I have tried every way to grow onions there is. After years of experimenting, I can confidently say that this is, seriously, the best way to grow onions I have tried! Better than growing onion sets, this method grows onions all year long for nonstop harvests at a fraction of the price. This method also works for growing leeks, growing shallots and growing bunching onions year round, too!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Introduction To Growing Onions
0:31 Onion Seeds VS Onion Sets
1:05 Selecting Leek, Shallot And Onion Varieties
4:49 How To Plant Onion Seeds
8:31 Germinating Onion Seed
10:28 How To Transplant Shallot Plants
12:52 How To Transplant Onion Plants
14:25 How To Fertilize Onions And Shallots
18:22 Onion Growing Tips
21:37 Adventures With Dale
If you have any questions about how to grow onions all year round, want to learn more about growing fruit trees or the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!
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ABOUT MY GARDEN
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34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B
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#gardening #garden #onions #vegetablegardening #vegetablegarden
50 Comments
If you enjoyed this video, please LIKE it and leave a comment! Thanks for watching 🙂 TIMESTAMPS here:
0:00 Introduction To Growing Onions
0:31 Onion Seeds VS Onion Sets
1:05 Selecting Leek, Shallot And Onion Varieties
4:49 How To Plant Onion Seeds
8:31 Germinating Onion Seed
10:28 How To Transplant Shallot Plants
12:52 How To Transplant Onion Plants
14:25 How To Fertilize Onions And Shallots
18:22 Onion Growing Tips
21:37 Adventures With Dale
You are so very knowledgeable.
LOVE you rvideos! When I think of something I want to go, I search your videos! You are amazing. Thank you!
Ive had good luck with Candy onions here in Texas near Dallas. They get huge. They're considered a day neutral
I wish i had success with seed but not yet. Will continue to try. Currently, I grow onions from sets by the sitting the bulbs in shallow water until they send out roots. Then I plant the bulbs in small cells. When the roots come out the bottom and a green shoot shows into the ground they go.
I start most of my seeds in gallon water jugs (they are like milk jigs, but clear and I don't have to wash them). I cut them all the way around just below the bottom of the handle. Plant the seeds in the base, water, and then push the jug top down into the inside of the base (most times it's easiest to get the top half into the bottom half by removing a little of the plastic near the bottom of the handle). if I want extra airflow, I take the cap off. It proved to be the most successful way for me to get eggplants to germinate. You can use this method for outdoor winter sowing too, but you'll need to tape the seam or too much water will get in. I put these jugs in my greenhouse for winter sowing.
tip for pulling apart onion roots — put them in a container of water and that will help loosen the dirt and make it easier to separate them
good job I'm from creedmoor
Anthony, I'm almost mad about how well this worked and how easy it was. I've wasted so much seed in the past. Ugh 😑
I thought blood meal for onions, not bonemeal
So could you help me out here? Did I miss something? When do you start the actual germination process? What month would that be? I’m in mid Missouri so that would be zone 6A/6B and once the seed is ready to plant, what month would that be? And what month did you make this video?
11:45 one can soak the snarled mass in water and much faster less root damage to separate that way
Question: This was posted 2 weeks ago (late Oct. 25) – is this the time to plant onions? Over wintering?
Great info!
THANK YOU, super content…will be following your method – germinating the onion seeds & shallot seeds for the FIRST time…
A tip for getting the onions apart without tearing the roots, put the root ball into some water and dissolve the soil in the water, u can easily pull the onions out as the roots will just slide out.
I always thought an onion is an onion. I never knew about the long day onion. My father grew onions and they were OK. Now I know if I try onions this year to get the right ones. Walla Walla, redwing, and sweet spanish seem to be the varieties for my northern area. I'll research for the best long term storage
I have not had much luck growing green onions and garlic chives. I will try your method and see if I have better results. Thanks for sharing.
thanks for sharing. i never can get onions to grow so hopefully this will work for me – cheers!
Should also mention how long seeds last. Bought a pack of leeks seeds and had a failure rate of about 95% regardless of what starter method I tried. I'd assumed the seeds were harvested from the previous season when I bought them but likely not. Evidently, they're only good for a couple years.
Greetings from Southern Spain zone 10. I’m going to use this method to start Calçot onion seeds. Onions are grown on a large scale in my area and are super cheap. But calçot are more expensive and not easy to find. Thanks for the inspiration and the tips.
Do you think this will work with chives? I’ve been trying for years and can never get them to germinate.
Is all this extra fertilizer really needed?Even after you use compost??
This is why people laugh on Americans ( north Americans).
Is true, is a great method it works great. But when You state "a new method" yout credibility goes down .
This is a MEDIEVAL method, used around the world where europeans had migrated.
Sorry.
Great video!
How does the initial pinch of granular fertilizer that you put in the pickle buckets break down to become bioavailable for the seedlings? Isn't the seed starting mix sterile and void of the bacteria/fungi needed to break it down?
That's solid advice about growing short day onions during the colder months even if you're in an area where you would grow a long day variety.
Uggghhh onions… this is complicated
Dag gone it! I just realized I got unsubscribed somehow or other. I was wondering if you were taking a vacation. I’m glad this video came up so I found out. Even after all my years gardening, onions are still somewhat of a mystery to me. Zone 7 in Virginia is definitely not prime onion growing territory but I’m sure I can find a way to do better.
