I was so happy to open the mailbox yesterday and find seeds there for me. They were not for the greenhouses as have been all the shipments for the past two months. These are mine. I am so happy to think that the gardening season gets to begin.
First come the onions. These are the earliest seeds I put in. I like seed onions. They are the first year of growth for an onion. Onions are biennials which means that it takes two years to complete the life cycle. The first year you get a plant with a completely formed bulb. If you would leave that in the ground during a mild winter and mulch it over, it would sprout again from the bulb the next spring. This is what you are growing when you buy onion sets. This is the second year growth. The second year and onion grows, it will put up growth again and it will form a bulb. The difference in the second year is that the plant wants to send up a flower head and complete the life cycle for which it was meant...reproduction of its species. By growing onion seeds, my plants spend their time just growing with no energy or size lost to pursuit of reproduction.
Buying onion seeds is also a bit of science. Where in the world are you growing them and in what season? Here in the upper Midwest we grow onions during the long summer months. We grow LONG DAY onions here. I like Ailsa Craig, Walla Walla, Sweet Spanish, and Copra. I usually only grow one or two types of onions. I also like to grow keepers which will dry their skins and hold for much of the winter with no additional preparation. They just need it cool, dry, and dark. Now if I lived in the South and grew a crop of onions during the winter months (onions are good cool season crops) or maybe in the Mediterranean countries also during winter months, I would choose SHORT DAY onions. These are breed to grow and bulb up during short day periods when the light is not at its best. I do not know if they grow short day onions in a greenhouse setting in the north during the winter. Why in the world would we when you can grow them in the summer and keep them in the winter? I am still using the onions I harvested last fall. If they start sprouting, I use those onions first. I also break off the green tops to slow the process when I can't use them fast enough.
I also grow bunching onions which most people would call green onions when they go to shop in the produce section. They don't really bulb out and you pull and use them...green! Both types can be put in when the ground is cold but workable. I typically shoot for mid-April in our neck of the woods. I am able to put the plants in the ground as well as put in the bunching onion seeds. Both will put up with the weather that our Wisconsin springs tend to dish out with wild variety and extremes. It seems to be an awful thing to put out seedling, but you are rewarded with early onions with good bulb set.
If you haven't ordered your onion seeds yet, you may find some on a rack at one of your better garden centers if you are not up to waiting for shipment. Seeds started in January and February will reward you with a wonderful crop of onions long into winter.
