No More Tiny Onions - New Onion Growing Hack - How To Start Onions From Seed To Harvest

Okay my friends, here it is. The video that is going to show you the new genius method of growing onions from seed. So if you've had failure before, you will have success this year because you're going to watch this video and learn everything you need to know. So first thing we have to understand is it is middle of February. Any time in February, even the first week of March, regardless of where you're at for the most part, is fine to start the onion seeds. So you still got time to get them ordered. Now next thing we have to understand is the difference between long day and short day onions. Short day onions are grown over the winter time because they put on all their vegetative growth as the days are getting shorter. And then once the winter solstice hits and the days begin getting longer, then they start to bulb. But long day onions are grown are the opposite. They will put all their vegetative growth out as the days are getting longer. And once the summer solstice hits and the days begin getting shorter, they will start bulb formation. So remember, if you're growing onions over the summertime, it's gonna be long day onions. Or if you're in the south, it will be intermediate day because short day onions are grown over the winter time, only in hot places. So next thing we have to understand is that the onion is a biennial, meaning that the first year it will produce its vegetative and bulb growth. And then the second year, the only focus of its life is to produce seed. And so for that reason, we want to start onions from seed because the little onion sets are already in their second year of growth for the most part. And if you have the sets, that's the little onions, you'll have some success. But mostly you end up with ping pong ball size onions that don't keep over the winter time because they're going into their third year of growth. So for that reason, we want to start onions from seed. Guys, it's so easy because I developed this new method, which I'm going to show you in just a moment. And this new method makes it so easy, almost foolproof, to get the right spacing and most importantly, the right depth. Because if you bury onion seeds too deep, then they will not be able to bulb properly. And you'll have to go around wringing them and moving the soil away. Or you'll just have tiny little ping pong ball size onions. So if you want them big, nice, delicious onions, they almost need to look like they're sitting on top of the soil. So that can be real laborious planting it all out year after year. But I've developed this new method, which I'm going to show you right now. So let's get into it. Okay, my friends, take a screenshot of this and see if you are a long day or intermediate day. Next thing we're going to do is start them in the way I start most of the other seeds. And we're going to do the two tray method. And we're just going to use regular potting soil, guys. I like the Fox Farm stuff, but you can use whatever you want. Just make sure that it's chemical free and that you sift it. This is important because if we don't sift it, we tend to get big chunks of this kind of bark in there. And that is going to provide air pockets that we don't need in this. Next step, and I highly recommend not skipping it, is the worm castings, guys. They've got a plethora of nutrients that the little seedlings will need. This is going to mitigate many issues if you add about 20% by volume or whatever of worm castings. And then we're going to pre-moisten the soil a bit. Not so it's dripping wet, but just so it's moist. And then we're going to gently put it into the tray. Now, we're going to fill the tray pretty much all the way to the top because they're going to be in here for a long time, guys. And once it's nice and full, then we're just going to give it a gentle pat down. Then we're going to take the onion seeds. These are yellow of Parma, in my example, which I love. And we're just going to put about 300 seeds, maybe even 500 seeds. Onions can grow real close together, no problem. And then after about 10 days or so, you're going to see this, guys, because we kept it at about 75 degrees because we're using the heat mat. So the soil is about 75 degrees. We keep them nice and moist and they will sprout just like this. Then a few weeks later, we're going to need to trim them because you see here they've gotten to about eight inches tall and we want to keep them actually to about five inches. And this is very important. So once they get to about eight inches, we're just going to take a big handful, trim them all to about five inches like this. Or we can use this other method where we just take the tray, turn it sideways and, you know, our best guesstimate of five inches. But no matter what, we want to use an ounce to the gallon of the fish fertilizer that we've made from this channel and fertilize every time that we cut it so that we're going to have nice stout, thick ones like this. And then come April 11th or so, we're going to have a nice thick mat of roots like this. Now, onions have very strong roots, so we're just going to gently pull them apart. We're going to shake them like this so that we can pull apart a big clump. And this big clump, then we're going to take that and gently separate it using water. Guys, this is very important. I put a little bit of compost tea in here and we're just going to gently massage them and they come apart like spaghetti. I mean, the roots of the onion are very strong and so we want to gently pull it apart without shredding them. That's important. And the water is going to help us do that. So we want to choose only the biggest ones, guys. These smaller ones like this, OK, they will produce something, but we'll just set those aside for now because we want just the biggest, fattest, thickest ones that we can because they got to get growing immediately. So then on the same day, we're going to take and rake back the mulch that has been over this onion patch all winter long. We put down some horse manure and a couple of inches of deciduous leaves in the fall time, and that has been nourishing the life in the soil all winter long and the early spring. But now we don't plant into that. So we're going to take that off and put that into a compost pile. Then here's the magic method, guys. We're going to use some boards. These were scrap lumber that I