I really like the details you provide! Particularly, that you state the date and location you're gardening in at the beginning of each video, and that you are very clear and scientific in your comparisons, etc. Very helpful! Thank you!
Yes, absolutely! You are right. It's SO useful that he starts his videos with date and location. As a Canadian, I can still learn a lot from him, but have to keep a lot in mind about the vast seasonal difference. I get a lot of American farmers from the Midwest also on my youtube suggestions, but very few of them regularly say where they are, so it becomes a bit less informative.
Thank you for explaining the biennial cycle for onions. Many other people mention onions are biennial but then don't bother to explain what this means for growers. They left me thinking I would need to harvest my onions after the first year, store them through winter, and replant for another entire season before they were ready to eat. Based on your explanation I take it they are ready to eat after one season but if left for a second season would then produce seeds in the second year.
Hiya, I have an allotment over here in the UK (Sheffield) The old timers on the other allotments on our patch, tell me to use onion sets, and for the last 3 years that is what I have been doing. They say that our climate isn't right to grow onions like you have stated and they are pretty adimant about it, so I think after watching this video I am going to give growing them from seed ago in the coming month. Thanks, for another great video and I am looking forward to watching more.
This makes so much sense! Last year I grew from sets and the outcome was terrible. Half didn’t produce bulbs. The ones that did were tiny. This year I started onions from seed under grow lights and transplanted them into my garden. The bulbs they have produced are big and beautiful. I will never grow from sets again if I can help it.
That was my thought as well, but I'm very glad I ran the comparison. This would have saved me a big headache last year. Now I know, and I'll have much better harvests moving forward.
@@TheMillennialGardener I actually tried to plant onion seed which was saved, by another person. But it didn't grow. I wonder if the seed doesn't last as long as other garden seeds typically do? I planted tomato seed from 2011 and the germination rate was very high (I ended up wasting a lot because I didn't think it would sprout).
Here’s an old southern anecdote for you... you can also store onions using the legs of old stockings hung with a knot tied in the stocking between each onion in a vertical sleeve. (Yes, it’s true that probably 90 percent or more of the population no longer has or wears stockings 😉)
I don't have much of a stocking collection these days. I mostly threw them all out after college 😂 I use the organza bags because you can get 100 of them for a couple bucks, but I guess if you have old stockings lying around, anything breathable should work. Thanks for watching!
@@TheMillennialGardener haha ... yeah it’s probably hard to get your hands on some stockings assuming anyone wants to at this point. So neat about the organza bags!
I can't believe there was ever a time where Dale wasn't in our lives. He feels like he's been here forever, and I hope he will be here forever. He's the best guy I know, paws down.
Here's a neat tip if you like green onions: I found green onion packs at ALDI for sixty-nine cents. There are usually 20 to 25 onions in each pack. I get two or three packs. I cut the white root-end off at about a quarter of an inch and drop them in a small container of water. I then process the whole cut off end stems into a tupper ware box and keep the onions for the week. I take the root ends to my garden and stick them around the edge of the beds. In about a month, I have fresh, green onions. You can then leave the roots in the bed and harvest by cutting just above the root growth (again). You will need to watch these onions since some will want to go to flower. Just cut the top that flowers and they will continue to grow all year long. I think the onions help keep some critters out, but they are worth it just to eat. Great video! I'm going to get some onion seed and try your tricks!
There is a risk when doing this, because you do not know what the Day-Type of those onions are. They can be anything. If you live in down south like I do and they're carrying Long Day onions grown up north, they will not bulb properly. Ditto if you live up north and they're stocking a short-day onion. It's a big risk, and it may take you 4-6 months to find out you made a mistake. The safest thing to do is to buy seed of a known variety so you buy the proper type for your latitude.
THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO! I’ve search and searched for a seed to finish onion video. I’ve tried to grow onions for three years now and I finally know what I’ve been doing wrong and how to do it correctly now🙋🏻♀️ You’re the best!
I just planted my onion plans out today, Feb15,2023 So watched your video again for the 2nd time. Very informative thank you. My Vidalia plants in the ground now should be ready if like last year for final harvest by June 7th.
Fantastic information. You gained my respect, you taught an old dog a new trick! I stopped growing onions due to the cost, and my relatively poor harvest. I am ashamed to say I did not know onions were biennials, even though i grow many other biennials such a lupin and foxglove. This makes all the sense in the world to me. I also did not know i need to grow a certain kind in my area. I just knew the onions grown in the south ( I am in ohio) were always beautiful! Well I guess I will be googling onion seed for my area and trying again!
Thanks I appreciate this video. I tried both last year and didn’t start my seeds early enough. I’m not doing sets again either. I look forward to following you on onions. I’m 8a.
I'm in 8A as well, but onion variety selection is actually based on your latitude, not your zone. Make sure you grow the appropriate day-length for your latitude. Here in 8A, I started my seed around December 1 for a January 24 transplant, and it worked out perfectly. I'll never do sets again.
I plant Georgia grannex seed in tubs with potting soil September 1 or so then by late October early November they are ready for transplant into a raised bed . Harvest in late April . That’s how they grow the Vidalia onions . You are correct that the bulbs are what’s known as second year onions and want to bolt in the second year . Onion seeds have somewhat poor germination rates so I plant heavy since they are easily transplanted. You never want them to get larger diameter than a pencil before transplanting
I think I may try planting my onions a little earlier this year, too. I didn't harvest mine until June, which is good because day length is maximum at that time of the year, but it's tough to store because it's just so hot everywhere and anywhere. Storing them in April or May is so easy by comparison! I had 100% success transplanting them out of 6-cell trays.
High MG! I live in NH zone 5A, 43.6 latitude, 1100 ft. elevation, old hill top dairy farm my grandfather started. I have always grown from sets, direct planted into a tilled conventional garden that consists of Carlton Loam. Very large consistent crop. The only issue I have had is some of the sets were almost hollow, which I do not plant. The local nursery had the sets in a large bin, scoop them out onto a scale.
You always post videos that are relevant to me! Each gardening year I try new varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, & peppers (along with some I've grown before & like) but also one or more things that I've never tried to grow before. Last year it was pumpkins & winter squash, this year it's onions! I grew them from seed, too. Unfortunately got them planted way late but still looking forward to seeing if I actually get any good bulbs this year. If not there's always next year!
If they mature within the next 30-45 days or so, the day length should hopefully be long enough to make the bulbs large enough. They probably won't be optimal, but you should get a harvest. Onions are one of those things that you just have to try until you figure out exactly when to plant them. Somehow, I totally lucked out and they matured for me within a week of the Summer Solstice, so I totally nailed it 😂 Glad the video was helpful!
Those organza bags look like a perfect way to dry and store the onions. I especially like how you clipped the bags together in a long line to hang them to allow lots of air flow (vs storing the onions in a single large bag or box).
They are. They worked even better for the garlic! The garlic lasted probably 9 months in the bags hanging up. They're also great for bagging figs, tomatoes and other pest-prone fruit. I use them to protect my fruits before harvest.
Those are genius!!! I've been trying to think of alternatives to panty hose, cuz let's be honest, it's getting hard to find them...! THANK YOU for this awesome idea!!!
Going to try the seeds this spring 2022. Last year I grew from the bundled sets from the local store and had a bad time with them going to seed. It affected those bulbs, but not the ones that didn't seed. Ready to set the seeds here in a few weeks in southern Missouri
I buy short season onion seeds and grow them to bulbs in the summer. Over winter in my garage. Plant in march harvest in july. Cheap and easy. No problems.
Thanks for the interesting video. Good onion information. I grow either from seed or onion plants (first year) but you’re right, seeds are the least expensive and best way to grow. BTW those yellow Granex are the best onions ever! We occasionally plant sets for green onions (scallions) but they will not produce bulbs at our latitude. Yellow Granex, Red Creole and Texas 1015Y are our favorites (all short day).
I totally lucked out by picking a top notch variety, and I transplanted them at the exact right time my first try. That almost never happens, so I'll take a little bit of good luck for a change! Can you recommend a good red onion? I'm assuming Red Creole? You're probably around a similar latitude to me. I'm at 34N, so I assume you're somewhere in the 32-35 range.
