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Old 28-07-2020, 03:10 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Nyssa[_3_] Nyssa[_3_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: May 2019
Posts: 23
Default onion over winter seed question

songbird wrote:

T wrote:
...
I want to plant seeds in late fall

I am wondering about covering them. In the romcom, come
spring, she removed the straw mats to reveal 2 to 4"
plants
growing under the mat. Then she transplanted them. I
won't be transplanting.


so you want to plant seeds and expect them to
survive until spring and then to start growing?

i guess you could try it and some will take but
the spacing and thinning will likely need to be
adjusted otherwise you won't get very good results
if you are trying to get onion bulbs. if you are
instead just interested in green onions then you
can plant more seeds more closely spaced and then
pull and thin as they develop and eat what you
remove.


songbird


I did this last winter, without the straw mats.

I planted onion seeds (Gladstone, which is a day-neutral
variety) in a huge pot in late September/early October.

We had a relatively mild winter, but even with some
sleet and snowy days, the sprouts did fine with little
growth over the winter months, then picked up pretty
much where they left off once the milder temperatures
began.

I've been eating the small onion bulbs all spring and
summer so far, with many having died back. A few are
still showing green and one has started to flower/seed.
I'll let that one do its thing and hopefully get some
automatic re-seeding out of it into the same pot.

I didn't do any thinning of the onion plants early on,
so the resulting bulbs aren't very big. Next time, I'll
thin 'em to get bigger bulbs. (Although I like the small
ones since they're just big enough to slice for a big
salad or stir fry with no leftovers.)

I'd say to give it a try. You might want to add a bit of
mulch once the seeds sprout if you live in a colder area
that I do (SE VA). The most you'll lose is the price of
the seeds if it doesn't work out.

Nyssa, who likes to experiment with over-wintering or
late season crops like onions and carrots