Onion planting problem

[jangirl]

Maybe Martin can clear this up for me, or someone else.  I've tried for three years to grow onions from seed. I get tiny, thin wispy long 'leaves' that don't ever thicken up and don't live after transplanting.  What am I doing wrong?  I start them under lights.  Maybe need the light source closer to the plants? Deeper planting of the seed?  I'd love to be able to get a crop of Mako onions!  

[feather]

I wonder how Martin is doing. I haven't seen him on here in a while. I hope he is well.

I don't use grow lights, just a southern exposure window. I feed them a very dilute solution of miracle grow generic, trim the tops if they get long. I've had good luck with the makos.

[solargeek]

feather, Martin was last on Jan. 17th. I didn't realize it was that long.

[Maura]

The best light exposure is 16 hours of light and 8 hours of dark. They collect nutrients during daylight and grow when it is dark or shaded. When plants are spindly they are usually getting too much dark.

[feather]

Feb 18, 2019 23:39:39 GMT Maura said:

The best light exposure is 16 hours of light and 8 hours of dark. They collect nutrients during daylight and grow when it is dark or shaded. When plants are spindly they are usually getting too much dark.

I don't know if that is always true for starting seeds. I thought bulb onions started making bulbs at 14 hours of daylight, in the late spring up here in the northern part of the US. We grow 'long day' onions. When I start my seeds we get about 11-12 hours of daylight each day, which increases incrementally until they are transplanted and then at 14 hours/day of daylight, they begin growing bulbs.

Here's a link about it. harvesttotable.com/bulb-onion-growing-day-length-and-temperature/

The long day onions are different than the short day onions in that they (the short day onions) start bulbing with less hours of daylight per day.

[Maura]

That is the general best lighting. Or, 4 hours light, 8 dark. Length of day also determines when plants bud, when they do other things. Just saying spindly plants can be caused by too much dark/not enough light.

[Skandi]

We do several thousand long day onions from seed here and they get 16hrs on 8 hrs off, less and they will be leggy with our lightling. Yes bulbing is triggered by day length, but the onion has to be mature enough to respond to that as well and seedlings are not. my onions get 16 hours for their first 6 weeks then they go outside where daylength is around 14hours (April) I can see that last year they were beginning to bulb the 13th June.

[vickilynn]

I keep the lights just a couple of inches from the top of the plants. I also trim them with scissors if they get too long. I do not let the lights on at night. When I plant them, spread out and just cover the roots. Don't plant too deep.

[janinco]

Thank you all for responding to the onion questions last year. I appreciate it. Still wondering how Martin is, I don't see that he's posted in quite a long while. I really miss him!

[wally]

Janinco, Martin moved on as he was having issues reading the screen due to eye problems reading his screen. We all miss his wisdom and thoughts. Perhaps some others here can help

[MeandTK]

Martin still posts at Not Just Tomatoes, as he can somehow see it better.

[1shotwade]

I grow 9 different types of onions from seed. I never shut the lights off. They are on 24/7. I stared them on Dec 15th and have cut them back 5 times already and used the cuttings in the kitchen. Trimming them back just makes them a stronger plant. I do not feed them until they are 4-5 inches tall and then only every 2-3 watering. I use Masterblends Kratky formula. The seed is sown on top and watered in. That's all that is necessary. They will stay in the trays until time to put them outside in early April. From that point on I feed them according to Dixondales and have a fine crop each year.
Wade

[oxankle2]

Wade; I am way behind. I started leeks yesterday in an outdoors pot as Martin does. I am startimg potted carrots but will use all onion sets and plants this year. Too hard to get seeds for this area---only Mako seems to work and last year I got only golf ball sized onions from those. I must say though, thee was no trouble getting them transplanted and growing.  Got my plants in late due to health problems---neighbors to whom I gave plants grew really nice big onions.

What is Masterblend's formula, if I may ask? Dixondale advises side-dressing; I can do that.

[wally]

In searching about walla walla onions, I learned the when bulbs start forming, to get larger onions you should ring them. Which is nothing more than removing the dirt on top of the bulb. Might try it this year. Time permitting.

[1shotwade]

OX, the Masterblend is a water-soluble that is recommended for hydroponics. Bobby can explain it a lot better than I can. His short video can be found by scrolling down the page. This is a calculator page for using Masterblend.

The important part of getting large bulbs is to get the plants in early to allow as much growth possible before the daylight hours reach the hours needed to bulb. The more leaves you have at the beginning of bulbing, the larger onion will be produced. From the time they are transplanted, I go strictly by the Dixondale recommendations! One year I beefed up the nitrogen and got tremendous size bulbs. That was a mistake. The more you feed them, the shorter their storage life.

I am in zone 6B and still have time to start seed and get transplants before they need to be moved outside. You should try.
Wade

www.tool-rank.com/tool-blog/editorial/masterblend-hydroponic-fertilizer-calculator-for-any-container-size-201610071988/