@@TheMillennialGardener Good guess! I’m at 34 degrees. Red Creole and Red Burgundy are both excellent short day varieties. Red Burgundy are large (up to 4”), mild and sweet. Red Creole are smaller and pretty pungent. Red Creole is very bolt resistant as well.
Thank you! I have ALWAYS had a horrible onion harvest and I've always used sets. I'm in GA and my current onion harvest is, literally, nil. I've got many that are going to seed and the rest are still in the tiny 'set' stage even though I planted them last fall. I get this same result every year. I've been thinking that it was something about how I was planting them, but now I see differently. I'm going to get seeds this year. My dogs react the same way Dale does when it comes to water and pools. It's always the "ICK! It's touching me" reaction, lol...
Growing some seed should cure your issue. I highly recommend this Yellow Granex variety. I grew it because the package claimed it was commonly used by Georgia farmers, and the results are excellent. They should be perfect for you. I started my seeds in early December and transplanted them January 24th, if you want a timeline. That should work almost identically for you, because I'm at the same latitude as Atlanta. Have a hydrophobic dog is NOT a bad thing! What scares me is a wet, muddy dog running into the house 😂
Your videos are great, very informative. Really appreciate them. Thanks. I am re-doing my garden area and am wondering what you used to put your raise beds on. Please help. At the present the grass grew through the landscaping fabric I had down and it doesn't appear you have that problem. Thank you.
This was very educational. I didn’t know about the different types of onions to grow depending on the climate. I’ve grown both sets and seeds but never did a side by side comparison. I think Dale wants you to get in the pool with him.
It's not your climate that dictates the onion varieties you grow, but your latitude. Onions bulb based on the length of the day around the Summer Solstice. The higher the latitude, the longer your day length on the Summer Solstice. If you grow a Long-Day onion down where I live, they won't bulb properly because the summer days are shorter at lower latitudes, so they will never grow a proper bulb. Similarly, if you grow a Short Day onion at a high latitude, they'll try to bulb way too early and fail. Selecting the right variety and timing the transplants properly is everything when growing onions. I could fill the pool with beef jerky and Dale wouldn't voluntarily go in there.
Thank you! I originally planted sets for a few years, but after growing from seed, I got much better and more consistent results for a fraction of the price. A single $2 seed packet can plant over 100 onions. It's so much cheaper.
I'm pretty sure Dale will never go in there on his own, no matter what 😂 I have never seen garlic seed sold anywhere. Garlic grows very differently from an onion. Each individual garlic clove will grow into an entire head, and it grows very easily. Garlic doesn't have that weird day-length requirement that onions have. It's very easy to grow, so I wouldn't grow that any other way but by clove.
I’ve always been told that onion/chive/leek seeds are usually only good for about a year, as opposed to most other seeds. I had some leek seeds from last year and did not expect much germination so I scattered all of them in a shallow tray. I was unprepared to have a very good rate of germination and now I’ve got lots of leek seedlings. Sometimes seeds last longer than expected. Thanks for the information about the biennial nature of onions. This may help me out with chives. I never do well with them. Maybe this will help.
I've found most seed lasts 2-3 years as long as you store them in a cool, dry, dark place. My tomatoes and pepper seeds usually germinate well for 3 seasons, then start to fail.
Thanks so much, this is a great video. Will onions do ok if sown from seed in the summer? Then harvest at the end of the year (or beginning of next year)?
Good Evening, from a new subscriber in southern California, 10(? my lowest-18*f, highest-118*f). I appreciate your approach to the question. From you I just learned what to do with the tiny bulbs I harvested from the slips I was gifted. I didn't know how much I didn't know. 💚👍💚
I've heard they are quite popular. If you're willing to start your own onion starts from seed, you can grow them at a fraction of the cost, too. Onion seed is really cheap.
@@TheMillennialGardener Yes. I've purchased some seed and I plan on giving it a try this fall for green onions. They are really popular at the farmer's market.
When started in seed trays did you keep those seed trays outside for the cool weather or do them inside in a controlled environment? I am gonna try to get some going here soon near Raleigh along with garlic for the winter my first time growing both.
I think you're spot-on about upsetting the natural growth pattern of the onion. Sets are for growing greens; seeds are for growing "real" onions - or to raise sets. I do interplant sets among other veg sometimes. Tomatoes seem to like having them around their base, and I don't disturb any roots by harvesting the onion greens (I just leave the small bulbs in the ground). So the sets are basically just producing garnish in otherwise unused space, and possibly the smell keeps some pests away (I'm not sure if that's proven or not but it *seems* to help in my experience).
I've had very good luck interplanting garlic with tomatoes for years. It seems to very clearly keep the pests away. The only problem is the garlic is done by June, and the tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, etc. persist on, so the protection runs out before "peak" insect season. I need to figure out a solution for that. Spraying extracts won't work here because of the near-daily rains.
@@TheMillennialGardener that's one reason I use onion sets for the same purpose: they last longer into the season. The ones among my tomatoes now were planted in late April/early May and they're doing well in the TN heat and humidity. Think of them as a cut-and-come-again greens crop. Sort of like leaf lettuce, but they can handle the hot weather.
Excellent Video. Curious where you live so I can compare. Its mid Feb. here near Whiteville in southeastern NC and I plan to plant my onion seed indoors when they get here in 2 days. I hope I'm not too late planting them.
You can pretty much assume all sets are long day variety. Intermediate or short day wouldn’t store long enough to be used as sets. So…you are already at a disadvantage of using sets if you are in a intermediate or short day area. Good video. Thanks
I always thought growing onions from seed was so much harder-until I tried it! I will never go back to sets. Now I grow leeks and shallots from seeds as well!
I thought so, too. But wow, the results are so much better. They grow faster, the bulbs are better and it's actually easier to transplant them. I've grown shallots from sets 2 years in a row with very poor results, and next year, I'll be seeding them as well! Thanks for watching.
Dale's the best person I've ever met. I'm very lucky to have him. It's amazing how regimented, scheduled and human-like dogs are. It's not fair to classify them as animals, to me. They're very individual.
I’m the weird one who loves the green onion tops and don’t care much about the bulbs. So I let them flower if they want to and save the bulbs to replant in the spring. I also have started a bunch of allium seeds. The seeds I saved have a very high germination rate, the purchased seeds are deplorable 1/10 maybe. They are from 2021-22-and 23. I will definitely have to resow most of them except my saved seeds if I want anything to plant in the spring.
Growing onions from seed gives you total control of the variety, as you mentioned, in this case the superb Vidalia-like sweet onion, IMHO the best onion on the planet. I was always hesitant to try onion from seed for the reason you stated: sowing them directly in the garden is near-certain failure. Once again, though, you've shown us the way. This fall's onion crop will be from seed! Dale is no fool, he knows an impending bath when he sees one, no matter how much the two humans present try to persuade him.
I guess I have to try the Vidalia. I don't think I've ever had them before. I'll definitely be doing this again, and I'll be searching for red onion seed and shallot seed as well. I intend to grow a whole lot more now that I know how easy it is. Dale wouldn't mind baths if it were possible to have them without getting wet! Water is his arch nemesis.
@@TheMillennialGardener What brought to mind Vidalia onions is the packet of seed you used said, "Used by Georgia farmer's to grow the Vidalia . . . " The ones you harvested look very similar to Vidalia. They are, as advertised, "so sweet one can eat them like an apple." True Vidalias are grown in and around Vidalia, GA and the name is protected by law with specific rules about how they're grown. Some sweet onions come close. I'm going to try red onion seed, too, at your suggestion; they're my second favorite.
This variety is called Yellow Granex. The seed package claims they’re big in Georgia. I definitely wouldn’t want to eat these like an apple, but I will say cutting these don’t make me tear up. Grocery store onions destroy my eyes. If I have to cut more than 1 onion, it takes me several attempts, because my eyes burn so badly. This seems to not have that problem, which is so refreshing!
What variety did you plant? You may need to grow earlier maturing varieties, find some that are specifically bolt resistant or plant them even earlier. If you can find something with shorter days to maturity and get them in the ground 3-4 weeks earlier than last time, you may find some success. Vegas is tough since it goes from 60 degrees to 90 degrees within 30 days during spring.
