool article!!!
Kayla, Sophia, NC
Posted: 4/27/2011 6:20:45 PM
Have always tried to find onion plants to set out rather than the onion "sets". The sets always seem to develop a flower and even if you break them off, they still grow with that flower stalk on the side of the onion. The onion plants always seem to be more tender than the sets also. They are harder to find because they are more perishable than the sets.
Loretta, Manhattan, KS
Posted: 4/18/2011 9:26:34 AM
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