I so appreciate your videos I have everything you’ve suggested and tomorrow it’s time to feed my onion beds again
10:54 Mint probably would disagree. You can’t even let a mint root hit the ground, you miss a piece you just started a new plant.😂
Leeks will grow bulbs. Not huge ones. But worth giving a go. They were a lovely light onion/ garlic flavour.
@TheMillennialGardener, I just wish, when you discuss organics, you'd mention the alternatives if you don't want to use dead animal products. It's kinda not Vegan to be using bone and blood meal, fish emulsion, etc., to grow vegetables and feel good about it. I've used my own open-pile compost, and a handful of times I've been able to find and use worm casts, but that's a pain when one is physically disabled. I can't get down on the ground anymore, not if I want to get back up. When I had a kitchen rabbit, my compost was amazing, as the wee-wetted cedar chips and its poo, once every ten days or so, was amazing. My tomatoes blew up, and I had okra produce for the one year. My garden is now over-shaded, so I try in containers, but rabbits and squirrels will not allow me to have anything. I keep hoping for tips on animal repelling. I have wildlife feeders around my yard for the birds and squirrels, but they will not resist my seedlings, no matter herb or veg. I have tried plastic netting (old onion and orange bags), because I am poor. Your stuff always looks great, but again, I'd need to not have the animal stuff. Well rotted poo would be okay, if I knew where to find it. East Tennessee is not well known for dairy farms and horses. Anyway, I like your content, and wish you well.
What should I do if I haven’t started yet in Zone 9a ? 1/4
Just have a good tip water your soil first before you plant seeds if you don’t you’re seeds will go way to deep
Great video, thank you!
all vwery well if you own the heat mat?
Many try growing onions from seed and have dismal results for oftentimes they start seed too late. Here in central Missouri i start onion seeds in a cool greenhouse the last of November or first of December, depending on the phase of the moon. I use 601 inserts in 1020 trays and plant close to a 1000 seeds per flat, this seems to work fine for me. As well i spray an organic anti damping off spray on the seeds before covering and as well i throw them in a germination chamber till germination is achieved. Nice thing about seeds is the fact you get to try onion varieties that one usually can't find in plant form. Like this year i planted some old fashioned hamburger onion seed and am going to grow them out several years so as to get them to assimilate to my area. I know they have in the past for we use to have a self sufficient state hospital in my town that grew them 8" across back in the day. Like the video.. Ps. The best onions i can grow are under black plastic. Food for thought.
I’ve never not one time had success using sets. I’m definitely a seed guy when it comes to growing onions OR I’ll order plants from somewhere like dixondale farms.
I have had good success by wiggling seedlings in a water bath (tomatos, peppers, etc.) I slosh them up and down until they seperate. Because it takes time, I limit how many seeds of tomatos, peppers, etc. I start in a container to (at most) 3. But since those onions are so tough, I will see what I can get away with. Thank you, sir!
I have not had success with planting bulb onion sets. Trying this method. Candy bulbing onion and Warrior bunching onion seeds went into the take out soup containers today. Looking to plant them outside mid-March. Apparently I've graduated to Zone 8a from 7b in the latest hardiness zone map.
Nitrogen is much more important early.
The timing on this hitting my feed is amazing! Now I get to try a new way of starting my Alums and I'm sure I'm going to like this a whole lot better. Thank you!
When you sprinkled the soil on top of the onion seeds, you called it Jiffy potting mix. Was it really a different Jiffy soil mix or was it the same Jiffy seed starting mix you placed in the bottom of the container?
So, my question is this: To prevent damping off disease, how soon should I take the lid off of the containers while they are sprouting indoors?
After just two or three weeks of germination, I already have some sprouts that are bumping up against the Saran wrap I have at the top of my container.
Thank You!
Long day, grow pattersons and walla wallas. throughout many years did both bulbs and seeds…Starting by seed is king.
I start mid Feb. seed indoors in deep single cell plastic trays. (300ish seeds) I found if I bunch plant like you did (container), when I replant in garden in the start of May (4 inch triangle grid pattern) they seem to struggle till August. Single planting in trays I have better luck with "taking off" late spring. (less disturbing of the roots)
Grapefruit size and larger and just cutting into them makes one cry. 🙂
Fascinating. I have never in 5 years of trying, successfully grown an onion crop from seed. Last year I bought sets and I am still using tho onions in January 2026. It’s interesting how varied our growing can be. It’s also fascinating that all the seeds you planted were the exact ones that failed for me. Crazy
Im my place, in finland, the onion sets make perfect sense and they work. They are properly heat treated so they rarely bolt.
I ve tried growing onions from seeds. You need to start seedlings in january to have any hope of success 😛 which mean growlights, hassle, protecting seedlings from my cats, its a stressful mess and in the end i ve never got proper onions out of those.
Maybe some day. But so far im only growing from sets.
I tried the white plastic PVC tubing for garden supports. They work but they aren't rated for sunlight exposure and crack after a year or so. I find EMT tubing works ok but have you tried hog panels? They work great, easy to bend, more supportive of row cover material, last forever, and pretty cheap. Thanks for the video. I order onion plants from Dixondale but starting from seed IS very economical.
Also cut the tops when transplanting and throughout the growing season, it encourages the tops to thicken and create more green layers on top which in turn creates a bigger bulb.
how would you deal with ilium leaf miner?