6b Pennsylvania and we prefer growing from seedlings from a local nursery, and seeds, but we've had good success with sets as well just not the consistency or size of the walla walla onions and candy onions.
My sets are definitely producing bulbs, and I'll get a good harvest, but they're slower, less consistent and cost more money. I can't justify spending more money for inferior harvests, so I'm definitely going 100% seed from here on out. I'm going to try shallot seeds next November, too.
Sets do one thing great, they make a fast scallion. We planted them by the ton for the market garden. For good bulbs, yeah, you're on the money! Have you ever tried potato onions? They're a cross between a bunching onion and a regular onion. One bulb can split into 3-6 bulbs. Old timers liked them because after picking that year's crop they could be replanted and forgotten till next season. It's rare they go to seed, and if they do, pull that one.
Hi, do you know what is missing to grow larger better "bulb"? People here do from ages this: when the bulbs are large as yours shown, they press/break to top part to the ground. The second thing is that the bulb should not be buried deep - the top must be clear over the ground.
The most important thing to getting large onion bulbs is to choose a variety suitable for your latitude. If you are at a high latitude, you must grow long day varieties. If you are at a low latitude, you must grow short day varieties. Mid-latitudes must grow intermediate day varieties. Growing the proper variety is of the most importance, and you must plant them so they bulb at the proper time of year. It's all in planning and timing.
If not seed grown yourself, always grow starts/plants and not sets. Sets are year 2 plants (onions are biennial) and spend their energy putting up seed stalks despite pulling flowers they don’t grow as well. I bought dixondale farms intermediate mixed pack that looked shriveled upon arrival, but I am getting an amazing and my first successful crop ever. Bulbs as big as grocery store bulbs. Remember, nitrogen at first and when bulbing begins, 🛑 the nitrogen and hot them hard w bone meal (per Hoss tools experts). I amended the original bed w bone meal also along w bunny poop.
Sets are a challenge, for sure. The onions are fairly young, so they may bulb for you unless they get confused and don't know how old they are. They're definitely a gamble. All my sets are bulbing, but it's taking a lot longer. It's far more efficient - and cheaper - to grow the seed. There's no reason to grow the sets in my estimation.
traditionally one waits until the onion stalks start to fall over then bends them all over and like a weed later on a sunny day pull them and lay them out to dry outside for a day or 2 then use the dried tops to string them up on a ristra type thing.
I always grew onions from sets. I never however seen any of them over the years go past big thick green onions. That's OK, we use a lot of onions and don't wait for the crop, but the green onions are also great in salads.
If you grow onions from seed, they’re ready to harvest as green onions in about 6-8 weeks. They get to that stage really quickly. I transplanted them once they got to “green onion” size. If you love green onions, you can start a little seed every 4-6 weeks and have a never ending supply.
Seed production is the following year. If you want to collect seed, you will need to leave some onions behind and not harvest them. I harvest all my onions and do not go through the seed saving process personally, because onion seeds are pretty inexpensive. If you choose to seed-save, don't harvest some so they go to seed the following season, but keep in mind your winters will need to be mild enough that the onions will survive. If your winters are too cold and will kill your onions, you may as well harvest them all.
Is it possible to grow tomatoes in pots in my area. I live in Hampton, Virginia and I have no idea what my planting season is area is. l’m in a wheelchair and it’s not easy to get around in grass and my wife said now you’re 74 you what to try and grow plants also is there other plants in pots that I can grow. What would be the best book to read.
Absolutely. This is my first house and I rented for 10 years at different houses, so I could only grow my plants in pots. Here is a video back when I was renting. You can see I grew everything in grow bags: th-cam.com/video/JaggdkBkMPY/w-d-xo.html 20 gallon grow bags are excellent for indeterminate tomatoes, watermelons, cucumbers and zucchini. 7 gallon grow bags are excellent for determinate tomatoes and Dwarf Tomato Project tomatoes. 3 gallon grow bags are excellent for peppers. 2 gallon grow bags are excellent for herbs like dill, basil, parsley and cilantro. If you are having difficulty moving or lifting heavy items, I suggest sticking to 7 gallon grow bags and only growing determinate tomatoes and Dwarf Tomato Project tomatoes because they only grow to be about 30-36 inches tall and don't require pruning. Some great determinate tomatoes are Siletz, Celebrity and Bella Rosa. Some great Dwarf Tomato Project tomatoes are Rosella Purple, Dwarf Emerald Giant, Tasmanian Chocolate, Adelaide Festival, Fred's Tie Dye and Brandy Fred. I suggest going go www.victoryseeds.com and checking out their Dwarf Tomato Project seed. According to Weatherspark, your growing season is from roughly April 1 to November 14, so you'll want to start your tomato seed around February 15 and transplant them roughly around April 1 if there is no frost in the forecast. weatherspark.com/y/21666/Average-Weather-in-Hampton-Virginia-United-States-Year-Round
Interesting, I didn't know onions had a 2 year cycle. Just wondering if there is any benefit of co-planting with tomato to share some extra flavor. I usually put a few basil in between and one year bordered front and back with garlic. It seems they added some flavor to the tomatoes though it might just be in my mind. Have you heard of that or tried it?
I inter-plant garlic with my tomatoes, and it really does seem to keep the pests away. My tomatoes stay pest-free until I harvest my garlic. Now, it could just be a coincidence because the garlic matures in early summer and the bad pests don't get here until mid-to-late summer, but it does seem to happen like clockwork.
Dear Millennial, what you want to do is break or bend over the greens once you have a sizable root. Once you do this the energy will go into the bulb and not the green. Try this and you'll see the result. As a kid we just stepped on the green to break them over.
If the problem was an energy problem, seed-grown onions would be exhibiting the same problem. I'm getting outstanding bulbing on seed-grown varieties. I think the problem is more with the metabolic confusion that can happen when you dig up an onion set, make them dormant, then re-plant them. I can't justify spending several dollars a pound for onion sets, when for $1.89, I can purchase an entire package of an awesome onion like Yellow Granex and start 100+ seedlings that don't have the challenges of the sets. That's my personal opinion. If you have great success with onion sets, that's great, but I find that onion seeds are less problematic and far cheaper, so it's a win-win to me. I already got my red and yellow seeds for the year, and I'll be able to grow 100+ plants of each for under $4.
@@TheMillennialGardener it's been a while since I've grown bunching onions but from what I recall they aren't bad. I've just found the little onion sets you get in a bag (ones where the bulb is like 1/2" or less) produce a more substantial green onions that have that little bit of white at the end like you want for an asian-type spring onion to put on soups or w.e I've also got some egyptian onions for super-early greens but TBH I don't like them much, they're kinda tough and not really a nice eating onion.
I was taught that, as a rule of thumb, the onions are ready to transplant when they're about the thickness of a pencil. Seemed like a very simple way to view it, since everyone knows what a pencil looks like.
This were Yellow Granex. I purchased them because the package said they're famously grown in Georgia, and they worked PERFECTLY. Excellent size, and the flavor is very mild. Grocery store onions make me tear up horribly, but these onions haven't bothered my eyes, which is amazing. Glad to hear you're a Dale fan!
I'm fortunate that where I live, it almost never drops below 20F, so I can grow onions all winter unprotected. However, covering them with milk jugs will surely offer them more protection. Thanks for watching!
@@TheMillennialGardener I’m in Alaska. I sow the seeds in a milk jug in January February. Tape it shut. Set the moistened jug out in a sunny corner of the yard. By late March early April I have beautiful starts. I do it with my brassicas too. Saves room under the grow lamps
Didn't you say that Onion set bag only cost .95 cents though? Although I can see that the seeds are a better way to go, still I believe you said that bag costs .95 cents, so how much of the bed did it actually cover? And how big or long are your beds?
For about $1, that was about a quarter pound of onion sets. That was probably 3-4 dozen onions? Contrast that to a packet of 200 onion seeds for $2. Granted, onion seed germination is not 100%, but neither is onion set rooting. You can grow somewhere between 3-5 times more onions from seed for the same price, which turn out better and bulb larger in my experience. As you buy more and more in bulk, that divide is only going to increase since seeds are discounted enormously with bulk purchases.
