I planted my onions today! Looks like a full week earlier than last year, great! The run down:
80 Cippollini Onions
60 Prisma Shallots (this year’s)
72 Prisma Shallots (all of what was left over from last year – hoping for 20 to germinate)
80 Clear Dawn Onions (this year’s – from Bountiful Gardens)
160 Clear Dawn Onions (most of left over from last year from Fedco – hoping for 40 to germinate)
87 Southport Red Globe Onions from Bountiful Gardens – excited about trying these, alleged to be good in storage)
40 Evergreen Hardy White Bunching Onions/Scallions.
I planted those old seeds as an experiment. Onions are supposed to the one seed that really doesn’t last from year to year, but I’ve had mixed results. Last year I tried planting some old Scallion seed, and not a one came up. But the Florence Red onions I planted, also a few years old, came up like crazy. I’m hoping for a 25% germination on my last year’s Clear Dawn and Shallot seed. Basically in my experience I’ve had between 0% and 100% germination rate on old onion seeds. Clearly, more research will be necessary. Hopefully I don’t get much more than 50% on those old ones or these are going to be some unhappy onions.
I’m planning on tightening up my onion spacing this year. Last year I gave each one 6 or 7 square inches. This year they get 4. I don’t know if I can bear crowding them that tight, and I don’t know if my roommates will let me take up a whole garden bed with just onions, but I would need both those things to happen if I wanted all these onions to make it in the ground. If I can plant a 3 1/3′ x 12′ bed with onions spaced at 9 per square foot, that gives me room for 360 onions. Right?
