First Green of The Year!
Only nine days later and the onions are up! They actually started emerging about three days ago but I wanted them to be photosynthesizing for the big picture day (they look less pretty when they are white stemmed). Right now they are growing away under the fluorescent lights but they can’t stay there forever. I have limited light space and they need to be hardened off anyhow. There is still space for one more flat which will contain celery and peppers but once the end of February arrives and the big planting goes in the onions will have to move out to the cold frames and start toughening up for the real world. Shortly after that when hard freezes are a thing of the past in about late March they will get moved to the garden. For now they get to hang out in the comfortable basement under the forgiving glow of the fluorescent tubes.
Everything starts moving fast this time of year when you start your own seedlings. It is still mid winter and the garden is already growing.
posted by Nathan (2af) @ 8:04 PM
6 Comments:
I'm glad I'm not the only one who takes pictures of young seedlings. I get so excited when they start coming up. How many onions are you hoping to grow?
I tried to plant them roughly twice as close as the 50 cell flats are spaced and I have two flats with the two different hybrids in them. There are many comming up multiple sown but I won't thin them since they are going to get transplanted anyhow. So with all that in mind there are at least 200 of the hybrids but probably many more. There are probably 50 of the bunching onions which is just a wild guess. I bought a lot less seed for them. They are perenial and spread so they will not be harvested this year but instead allowed to multiply for future harvests. I also plan to direct sow more of the hybrids when I transplant to try both methods of starting them indoors and direct sowing. I am thinking I will at least get green onions off the direct sown which are probably more profitable for the space they take up in the garden. Sorry my answer got so winded, I have been mulling all this over in mind if you can't tell and it all just kind of exploded out.
Haha, so you've got a lot. That's interesting that you have some growing that won't be ready until next year. I assume that you have enough going that you won't have to buy any at the store... that is always a goal of mine.
Good luck with your onions! i never liked to eat onions till I grew my own sweet ones. Now we put onions in everything.
This makes me want to become a farmer. Thanks for sharing this experience :-)
James-
Yeah it is a lot but I don't think it will be enough. I need to have enough for us and the market. I just picked a number and am trying it. I will mostly rely on money crops anyhow like tomatoes, peppers, and beans but I want to have things like onions available and preferably enough.
Deb-
I use to hate onions and now I add them to dishes every opportunity I get. It is funny how tastes can change and I think homegrown can aid in that change for sure.
Green Gal-
You can always 'farm' for yourself and your welcome!
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