@@TheMillennialGardener Thank you for taking the time to explain because I watched the 'Onion Set' video first and you were excited about that price too. But I agree, it may seem like it costs more but there are both 'pros and cons' to the different methods and seeds can be saved for a number of years as well.
So what causes an onion (from a set) form 6-7 individual onions from 1 bulb? I have a few Frankenstein looking onions that I don't know what they'll do. Anyone? Thanks.
An onion? Or a shallot? Or something else? Shallot sets can split like that. Most onions should just bulb. It's possible your sets were confused and "forgot" what year it is. This is why I don't grow onions from sets anymore. Too many potential problems. Growing from seed avoids those problems.
@@TheMillennialGardener Aaaah.....thank you, that must be it. I'm thinking that there must've been a few shallots thrown into the bag by mistake, or it was some type of "combo" bag. Looking forward to some shallots then, never had them.
Sets are intended to give a guaranteed harvest, they are known to not get big but that’s not the point of using sets, the point is to get a harvest, even though they’re small, they will grow onions. The only time sets are better is when your crop grown from seed accidentally get a surprise frost they will bolt if they are past a certain size during that frost. But sets will also bolt if they are exposed to a late frost however sets can be planted later and should be planted later that transplants, they already have a head start but it means nothing if it’s planted too early and get exposed to a cold spell, but I’m speaking for long day northern regions. He’s objectively wrong when he says you have a lower rate of failure when you grow from seed, compared to sets you have a far greater rate of failure when grown from seed, you will be almost guaranteed get onions from sets, they may not be big but they will produce onions, which is the only benefit to growing from sets, you can lose entire crops when growing from seed due to freak weather causing them to bolt whereas growing sets and starting them a little later will definitely get you an onion. If you depend on growing your own food, sets are a sure bet for feeding yourself , if it’s just your fun little hobby, you can afford taking Little risks. Another way of avoiding failure is to plant multiple progressive crops every couple weeks if growing from seed, this way if you get a freak frost you will at least have another crop if the previous ones bolt. Starting a new tray of seeds every 2 weeks indoors for 6-8 weeks works good, just make sure the final crop is planted about a month before the longest day, which is usually around June 20th, that’s when bulbing starts for long day onions no matter what size they are at that time. This is long day experience speaking for zone 8 Oregon
i thought the seedlings were called sets, never mind. i grow own seedlings in tray and plant out as space becomes available. gives (most plants) a head start. people usually buy bunches of the young (green) seedlings to plant out; not these "sets" you show. Just did a search and both come up as being named "sets". Well, commercial farming they use the green seedling variety of "sets". Makes little sense to plant out onions grown to a small size and forced to dormancy, to plant out again. Probably only good for spring onion (top) cropping.
It's much more affordable to buy the seed, and you'll have a huge selection doing it by seed. It's very important to purchase the correct day-type for your latitude. It's pretty tough to find the Short Day onions I need, and the selection is much better when shopping for seed.
@@TheMillennialGardener : yep, i grow from seed also, just via trays and transplant. nothing worse than planting seed directly in prime space, only to have little or nothing come up. since i found the right gear and growing media to grow stuff in trays and transplant, it's made my small space more productive. only direct plant things like carrot, peas, beans or garlic.
Very well. My Owari Satsuma has put on so much growth this year it's crazy. I still have to get 3 new plants into the ground, though. I've been really backed up and haven't had time to plant. I have about 14 different trees I still need to plant this summer 😂
How can you compare the set onion to your seed onions when you don't even know what variety the set onions were? Not all onions get big those sets are probably Stuttgart onions and they don't really get that big but they do keep well,, it's all about variety when it comes to onion size and soil conditions matter a lot.
Make sure you purchase a sterile potting mix. You may want to hydrate it with boiling water first, let it cool completely so you know it's sterilized, then once it's at room temperature, plant your onion seeds in the mix. A good way to help prevent damping off is to allow the tops of the seed trays to occasionally dry out. Keeping the seed trays constantly moist is the problem. You can also periodically spray the top of the soil with diluted hydrogen peroxide. You can put 3% hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle around 4-6 tablespoons per gallon of water to create an antifungal spray.
Well we sure had opposite results. My set grown onions have been done for almost a month already and the few seed grown onions finally look like spring onions, tiny.
When you start your onion seeds is key. The onion seeds will need to be started 6 weeks or so beforehand so they're at the same size as your sets would be when you transplant. Also, you have to make sure you're growing the correct Day-Type onions for your latitude, or they will not work out.
Onions are very easy to interplant because they are shallow-rooted and don't compete with deeper-rooted plants like tomatoes. You can easily plant onions in rows in between tomato plants, and the scent will actually keep pests away. Onions make excellent companion crops. Same thing with garlic. I plant garlic in between all my tomatoes to keep the pests away. Carrots are one of the hardest root vegetable out there and can be grown over winter when your beds are fairly empty.
I really like the details you provide! Particularly, that you state the date and location you're gardening in at the beginning of each video, and that you are very clear and scientific in your comparisons, etc. Very helpful! Thank you!
Yes,same here,i am in SC ad new to growing onions...very imformative.
Yes, absolutely! You are right. It's SO useful that he starts his videos with date and location. As a Canadian, I can still learn a lot from him, but have to keep a lot in mind about the vast seasonal difference. I get a lot of American farmers from the Midwest also on my youtube suggestions, but very few of them regularly say where they are, so it becomes a bit less informative.
Thank you for explaining the biennial cycle for onions. Many other people mention onions are biennial but then don't bother to explain what this means for growers. They left me thinking I would need to harvest my onions after the first year, store them through winter, and replant for another entire season before they were ready to eat. Based on your explanation I take it they are ready to eat after one season but if left for a second season would then produce seeds in the second year.
Hiya, I have an allotment over here in the UK (Sheffield) The old timers on the other allotments on our patch, tell me to use onion sets, and for the last 3 years that is what I have been doing.
They say that our climate isn't right to grow onions like you have stated and they are pretty adimant about it, so I think after watching this video I am going to give growing them from seed ago in the coming month.
Thanks, for another great video and I am looking forward to watching more.
This makes so much sense! Last year I grew from sets and the outcome was terrible. Half didn’t produce bulbs. The ones that did were tiny. This year I started onions from seed under grow lights and transplanted them into my garden. The bulbs they have produced are big and beautiful. I will never grow from sets again if I can help it.
Wow! Makes good sense. Seed only next year. Another great video!! Dale 😂
Dale went from a hot dog to a wet noodle. He likes being high and dry, for sure! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Wow, I would have never thought seeds would grow faster than bulbs! Thanks! Great info!
That was my thought as well, but I'm very glad I ran the comparison. This would have saved me a big headache last year. Now I know, and I'll have much better harvests moving forward.
@@TheMillennialGardener I actually tried to plant onion seed which was saved, by another person. But it didn't grow. I wonder if the seed doesn't last as long as other garden seeds typically do? I planted tomato seed from 2011 and the germination rate was very high (I ended up wasting a lot because I didn't think it would sprout).
Here’s an old southern anecdote for you... you can also store onions using the legs of old stockings hung with a knot tied in the stocking between each onion in a vertical sleeve. (Yes, it’s true that probably 90 percent or more of the population no longer has or wears stockings 😉)
I don't have much of a stocking collection these days. I mostly threw them all out after college 😂 I use the organza bags because you can get 100 of them for a couple bucks, but I guess if you have old stockings lying around, anything breathable should work. Thanks for watching!
Seen that too. Works for garlic also
@@TheMillennialGardener haha ... yeah it’s probably hard to get your hands on some stockings assuming anyone wants to at this point. So neat about the organza bags!
You can use a potato chip clamp between each onion so it'll be easier to get each onion out and be able to reuse the stocking for next year.
Dale is a funny, sweet soul... thanks for sharing his adventures!
I can't believe there was ever a time where Dale wasn't in our lives. He feels like he's been here forever, and I hope he will be here forever. He's the best guy I know, paws down.
