Winter Sown Onions

Now that I know how I want to sow my seeds, what seeds did I sow?

I used up all of my Rossa di Milano seeds last year on the small onion fiasco. Beautiful red shouldered onions. Unfortunately I have no review for them other than everyone else’s looked very pretty. 

My sister gave me some New York Early Onion seeds last year, but it ended up being too late in the season to sow them. We also got a pack of “Onion” seeds in the seed swap. No idea what these guys will be but …

Onwards and upwards my onion seed sowing scouts!

New York Early Onions

Seed started February 5, 2021
I know, I know, I was excited, I started early.

Size: 

3-4 inch bulbs, onion sized plants, you can plant 9 onions in a square foot

Location:

Lots of sun

Matures in:

98 days

Native to:

The actual origin of the onion is debated - best guesses are Central Asia or Iran and West Pakistan. Wild onions do grow throughout moist areas of North America. Apparently onions are one of the oldest cultivated vegetables in history. This particular variety was developed in Orange County, New York

Why did I Choose it?

It was given to me ;)

Uses?

We rarely cook a meal without onions. Everything starts with butter and onions and garlic basically so …

Specifics:

Attractive warm brown skin and white flesh. Mild enough to eat raw and more tender than most yellow onions. One of the more dependable and productive early onions with a long storage life, selected to store until spring. Medium sized onions are 3-4 inches. 

Companion Plants:

Onions naturally repel pests which means that they are very helpful for other plants in the garden. Plus they are lovely when you let them flower. You don’t even have to eat them, plant them purely for pest control and beauty if you wish. 

The brassica or cabbage family especially benefits from onions because they repel cabbage loopers, cabbage worms, and cabbage maggots.

If you’re dealing with aphids, Japanese beetles, and rabbits in the garden onions can also help with them.

Chamomile and summer savory are good neighbors as well as carrots, beets, lettuce and strawberries. 

Avoid: 

Members of the onion family can share common pests like the onion maggot, which travels quickly through the rows, so don't plant leeks, shallots, or garlic too close. 

Peas, beans, sage, asparagus don’t play well with onions. 

Personal Notes: 

I’m really excited about the winter sowing option for planting onions and I hope it works out better than last year. 

We drilled some holes in the bottom of these plastic tubbies. They are the perfect size for the amount of seeds I had.

We also added ventilation holes in the top. I’ll add more in the Spring as I need them.

Both tubbies got filled up with 2 -3 inches of dirt.

I scraped trenches in the dirt and tried to equally distribute my seed. It was a more or less sort of equal distribution.

See the adorable little onion seeds!

Both tubbies were then filled with more dirt to cover the seeds. This was all firmed down.

I then dug them a nice hole in the snow on the East side of the house.

I covered them both with snow for insulation, and moisture will creep in through the holes. This will provide the right climate for them to sprout when they are ready in the spring.

Did you try the winter sowing method?

What did you plant?