[jambop]

Hi its a cool cloudy day here today but for a change the soil is right for planting out my onions. I know that there are many very experienced gardeners on this site but there are also some who are new to growing vegs... so I thought I would explain my method for growing onions from seed and give my reasons why I think it is a good method.

So in Feb this year the 15th in fact I went to my poly tunnel and filled some large pots with decent compost and sowed my onions as probably anybody would. I sowed about 80 per pot as evenly as possible then covered them with a sieving of compost tamped them down ,watered them and basically left them. I have of course watered them and given then a weak liquid feed.
When it comes to planting time I always wait until the conditions are right as I don't see any point in planting out something that is not going to grow because its too cold and wet. I soak the whole pot of plants in a large basin of water then after about 30 mins I knock them out and as carefully as I can separate the plants... there is obvious damage done but it is not critical and once planted and watered the plants quickly recover from their trauma. I use a pointed dibber to plant them out . I make one hole to take the plant and its roots and then four further holes with the dibber pushing the soil back against the roots which anchors them well and leaves four small holes which become useful when its time to water them in as the hole hold the water and direct it to the roots where it is needed. Now the plants will feel a bit sorry for themselves for a few weeks but the will as I say get over their trauma and give a nice crop of onions later in the year.
Now I hear the question where is the advantage in growing onions this way? Well I think there are several
1. The plants grow well in a deep pot even when there are many plants in the pot
2.  There is no need for lots of costly compost and pots to thin seedling into
3. There is no need to take up space in the green house to grow the seedlings on
4. If, as we had this year, there is a period of extremely cold weather you only need to shift three or four large pots to a warmer place , not loads of trays of small pots which require space.
5. I believe that planting them with a dibber helps the plants avoid problems with roots scoffing grubs and maggots which can much more easily find their way to the roots through compost rather than compacted soil around them by the dibber method.
I have put a few pictures of the plants I grew and it will give an idea of what I am talking about. The first shows them in the pots before being split, then after spliting them and then in a basin of water waiting to be planted then a couple of them in the ground you can see those dibber holes which I leave to hold the water. It goes without saying that you must be mindful of the need to water these plants until they are established.
 I recommend this method of onion growing to anyone who has perhaps thought about growing from seed but was put off by the thought of thinning seedlings and maybe not having enough available space in their green house

[jaydig]

I grow mine exactly like this, and have never had any problems.  In fact I planted mine out last Saturday, and by yesterday they were all standing up nicely despite the scorching heat.

[Goosegirl]

I use onion sets but do my leeks similar to what you do. I get a small pot and sprinkle the seeds on the surface then lightly cover them. When they have 3-4 leaves I tip the pot out, gently separate them. then re-plant into a bigger but deeper pot and use the dibber to firm them in. A little dilute feed containing seaweed extract gets them settled nicely until planting time when I trim off any long roots but leave the leaves as they are.

[Tracybutton]

I wasn't going to bother with onion seeds next year because it's been such a faff having them all in individual pots, but now you've changed my mind and will definitely give this a go next year. Thanks. 

[alancas]

do you plant the onion plants the same as you do leeks and does this apply to red onions aswell thanks.

[jambop]

I just dib them in about an inch and a half below the soil level.  I have found that this system works well for all types of onion. One thing I would add about onions from seed is always to buy new seed every year. I find that stored seeds from the previous year have a very poor germination rate. I would also recommend F1 seed golden bear is a good one to try.