Here's a neat tip if you like green onions: I found green onion packs at ALDI for sixty-nine cents. There are usually 20 to 25 onions in each pack. I get two or three packs. I cut the white root-end off at about a quarter of an inch and drop them in a small container of water. I then process the whole cut off end stems into a tupper ware box and keep the onions for the week. I take the root ends to my garden and stick them around the edge of the beds. In about a month, I have fresh, green onions. You can then leave the roots in the bed and harvest by cutting just above the root growth (again). You will need to watch these onions since some will want to go to flower. Just cut the top that flowers and they will continue to grow all year long. I think the onions help keep some critters out, but they are worth it just to eat. Great video! I'm going to get some onion seed and try your tricks!
There is a risk when doing this, because you do not know what the Day-Type of those onions are. They can be anything. If you live in down south like I do and they're carrying Long Day onions grown up north, they will not bulb properly. Ditto if you live up north and they're stocking a short-day onion. It's a big risk, and it may take you 4-6 months to find out you made a mistake. The safest thing to do is to buy seed of a known variety so you buy the proper type for your latitude.
I do this too with organic spring onions. Since I don’t want a large onion, I just use the green “scallion” part.
THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO! I’ve search and searched for a seed to finish onion video. I’ve tried to grow onions for three years now and I finally know what I’ve been doing wrong and how to do it correctly now🙋🏻♀️ You’re the best!
This video will help you as well: th-cam.com/video/K4JAfAyIrO8/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for highlighting the different day-length aspect of onion varieties. I had to learn the hard way that I need to grow short day onions.
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching.
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
You did a great job of explaining onion gardening.
THANKS
Cynthia 🌷
Texas
I just planted my onion plans out today, Feb15,2023 So watched your video again for the 2nd time. Very informative thank you. My Vidalia plants in the ground now should be ready if like last year for final harvest by June 7th.
Fantastic information. You gained my respect, you taught an old dog a new trick! I stopped growing onions due to the cost, and my relatively poor harvest. I am ashamed to say I did not know onions were biennials, even though i grow many other biennials such a lupin and foxglove. This makes all the sense in the world to me. I also did not know i need to grow a certain kind in my area. I just knew the onions grown in the south ( I am in ohio) were always beautiful! Well I guess I will be googling onion seed for my area and trying again!
Thanks I appreciate this video. I tried both last year and didn’t start my seeds early enough. I’m not doing sets again either. I look forward to following you on onions. I’m 8a.
I'm in 8A as well, but onion variety selection is actually based on your latitude, not your zone. Make sure you grow the appropriate day-length for your latitude. Here in 8A, I started my seed around December 1 for a January 24 transplant, and it worked out perfectly. I'll never do sets again.
@@TheMillennialGardener is your fall good enough to grow another set of onions
I plant Georgia grannex seed in tubs with potting soil September 1 or so then by late October early November they are ready for transplant into a raised bed . Harvest in late April . That’s how they grow the Vidalia onions . You are correct that the bulbs are what’s known as second year onions and want to bolt in the second year . Onion seeds have somewhat poor germination rates so I plant heavy since they are easily transplanted. You never want them to get larger diameter than a pencil before transplanting
I think I may try planting my onions a little earlier this year, too. I didn't harvest mine until June, which is good because day length is maximum at that time of the year, but it's tough to store because it's just so hot everywhere and anywhere. Storing them in April or May is so easy by comparison! I had 100% success transplanting them out of 6-cell trays.
High MG! I live in NH zone 5A, 43.6 latitude, 1100 ft. elevation, old hill top dairy farm my grandfather started.
I have always grown from sets, direct planted into a tilled conventional garden that consists of Carlton Loam.
Very large consistent crop. The only issue I have had is some of the sets were almost hollow, which I do not plant. The local nursery had the sets in a large bin, scoop them out onto a scale.
You always post videos that are relevant to me! Each gardening year I try new varieties of tomatoes, cucumbers, & peppers (along with some I've grown before & like) but also one or more things that I've never tried to grow before. Last year it was pumpkins & winter squash, this year it's onions! I grew them from seed, too. Unfortunately got them planted way late but still looking forward to seeing if I actually get any good bulbs this year. If not there's always next year!
If they mature within the next 30-45 days or so, the day length should hopefully be long enough to make the bulbs large enough. They probably won't be optimal, but you should get a harvest. Onions are one of those things that you just have to try until you figure out exactly when to plant them. Somehow, I totally lucked out and they matured for me within a week of the Summer Solstice, so I totally nailed it 😂 Glad the video was helpful!
Those organza bags look like a perfect way to dry and store the onions. I especially like how you clipped the bags together in a long line to hang them to allow lots of air flow (vs storing the onions in a single large bag or box).
They are. They worked even better for the garlic! The garlic lasted probably 9 months in the bags hanging up. They're also great for bagging figs, tomatoes and other pest-prone fruit. I use them to protect my fruits before harvest.
Those are genius!!! I've been trying to think of alternatives to panty hose, cuz let's be honest, it's getting hard to find them...! THANK YOU for this awesome idea!!!
Going to try the seeds this spring 2022. Last year I grew from the bundled sets from the local store and had a bad time with them going to seed. It affected those bulbs, but not the ones that didn't seed. Ready to set the seeds here in a few weeks in southern Missouri
You may want to check out this video I just posted this week on growing onion seeds: th-cam.com/video/1gKvOx5R39A/w-d-xo.html
It's really easy.
Great video! I’m also a fan of growing onion from seed. The one time I grew from sets, they were small and inconsistent, like you said.
Awesome! I don't have the best luck with sets so I just started growing from seed this week!
That's great to hear. The seed should work out better, provided you select the right varieties for your location's day length. Thanks for watching!
Best onion video available! Thx so much!
You’re welcome! If you are interested in a seed sowing guide, I have one here: th-cam.com/video/1gKvOx5R39A/w-d-xo.html
I buy short season onion seeds and grow them to bulbs in the summer. Over winter in my garage. Plant in march harvest in july. Cheap and easy. No problems.
What zone are you in?
I'm from the north Carolina as well. Beaufort NC. This makes me excited to try and grow onions
Definitely do so! They grow very well here provided you grow the proper varieties for our day length. Yellow Granex does GREAT here.
This is an eye opener! Again , love the contents.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for watching.
Excellent presentation!!! I've run into the exact same issues....I'll be doing onions from seeds from now on also.
Great video!!!!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching.
Thanks for the interesting video. Good onion information. I grow either from seed or onion plants (first year) but you’re right, seeds are the least expensive and best way to grow. BTW those yellow Granex are the best onions ever! We occasionally plant sets for green onions (scallions) but they will not produce bulbs at our latitude. Yellow Granex, Red Creole and Texas 1015Y are our favorites (all short day).
I totally lucked out by picking a top notch variety, and I transplanted them at the exact right time my first try. That almost never happens, so I'll take a little bit of good luck for a change! Can you recommend a good red onion? I'm assuming Red Creole? You're probably around a similar latitude to me. I'm at 34N, so I assume you're somewhere in the 32-35 range.
@@TheMillennialGardener Good guess! I’m at 34 degrees. Red Creole and Red Burgundy are both excellent short day varieties. Red Burgundy are large (up to 4”), mild and sweet. Red Creole are smaller and pretty pungent. Red Creole is very bolt resistant as well.
Thank you! I have ALWAYS had a horrible onion harvest and I've always used sets. I'm in GA and my current onion harvest is, literally, nil. I've got many that are going to seed and the rest are still in the tiny 'set' stage even though I planted them last fall. I get this same result every year. I've been thinking that it was something about how I was planting them, but now I see differently. I'm going to get seeds this year.
My dogs react the same way Dale does when it comes to water and pools. It's always the "ICK! It's touching me" reaction, lol...
Growing some seed should cure your issue. I highly recommend this Yellow Granex variety. I grew it because the package claimed it was commonly used by Georgia farmers, and the results are excellent. They should be perfect for you. I started my seeds in early December and transplanted them January 24th, if you want a timeline. That should work almost identically for you, because I'm at the same latitude as Atlanta.
