Onions Galore

Back in January I sowed a couple hundred onions in flats that I wrote about here and here. A few weeks ago I moved these guys to the cold frames. They are have been progressing well and growing a long. I just noticed about a week ago that some of them had started rooting out of the flats and into the ground in the cold frame. This rooting out of bounds made me decide that they are ready for the garden. After tilling twice and getting things all prepared I set them out.

Out of the two flats which were unscientifically seeded the same I wound up with one row of 'Mustang' and a row and three-quarters of 'Redwing'. As you can see the red onions germinated much better and they also seem to be much more prolific. Next year I will try a different variety for a yellow or white because 'Mustang' is not impressing me especially since it is a F1 hybrid.

When I put out the transplants I also planted out some four hundred sets I bought for early green onions or scallions. I also direct sowed the remaining 'Mustang' and 'Redwing' seed for a later crop of green onions. All in all I have something like 2500 onions if the direct sown seed germinates well. About three-quarters of that are for green onions.

I also have a flat of Evergreen Bunching onions that are perennial. These are strictly for green onions in years to come. They are still hanging out in the cold frame because the location they are going into needs to be 100% weed free. I do not want to be pulling up missed grass and dandelions in this perennial onion patch if I can help it. My plan is to get it weed free and control weeds with generous mulch and light cultivation in late fall. So I will probably try and wait to plant these out until May unless they too start growing out of their flats, which they haven't yet.