Seed starting time! Can you believe it?! Well, just onions so far. Last year I started them with the rest of the seeds; they needed way more time! So I bumped it up this year quite a bit.
Burpee Walla Walla Onions
To be 100% honest I chose Walla Walla onions back in 2021 because that is what Menards had. But I actually really like them a lot! I like the flavor and they seem pretty easy to grow. 2023 will be my 3rd year growing onions from seeds! I just like the satisfaction of growing everything myself from seed but you definitely just buy onion starts if you would rather go that route. I do think next year I am going to order online I think you end up getting more seeds for the amount of money you are spending. I spent about $20 on seeds and it’ll last me about 2 years so maybe not? I keep going back and forth with that.
Picking the Right Onions
Did you know there are specific onions you can grow successfully in your zone? There are 3 types short day, long day, and intermediate day. Short days are for zones between 7 and 13. Long-day onions are for zones between 6 and 1. The Intermediate could be for zones 5 and 6. Seed companies online and normally on the back of seed packets will tell you what zones they are good for. I am zone 6, long day, so Wall Wall Onions fit right into that!
Supplies for Seed Starting
- Seeds- If you don’t know where to start check out your local hardware stores!
- seed trays- you’ll want seed trays that have the soil/seed holder plus the bottom tray for holding water and the clear dome. I have had these for 3 years now.
- seed starting soil mix
- grow lights– I like these because they all can connect together and they also have individual plug-ins as well. Pack of 6.
- Optional: greenhouse (indoor or outdoor)- I have this indoor one. I like to have a stand strictly for plants and once the plants get bigger and you don’t need the dome it still helps keep them warmer.
Why Do I like seed starting?
So the whole point of starting seeds indoors is by the time it is warm enough to plant outdoors these babies will be produced fairly quickly. This is the same concept as just being the mature plants from a greenhouse and transplanting them in the ground or a garden box. As I said earlier, you get the satisfaction of starting the seeds yourself and you truly know where all your food is coming from. You have to start them at the right time so you aren’t nursing large plants inside for a while. It should be once they get to a fairly mature level it will be warm enough for transplanting. The best guide for this is from the Farmers Almanac. You can simply type your zip code in and it will give you dates for not only transplanting but also when to start them indoors.
Starting Seeds
So you fill your seed tray full of soil. I like to add extra because it will settle down. Then you wet the soil pretty well. Then poke some holes in each cell. You can take some tweezers for small seeds and drop one per seed cell. You can add more and then weed out all but one per cell once they are popping up and are strong. Don’t forget to label if you are starting more than one type of seed. Then pop the clear dome lid on top and set it underneath your grow light. You want to make sure you are keeping them pretty close to the lights so they are not stretching for light. You want to leave them on the lights for 12-16 hours per day.
Once all seeds have sprouted you can take the lid off the tray. Then, once the seedlings are getting the pretty strong and decent size you can then transfer them to bigger containers of seed trays. Like these here. Then from there, they should be okay until ready to transplant outside.
Here is the reel of me planting my onion seeds! You can learn more about my success and failures of the 2022 garden season here.
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