had from a previous project. So two by six or two by four, it doesn't matter. Just place them evenly spaced. And then we're just going to dig a very shallow trench real quick, like an inch deep. And then we just place each one of these propped up against the board. You don't have to worry about how deep they are, nothing. We're just going to put them in the trench, and then we're going to cover with the compost. It's very important. You want to use something that's high quality here and light and fluffy. And then we're going to water it in real good. So here I'm using aerated compost tea. That's why I'm using a watering can, but you can also use a hose. And we want to make sure they're watered in good, guys. This is very important because then about 10 days later, they're going to look like this. They're going to be nice and established. You see how those are nice and perky? And they are at the perfect level of the soil because the boards keep it nice and cool. So here we are several weeks later. After about a month to five weeks, you want to remove the boards and replace it with grass clippings or something similar. So here we're in a mega drought. It hasn't rained like at all in their whole life, and I don't water them except for the weekly compost tea. And you can see here that this grass clippings are keeping everything nice and moist. We got about three to four inches of grass clippings on here. And even in a drought, that is keeping the soil moist, which is very important because onions have shallow root systems. So we want this mulch on there. Now here we are several weeks later, June 28th, and you can see that they're about waist height. So the summer solstice has just happened. So now they're going to go in full speed to bulb formation. So between June 22nd and July 21st, give or take, they form their entire bulb formation. So these are now ready to harvest. And we can tell because some of them are falling over, right? We can tell, yeah, there's some weeds in there. Not a problem though. We see the nice bulbs. Now some of them are falling over, but over here, remember this guys, I will show you why this is far too long. These most, almost all of them have fallen over and that's too long. So here we are July 21st and you can see everything is absolutely gorgeous. Guys, look at these bulbs. Everything is spaced perfectly fine. And because we use the board method and we didn't bury them, everything is at the exact height that it should be. Meaning basically at ground level, they've got a little bit of comfort and cushioning from the grass clippings. And you can see over here, the ones that we use, the two by six, which gave them more spacing, they actually grew bigger. So if you use a two by six, you'll get bigger onions than the two by four. But either way guys, you're going to just be getting phenomenal onions. Now, yes, I gave these aerated compost teas and nothing else all season. That is what I gave them. No additional anything really. And these things are super pungent guys. This is the yellow of Parma. I also have some New York early and we're going to go ahead and harvest these. Now it doesn't matter that they, that they are not all falling over. Mark my words. You don't want to wait until they're all soft neck. Now this one here actually is so vigorous because the soil was so robust and nutrient rich that it started to grow a flower head. And so we're harvesting those. Okay. So we, you do not have to wait until they fall over. Just some of them start to fall over, but here's the key guys. Once, once you harvest, now look at the actual soil underneath. This is the magic right here is the soil food web guys, no electro culture nonsense, no kind of tricks or gimmicks, no magic potions, just aerated compost tea and some manure and letting the soil food web do its job. So here we are on the same day. We take them, harvest them, hang them upside down here. I've modified a wire rack, like shelving that I used to start seeds earlier. Now I brought outside and we hang these upside down and we're going to let these air dry in the shade. Very important. It's in the shade for about two to three weeks until they start to turn brown and crispy. The, uh, the leaves will much like this garlic that we harvested already. This is about two to three weeks, uh, uh, old garlic harvest after several weeks of drying guys, then we're just going to cut them off about two or three inches. You leave two or three inches of the neck. And here we are February 22nd guys. And look at these onions. They are still nice and rock hard and pungent and strong and aromatic and flavorful. They keep all winter long because we harvested them at the right time and we gave them everything that they need. Now I want to show you, see, one of them is starting to sprout, but that's perfectly fine. I want to show you though. See here, uh, remember the red ones that we waited too long. These are all falling down. Do you see how almost all the necks are falling down? Now look what happens when that happens, uh, is that they don't store as long because see, uh, I, I put the ones that were totally fallen down and sort of mushy on that side. And then on the other side, on the back here, I put the ones that were still stout, uh, and that were still firm. So you don't want to wait too long. It's better to harvest a little bit too early than too late, regardless of what people say about you have to wait until everyone falls over. No, you don't. They store better if you harvest them when they're in their prime, like this one, guys, they love to be so about July. You're good to go. So there you go, my friends. If you feel like you gained something from the video, give it a thumbs up. Also share your thoughts and experience in the comments because other people gain knowledge from reading through the comments. So share your trials and errors with the onions. Also have a look at the Amazon storefront where all the stuff you need for gardening that I use is in my Amazon storefront. The link is in the description. I will see you right here every Saturday at 12 noon, Eastern time. We do a live Q&A where you can ask me anything that you want. And guys, now is the time to be making your fertilizers. I'll direct you to this playlist right here. That's going to show you all different kinds of ways to make your own fertilizers for this season. It is not nearly as complicated as it seems. Just watch the videos.