Have a hydrophobic dog is NOT a bad thing! What scares me is a wet, muddy dog running into the house 😂
I always have trouble finding a cool dry area too. Great vid! Didnt know about onion sets before
I'm glad I ran the experiment, because I always believed the opposite. From now on, I'll only be growing from seed!
Your videos are great, very informative. Really appreciate them.
Thanks. I am re-doing my garden area and am wondering what you used to put your raise beds on. Please help. At the present the grass grew through the landscaping fabric I had down and it doesn't appear you have that problem. Thank you.
This was very educational. I didn’t know about the different types of onions to grow depending on the climate. I’ve grown both sets and seeds but never did a side by side comparison. I think Dale wants you to get in the pool with him.
It's not your climate that dictates the onion varieties you grow, but your latitude. Onions bulb based on the length of the day around the Summer Solstice. The higher the latitude, the longer your day length on the Summer Solstice. If you grow a Long-Day onion down where I live, they won't bulb properly because the summer days are shorter at lower latitudes, so they will never grow a proper bulb. Similarly, if you grow a Short Day onion at a high latitude, they'll try to bulb way too early and fail. Selecting the right variety and timing the transplants properly is everything when growing onions.
I could fill the pool with beef jerky and Dale wouldn't voluntarily go in there.
Oh ok, that’s really interesting. How funny, well he’s got a nice big water bowl for the summer.
Going to try with seeds! Great video 🧅
Thank you! I originally planted sets for a few years, but after growing from seed, I got much better and more consistent results for a fraction of the price. A single $2 seed packet can plant over 100 onions. It's so much cheaper.
Very good information! Will start my own for sure! 💜💜💜👍🏼😉
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching.
Hot Dog in the Pool...He's precious What a money saver.Grow your Onions from seed.Would this work on Garlic as well? similar ? Peace from Droughted MN
I'm pretty sure Dale will never go in there on his own, no matter what 😂 I have never seen garlic seed sold anywhere. Garlic grows very differently from an onion. Each individual garlic clove will grow into an entire head, and it grows very easily. Garlic doesn't have that weird day-length requirement that onions have. It's very easy to grow, so I wouldn't grow that any other way but by clove.
I’ve always been told that onion/chive/leek seeds are usually only good for about a year, as opposed to most other seeds. I had some leek seeds from last year and did not expect much germination so I scattered all of them in a shallow tray. I was unprepared to have a very good rate of germination and now I’ve got lots of leek seedlings. Sometimes seeds last longer than expected.
Thanks for the information about the biennial nature of onions. This may help me out with chives. I never do well with them. Maybe this will help.
I've found most seed lasts 2-3 years as long as you store them in a cool, dry, dark place. My tomatoes and pepper seeds usually germinate well for 3 seasons, then start to fail.
It would be super helpful to add when you planted the seed to the video description. Or some tips on how to find out when you should start onion seed.
Awesome video appreciate the effort,time and knowledge you put into your videos
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
Thanks so much, this is a great video. Will onions do ok if sown from seed in the summer? Then harvest at the end of the year (or beginning of next year)?
Good Evening, from a new subscriber in southern California, 10(? my lowest-18*f, highest-118*f). I appreciate your approach to the question. From you I just learned what to do with the tiny bulbs I harvested from the slips I was gifted. I didn't know how much I didn't know. 💚👍💚
Thank you for subscribing! I'm glad you found the video helpful. Thank you for watching!
Your videos are the best!
Glad you like them! I really appreciate you watching. That means a lot to me!
Thanks a lot for the onion info!
Thank you for watching!
I buy onion plants from Dixondale onions. Had fantastic harvest and sold the smaller ones as green onions!
I've heard they are quite popular. If you're willing to start your own onion starts from seed, you can grow them at a fraction of the cost, too. Onion seed is really cheap.
@@TheMillennialGardener Yes. I've purchased some seed and I plan on giving it a try this fall for green onions. They are really popular at the farmer's market.
When started in seed trays did you keep those seed trays outside for the cool weather or do them inside in a controlled environment? I am gonna try to get some going here soon near Raleigh along with garlic for the winter my first time growing both.
Good video. Was confused why with the sets you didn’t let the tops fall over. I thought that was a thing
Very interesting...thank you.
You're welcome!
Love your videos! Thank you so much 🌻🍅🧅
Glad you like them! Thanks for watching!
I think you're spot-on about upsetting the natural growth pattern of the onion.
Sets are for growing greens; seeds are for growing "real" onions - or to raise sets.
I do interplant sets among other veg sometimes. Tomatoes seem to like having them around their base, and I don't disturb any roots by harvesting the onion greens (I just leave the small bulbs in the ground). So the sets are basically just producing garnish in otherwise unused space, and possibly the smell keeps some pests away (I'm not sure if that's proven or not but it *seems* to help in my experience).
I've had very good luck interplanting garlic with tomatoes for years. It seems to very clearly keep the pests away. The only problem is the garlic is done by June, and the tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, etc. persist on, so the protection runs out before "peak" insect season. I need to figure out a solution for that. Spraying extracts won't work here because of the near-daily rains.
@@TheMillennialGardener that's one reason I use onion sets for the same purpose: they last longer into the season.
The ones among my tomatoes now were planted in late April/early May and they're doing well in the TN heat and humidity.
Think of them as a cut-and-come-again greens crop. Sort of like leaf lettuce, but they can handle the hot weather.
another lesson learned, thaks again 😊
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Excellent Video. Curious where you live so I can compare. Its mid Feb. here near Whiteville in southeastern NC and I plan to plant my onion seed indoors when they get here in 2 days. I hope I'm not too late planting them.
Kewl after the video I read further and see you are in my neighbor county.
I am just outside of Wilmington across the river.
You can pretty much assume all sets are long day variety. Intermediate or short day wouldn’t store long enough to be used as sets. So…you are already at a disadvantage of using sets if you are in a intermediate or short day area. Good video. Thanks
I always thought growing onions from seed was so much harder-until I tried it! I will never go back to sets. Now I grow leeks and shallots from seeds as well!
I thought so, too. But wow, the results are so much better. They grow faster, the bulbs are better and it's actually easier to transplant them. I've grown shallots from sets 2 years in a row with very poor results, and next year, I'll be seeding them as well! Thanks for watching.
Dale is one cool dog 🐕 I just love dogs I have two of my own a basset and a chocolate lab they really r ur best friends
Dale's the best person I've ever met. I'm very lucky to have him. It's amazing how regimented, scheduled and human-like dogs are. It's not fair to classify them as animals, to me. They're very individual.
@@TheMillennialGardener I agree I feel my lab will talk to me before I die I think of something and look at him and he dose it it is so crazy
I’m the weird one who loves the green onion tops and don’t care much about the bulbs. So I let them flower if they want to and save the bulbs to replant in the spring. I also have started a bunch of allium seeds. The seeds I saved have a very high germination rate, the purchased seeds are deplorable 1/10 maybe. They are from 2021-22-and 23. I will definitely have to resow most of them except my saved seeds if I want anything to plant in the spring.
Another great video thanks
Thank you for watching!
Growing onions from seed gives you total control of the variety, as you mentioned, in this case the superb Vidalia-like sweet onion, IMHO the best onion on the planet. I was always hesitant to try onion from seed for the reason you stated: sowing them directly in the garden is near-certain failure. Once again, though, you've shown us the way. This fall's onion crop will be from seed! Dale is no fool, he knows an impending bath when he sees one, no matter how much the two humans present try to persuade him.
I guess I have to try the Vidalia. I don't think I've ever had them before. I'll definitely be doing this again, and I'll be searching for red onion seed and shallot seed as well. I intend to grow a whole lot more now that I know how easy it is. Dale wouldn't mind baths if it were possible to have them without getting wet! Water is his arch nemesis.
@@TheMillennialGardener What brought to mind Vidalia onions is the packet of seed you used said, "Used by Georgia farmer's to grow the Vidalia . . . " The ones you harvested look very similar to Vidalia. They are, as advertised, "so sweet one can eat them like an apple." True Vidalias are grown in and around Vidalia, GA and the name is protected by law with specific rules about how they're grown. Some sweet onions come close. I'm going to try red onion seed, too, at your suggestion; they're my second favorite.
