Dig holes 1 inch deep and place the soaked bulbs in with the roots down. Onions grow best in fertile, well-draining soil. If planting onion sets or bulbs, till a garden bed with at least 2 inches of compost or planting mix.Your seeds or bulbs are now hydrated so you can plant them now. Drain the water from the onions sets or seeds.Place the onion sets or seeds into the compost tea and let them remain there for up to 24 hours. Fill a large bowl halfway with compost tea.Soaking the sets in compost tea will give them added nutrition and protection from disease. You can also soak onion seed before planting to encourage germination. You can plant onion sets without soaking them, but soaked onions will sprout more quickly. A set is an actual bulb and will produce onions quickly. The starts are just baby plants with stems and a bit of root. Onions can be planted from starts or sets. This results in a swelling of the seed parts and a quickening of vital activities. The moisture provided by you is absorbed through the seed coat. Like any living thing, a seed requires moisture, heat and oxygen. Vacuum and other types of precision planters can be very effective at controlling plant spacing and reducing the amount of seed used.Treating seeds by soaking in water seems to stir up the life process. A “small seed” type planter with short seed drop is recommended. Many types of planters are used to seed onions and all must be carefully set to maintain proper seeding depth and rate. Generally, an in-row spacing of 3 to 4 inches ensures both high total yield and a higher percentage of onions in the jumbo (3.0-3.5”), large jumbo (3.5-4.0”), and colossal (4+”) market classes. Avoid wide spacings which promote large bulbs with thick necks. Seeds should be planted 0.5 to 1 inch deep. Uniform seed placement and in-row plant spacing has a major influence on bulb size and is critical to a good stand establishment. Use a bed width of 26 to 44 inches (from center to center) with 2-4 seed rows per bed. Onions are seeded on beds of varying width, depending on the cropping system and the equipment of the individual grower. Growers who are looking to produce onions for niche markets like farmers markets, roadside stands and community supported agriculture (CSAs), may want to use transplants, which allow for earlier harvest. Onion transplants are started from seed in a greenhouse or are field grown (in the southwest U.S.) then shipped to growers prior to planting in the field. An onion set is a small, dormant bulb that will produce a larger bulb once it is planted. Onions may be grown from sets, seed, or transplants. If seeded later, hot summer temperatures induce bulb development before sufficient leaf growth has occurred, leading to reduced final bulb size. Research has shown that most plantings made before April 15 will allow for the best onion crop yields. Irrigation water is generally not available until after mid-April, so planting in March and April allows onion seeds to germinate following spring rain storms. If seeds are planted too early, cooler air and soil temperatures will delay germination and emergence (15- to 25-day requirement), and cause seedling growth to slow. Onion seeds germinate at temperatures above 40☏ the optimum soil temperature is 75☏. Seeding Rates and Spacingįields should be seeded from early March through mid-April when onion beds are dry enough to avoid compaction or germination problems during planting. Because some onion diseases will carry-over in the soil, most fields should be planted to onions only once every five to seven years. In the spring just before planting, the beds are smoothed with a bed shaper harrow or roller, and planted. First, the field is plowed to improve soil condition, and then the soil is shaped into beds that are allowed to settle through freezing and thawing action during the winter months. Seed-bed preparation begins in the fall of the previous year. Onions grow best in a soil with good organic matter and a pH between 6.0 and 7.8. Onion seeds need firm, finely textured soil in the seed bed for good germination and stand establishment.
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