Onion Seedling Experiment

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david junk

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Onion Seedling Experiment
« on: January 08, 2011, 10:35 »
Hello All

I’ve been lurking on this excellent forum for quite some time, and this is my first post. I hope some of you will find it useful.

After enjoying VegManDan’s excellent allotment diary, I thought I’d also have a go at growing large onions and over the course of the last year I’ve done a fair bit of research trying to find the optimum conditions to bring on the young seedlings.  So, after much reading I started some “experimental” seedlings at the beginning of last autumn and I describe my setup and results below. 

Week 0: 

The Ailsa Craig onion seeds were sown in John Innes seed compost and placed in a Vitapod propagator set to a temperature of 18 degrees centigrade. The propagator was located in a frost free greenhouse and positioned in the shade.

Week 2: 

The onions seedlings were replanted into a “24 cell” size seed tray, using John Innes No2, at 1 seedling per cell and moved indoors into the growing chamber. The growing chamber was located in a north facing bedroom in a well-insulated “modern house” with the radiator permanently switched off. The growing chamber excludes all natural light and was illuminated with a 150W Philips Master Colour CDM-TD RX7S metal halide bulb with a colour temperature of 4200K, CRI of 96 RA8, and stated Luminous Flux of 14200 Lm. Light levels at the seedling base, as measured with a Lux meter, were approximately 200 lux. Throughout the course of this experiment the lights were controlled with timer set to a photoperiod of 14 hours per day.

Week 7:

The seedling were lifted from the “24 cell” size compartments, and without disturbing the roots, repotted into seed tray compartments of “15 cell” size and filled with miracle grow compost.

Week 8:

As the seedlings grow the light was moved upwards to accommodate the increased plant height, and as such the 150W bulb provides less and less light over the increased area. For this reason, the light was upgraded to a 250W 4000K metal halide bulb (FL-250WMH-HPS). Light levels at the base of the seedling were maintained at around 200 lux.

Week 10:

At the end of this week the experiment ends. Throughout the course of the experiment the maximum recorded temperature at the base of the seedlings was 22 degrees centigrade, the lowest temperature 13 degrees centigrade.

The results are shown in the attached photograph, with the red lines at approximately 6 inch intervals.
onions.jpg

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Yorkie

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Re: Onion Seedling Experiment
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2011, 10:38 »
Welcome to the site David  :D

That's an impressive setup you've got there  :D
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days all attack me at once...



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Hello for Neston info needed on onion leek polt prep and cfl lighting

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