This variety is called Yellow Granex. The seed package claims they’re big in Georgia. I definitely wouldn’t want to eat these like an apple, but I will say cutting these don’t make me tear up. Grocery store onions destroy my eyes. If I have to cut more than 1 onion, it takes me several attempts, because my eyes burn so badly. This seems to not have that problem, which is so refreshing!
I planted some from seed in Las Vegas last fall, but they started going to seed in mid spring.
What variety did you plant? You may need to grow earlier maturing varieties, find some that are specifically bolt resistant or plant them even earlier. If you can find something with shorter days to maturity and get them in the ground 3-4 weeks earlier than last time, you may find some success. Vegas is tough since it goes from 60 degrees to 90 degrees within 30 days during spring.
hey
I live in zone 4B what variety(ies) should i plant. Short days that you recommend?
6b Pennsylvania and we prefer growing from seedlings from a local nursery, and seeds, but we've had good success with sets as well just not the consistency or size of the walla walla onions and candy onions.
My sets are definitely producing bulbs, and I'll get a good harvest, but they're slower, less consistent and cost more money. I can't justify spending more money for inferior harvests, so I'm definitely going 100% seed from here on out. I'm going to try shallot seeds next November, too.
Sets do one thing great, they make a fast scallion. We planted them by the ton for the market garden. For good bulbs, yeah, you're on the money!
Have you ever tried potato onions? They're a cross between a bunching onion and a regular onion. One bulb can split into 3-6 bulbs. Old timers liked them because after picking that year's crop they could be replanted and forgotten till next season. It's rare they go to seed, and if they do, pull that one.
I've never heard of them. I cook a lot, so I use onions in pretty much everything. Therefore, I look for large bulb types for all the chopping I do.
@@TheMillennialGardener They're an heirloom, so we raise some. Cooking, green onions or big bulbs, yes :) Cook on!
Hi, do you know what is missing to grow larger better "bulb"? People here do from ages this: when the bulbs are large as yours shown, they press/break to top part to the ground. The second thing is that the bulb should not be buried deep - the top must be clear over the ground.
The most important thing to getting large onion bulbs is to choose a variety suitable for your latitude. If you are at a high latitude, you must grow long day varieties. If you are at a low latitude, you must grow short day varieties. Mid-latitudes must grow intermediate day varieties. Growing the proper variety is of the most importance, and you must plant them so they bulb at the proper time of year. It's all in planning and timing.
How long did it take from seed to bulb 2,5cm / transplant?
Btw, thanks man!
It took about 6 weeks.
If not seed grown yourself, always grow starts/plants and not sets. Sets are year 2 plants (onions are biennial) and spend their energy putting up seed stalks despite pulling flowers they don’t grow as well. I bought dixondale farms intermediate mixed pack that looked shriveled upon arrival, but I am getting an amazing and my first successful crop ever. Bulbs as big as grocery store bulbs. Remember, nitrogen at first and when bulbing begins, 🛑 the nitrogen and hot them hard w bone meal (per Hoss tools experts). I amended the original bed w bone meal also along w bunny poop.
Sets are a challenge, for sure. The onions are fairly young, so they may bulb for you unless they get confused and don't know how old they are. They're definitely a gamble. All my sets are bulbing, but it's taking a lot longer. It's far more efficient - and cheaper - to grow the seed. There's no reason to grow the sets in my estimation.
Greetings from Concord!
Thanks for watching!
Do you have to wait for the tops to die back on the sets?
traditionally one waits until the onion stalks start to fall over then bends them all over and like a weed later on a sunny day pull them and lay them out to dry outside for a day or 2 then use the dried tops to string them up on a ristra type thing.
I always grew onions from sets. I never however seen any of them over the years go past big thick green onions. That's OK, we use a lot of onions and don't wait for the crop, but the green onions are also great in salads.
If you grow onions from seed, they’re ready to harvest as green onions in about 6-8 weeks. They get to that stage really quickly. I transplanted them once they got to “green onion” size. If you love green onions, you can start a little seed every 4-6 weeks and have a never ending supply.
Have you let them go to ssed production? Is that the folloing year?
Seed production is the following year. If you want to collect seed, you will need to leave some onions behind and not harvest them. I harvest all my onions and do not go through the seed saving process personally, because onion seeds are pretty inexpensive. If you choose to seed-save, don't harvest some so they go to seed the following season, but keep in mind your winters will need to be mild enough that the onions will survive. If your winters are too cold and will kill your onions, you may as well harvest them all.
Is it possible to grow tomatoes in pots in my area. I live in Hampton, Virginia and I have no idea what my planting season is area is. l’m in a wheelchair and it’s not easy to get around in grass and my wife said now you’re 74 you what to try and grow plants also is there other plants in pots that I can grow. What would be the best book to read.
Absolutely. This is my first house and I rented for 10 years at different houses, so I could only grow my plants in pots. Here is a video back when I was renting. You can see I grew everything in grow bags: th-cam.com/video/JaggdkBkMPY/w-d-xo.html
20 gallon grow bags are excellent for indeterminate tomatoes, watermelons, cucumbers and zucchini. 7 gallon grow bags are excellent for determinate tomatoes and Dwarf Tomato Project tomatoes. 3 gallon grow bags are excellent for peppers. 2 gallon grow bags are excellent for herbs like dill, basil, parsley and cilantro.
If you are having difficulty moving or lifting heavy items, I suggest sticking to 7 gallon grow bags and only growing determinate tomatoes and Dwarf Tomato Project tomatoes because they only grow to be about 30-36 inches tall and don't require pruning. Some great determinate tomatoes are Siletz, Celebrity and Bella Rosa. Some great Dwarf Tomato Project tomatoes are Rosella Purple, Dwarf Emerald Giant, Tasmanian Chocolate, Adelaide Festival, Fred's Tie Dye and Brandy Fred. I suggest going go www.victoryseeds.com and checking out their Dwarf Tomato Project seed.
According to Weatherspark, your growing season is from roughly April 1 to November 14, so you'll want to start your tomato seed around February 15 and transplant them roughly around April 1 if there is no frost in the forecast. weatherspark.com/y/21666/Average-Weather-in-Hampton-Virginia-United-States-Year-Round
I've never grown onions from sets, probably because growing from seeds is very easy & rewarding.
It is very easy, and it should be the "standard" way we grow onions. The sets look attractive, but seed is actually the way to go!
Interesting, I didn't know onions had a 2 year cycle. Just wondering if there is any benefit of co-planting with tomato to share some extra flavor. I usually put a few basil in between and one year bordered front and back with garlic. It seems they added some flavor to the tomatoes though it might just be in my mind. Have you heard of that or tried it?
I inter-plant garlic with my tomatoes, and it really does seem to keep the pests away. My tomatoes stay pest-free until I harvest my garlic. Now, it could just be a coincidence because the garlic matures in early summer and the bad pests don't get here until mid-to-late summer, but it does seem to happen like clockwork.
Dear Millennial, what you want to do is break or bend over the greens once you have a sizable root. Once you do this the energy will go into the bulb and not the green. Try this and you'll see the result. As a kid we just stepped on the green to break them over.
If the problem was an energy problem, seed-grown onions would be exhibiting the same problem. I'm getting outstanding bulbing on seed-grown varieties. I think the problem is more with the metabolic confusion that can happen when you dig up an onion set, make them dormant, then re-plant them. I can't justify spending several dollars a pound for onion sets, when for $1.89, I can purchase an entire package of an awesome onion like Yellow Granex and start 100+ seedlings that don't have the challenges of the sets. That's my personal opinion. If you have great success with onion sets, that's great, but I find that onion seeds are less problematic and far cheaper, so it's a win-win to me. I already got my red and yellow seeds for the year, and I'll be able to grow 100+ plants of each for under $4.
I use sets for early green onions and seeds for later big onions.
I am growing bunching onions this year for green onions. We’ll see how they perform. They look interesting.
@@TheMillennialGardener it's been a while since I've grown bunching onions but from what I recall they aren't bad. I've just found the little onion sets you get in a bag (ones where the bulb is like 1/2" or less) produce a more substantial green onions that have that little bit of white at the end like you want for an asian-type spring onion to put on soups or w.e
I've also got some egyptian onions for super-early greens but TBH I don't like them much, they're kinda tough and not really a nice eating onion.
