How to Grow Onions from Seed

gardening and crafting with Bernadette I will show you how we start onions to recede here in Michigan starting onions from seed will give you on average bigger better and earlier onions as well as a much wider selection of varieties compared to onion sets and purchased transplants we use seedling soil sunshine mix by Sun grow moss and soil thoroughly with warm water but not heavily you don't want it sopping wet you it's easier if you let the soil absorb the water and then go in with your hand to mix it up make sure the container you choose is clean drainage is not needed for starting seeds fill your container to about almost full making sure it is even and there are few hills and valleys you for this 1020 flat I planted a thousand seeds of sweet onions which normally only about 750 plants actually come up onions have very poor germination so sewing as thick as possible is a good idea to ensure you have enough transplants for your garden evenly spread seeds over the soil a simple cedar like the one I show helps a lot you want to avoid large empty spots but especially piles of seed where you dropped too many completely cover the seed with dry soil use dry soil because you can easily spread it evenly and know where to cover because the color of the dryer so contrasts the darker wet soil now press the topsoil down slightly in water gently and thoroughly with warm water it's always important to tag your seeds with name and date cover your container with a ready-made plastic dome or plastic wrap or grocery bag even and place your container in warm room germination is about five days for onions with or without light but make sure they get light as soon as they begin to germinate or pop through the soil when about half or more have germinated take the plastic off keep them under the lights in water when the soil is dry and or the container is light when they're several inches high and growing well you should begin to harden them off by putting them outside during the day weather permitting don't put them out in freezing conditions and make sure you don't forget to bring them in before the temperature starts to drop in the evening when your onions are 5 inches high or larger or toothpick thick or larger you can plant them outside weather permitting here in Michigan we plant them around April 20th we often get a few light Frost's after we plant them but the onions don't seem to mind the cold at all onions love plenty of water after enduring even the transplanting and during the growing season we use drip tape as you can see in some of the photos prepare the soil for transplanting with a balanced fertilizer like 20-20-20 a little manganese sulfate and a good amount of potash during the growing season you must keep your garden weed free and also side rest your onions with nitrogen or urea thank you for watching I have lots more videos about gardening arts and crafts on my youtube channels so make sure to subscribe and stay up to date by following me on my blog Facebook Twitter Google+ and Pinterest

Channel: BernadettesGarden

Views: 534,266

Keywords: gardening, Bernadette Fox, onions, onion sets, growing, how to grow onions, transplanting onions, fertilizer, drip tape, Sunshine mix, SunGro, seedling soil, 1020 flat, Johnnys Seeds, Rupp Seeds, Stokes, Harris Seeds, Burpee, how to grow from seed, planting onions, planting vegetables, Garden, Onion (Organism Classification), Gardening and Crafting with Bernadette, Bernadettes Gourd Creations, Magicland Farms, Tom Fox, farming, Michigan, cold weather crops

Id: IehuyOPf2dU

Length: 5min 33sec (333 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 22 2013