I was taught that, as a rule of thumb, the onions are ready to transplant when they're about the thickness of a pencil. Seemed like a very simple way to view it, since everyone knows what a pencil looks like.
"it's not an apples-to-apples comparison" - Of course not, it's an onions-to-onions comparison! 😄
I would have thought that people (especially gardeners) were moving away from plastic these days.
I’m in the South also. Which onion seed did you plant? 🧅 ps love the doggo 🐕!
This were Yellow Granex. I purchased them because the package said they're famously grown in Georgia, and they worked PERFECTLY. Excellent size, and the flavor is very mild. Grocery store onions make me tear up horribly, but these onions haven't bothered my eyes, which is amazing. Glad to hear you're a Dale fan!
Please reference your location and grow zone. Since not all area are same, approaches become different for starting.
My location is the very first line of the video 😀 All zone information is in the video description with detailed info in the channel description.
Are those sets you planted heat treated?
Not that I know of. I purchased them on a whim at a seed store because the package caught my eye.
Did the same trial this year only used starts from dixondale to seeds from hoss tools the seeds did much better
When you say starts, you mean the seed-grown transplants, right? So, effectively, they're seed grown.
@@TheMillennialGardener seed grown sent as starts but the stop an restart do the same thing as sets do
@@TheMillennialGardener yep
@@lawrencebeeles6738 starts are first year plants. They bulb and don’t make seed heads. They don’t do what sets do.
@@faithevrlasting don't produce like seeds
Where is a good place to get non gmo seeds
I’m only ever going to grow from seed in the winter sown milk jug method
I'm fortunate that where I live, it almost never drops below 20F, so I can grow onions all winter unprotected. However, covering them with milk jugs will surely offer them more protection. Thanks for watching!
@@TheMillennialGardener I’m in Alaska. I sow the seeds in a milk jug in January February. Tape it shut. Set the moistened jug out in a sunny corner of the yard. By late March early April I have beautiful starts. I do it with my brassicas too. Saves room under the grow lamps
Didn't you say that Onion set bag only cost .95 cents though? Although I can see that the seeds are a better way to go, still I believe you said that bag costs .95 cents, so how much of the bed did it actually cover? And how big or long are your beds?
For about $1, that was about a quarter pound of onion sets. That was probably 3-4 dozen onions? Contrast that to a packet of 200 onion seeds for $2. Granted, onion seed germination is not 100%, but neither is onion set rooting. You can grow somewhere between 3-5 times more onions from seed for the same price, which turn out better and bulb larger in my experience. As you buy more and more in bulk, that divide is only going to increase since seeds are discounted enormously with bulk purchases.
@@TheMillennialGardener Thank you for taking the time to explain because I watched the 'Onion Set' video first and you were excited about that price too. But I agree, it may seem like it costs more but there are both 'pros and cons' to the different methods and seeds can be saved for a number of years as well.
So what causes an onion (from a set) form 6-7 individual onions from 1 bulb? I have a few Frankenstein looking onions that I don't know what they'll do. Anyone? Thanks.
An onion? Or a shallot? Or something else? Shallot sets can split like that. Most onions should just bulb. It's possible your sets were confused and "forgot" what year it is. This is why I don't grow onions from sets anymore. Too many potential problems. Growing from seed avoids those problems.
@@TheMillennialGardener Aaaah.....thank you, that must be it. I'm thinking that there must've been a few shallots thrown into the bag by mistake, or it was some type of "combo" bag. Looking forward to some shallots then, never had them.
Sets are intended to give a guaranteed harvest, they are known to not get big but that’s not the point of using sets, the point is to get a harvest, even though they’re small, they will grow onions. The only time sets are better is when your crop grown from seed accidentally get a surprise frost they will bolt if they are past a certain size during that frost. But sets will also bolt if they are exposed to a late frost however sets can be planted later and should be planted later that transplants, they already have a head start but it means nothing if it’s planted too early and get exposed to a cold spell, but I’m speaking for long day northern regions. He’s objectively wrong when he says you have a lower rate of failure when you grow from seed, compared to sets you have a far greater rate of failure when grown from seed, you will be almost guaranteed get onions from sets, they may not be big but they will produce onions, which is the only benefit to growing from sets, you can lose entire crops when growing from seed due to freak weather causing them to bolt whereas growing sets and starting them a little later will definitely get you an onion. If you depend on growing your own food, sets are a sure bet for feeding yourself , if it’s just your fun little hobby, you can afford taking Little risks. Another way of avoiding failure is to plant multiple progressive crops every couple weeks if growing from seed, this way if you get a freak frost you will at least have another crop if the previous ones bolt. Starting a new tray of seeds every 2 weeks indoors for 6-8 weeks works good, just make sure the final crop is planted about a month before the longest day, which is usually around June 20th, that’s when bulbing starts for long day onions no matter what size they are at that time. This is long day experience speaking for zone 8 Oregon
Yeah, u correct! Me too don't like sets of Onions...
Seeds are definitely the way to go! Thanks for watching!
i thought the seedlings were called sets, never mind. i grow own seedlings in tray and plant out as space becomes available. gives (most plants) a head start. people usually buy bunches of the young (green) seedlings to plant out; not these "sets" you show. Just did a search and both come up as being named "sets". Well, commercial farming they use the green seedling variety of "sets". Makes little sense to plant out onions grown to a small size and forced to dormancy, to plant out again. Probably only good for spring onion (top) cropping.
It's much more affordable to buy the seed, and you'll have a huge selection doing it by seed. It's very important to purchase the correct day-type for your latitude. It's pretty tough to find the Short Day onions I need, and the selection is much better when shopping for seed.
@@TheMillennialGardener : yep, i grow from seed also, just via trays and transplant. nothing worse than planting seed directly in prime space, only to have little or nothing come up.
since i found the right gear and growing media to grow stuff in trays and transplant, it's made my small space more productive. only direct plant things like carrot, peas, beans or garlic.
not bad
Thanks for watching!
Wow
How are your hardy citrus doing?
Very well. My Owari Satsuma has put on so much growth this year it's crazy. I still have to get 3 new plants into the ground, though. I've been really backed up and haven't had time to plant. I have about 14 different trees I still need to plant this summer 😂
Bend them over now, you'll still get bulging. Sets will give near 100% if you do as I said below.
How can you compare the set onion to your seed onions when you don't even know what variety the set onions were? Not all onions get big those sets are probably Stuttgart onions and they don't really get that big but they do keep well,, it's all about variety when it comes to onion size and soil conditions matter a lot.
Well now I know why my onion sets have been failures. 😨
Try an appropriate day-length variety grown from seed. I bet you'll see much better results!
I tried growing from seed, was really hard. Dampening probs, they would not grow.
Make sure you purchase a sterile potting mix. You may want to hydrate it with boiling water first, let it cool completely so you know it's sterilized, then once it's at room temperature, plant your onion seeds in the mix. A good way to help prevent damping off is to allow the tops of the seed trays to occasionally dry out. Keeping the seed trays constantly moist is the problem. You can also periodically spray the top of the soil with diluted hydrogen peroxide. You can put 3% hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle around 4-6 tablespoons per gallon of water to create an antifungal spray.
Well we sure had opposite results. My set grown onions have been done for almost a month already and the few seed grown onions finally look like spring onions, tiny.
When you start your onion seeds is key. The onion seeds will need to be started 6 weeks or so beforehand so they're at the same size as your sets would be when you transplant. Also, you have to make sure you're growing the correct Day-Type onions for your latitude, or they will not work out.
Onions are not worth the space in my garden. Same with potatoes and carrots.
Onions are very easy to interplant because they are shallow-rooted and don't compete with deeper-rooted plants like tomatoes. You can easily plant onions in rows in between tomato plants, and the scent will actually keep pests away. Onions make excellent companion crops. Same thing with garlic. I plant garlic in between all my tomatoes to keep the pests away. Carrots are one of the hardest root vegetable out there and can be grown over winter when your beds are fairly empty.