When to start onion seeds
How to Start Onions Indoors - Growing from seed
well hello everyone and welcome to a
very exciting episode here on mi
gardener today we are doing the thing
that everybody loves to do that gardens
and that is start some seeds yes I am so
pumped because spring is not here yet
but I'm going to be starting some of the
vegetables that need that amount of time
till spring so we're going to be
starting some of the earliest of the the
vegetables and that is onions yes a lot
of you think that it might have been
tomatoes or peppers and those are going
to be in about mmm here between 3 and 5
weeks away so it's it's definitely
coming up quick but it's not here yet
the reason why I'm planting onions is
because I'm going to be planting not
only my Ailsa Craig onion seeds but I'm
also be planting my giant Kelsey onion
seeds that I got that came from 5.2
pound onion I also bought from West
Coast seed I also had some Kelsey onions
but these are not verified to come from
a giant onion
they're just Kelsey onions which can get
giant and then I also have another pack
of something else at Craigs so I have
four packets of onions here and the four
packets of onions are going to be
planted today in pots like this I have a
four inch square pot and I think it's a
4 inch 3 or 4 inch square pot and the
reason why I have a 3 or 4 inch square
pot is because I'm going to plant you
know a pretty good sprinkling on the top
and then or in each pot and then when
they sprout I'm going to actually cut
the the the planter open peel out the
plants and pick out the strongest of
those plants so I will be using all 4
packets but I guarantee you I won't have
all those seeds left over because I
probably have a good uh I mean there's
probably a good I'd say at least Oh
approximately 600 20 seats they actually
tell you so there's at least 620 seeds
in here
there is approximately 250 seeds in each
of these packets so that's 500 so I have
yeah I have well over a thousand two
hundred seeds so 1,200 seeds I'm not
gonna have that many onions because by
the time I'm done somewhat sprout some
are going to you know not some are just
not going to germinate as well as others
and so that leaves you the strongest
that's what we're going to do so let's
get started here this is the mix I made
in last video this is the premium super
starter seedling mix that I'm going to
be using for all my seedlings actually
and it is just a one-to-one ratio of
worm compost or vermicompost and the
jiffy organic seed starting mix and then
it has a little bit of crushed its crush
leonardite basically it has humic acid
in it and then I have Gaia green glacial
rock dust in here as well as all mixed
up for a really good nutrient dense mix
now one quick tip a lot of people always
ask me um you know what I used to plant
in and I use I use the same planters
over and over and over again but one
thing that I do is a really quick tip
for you all is if you like being thrifty
I always like doing the recycle and
reuse reuse recycle I'd rather reuse
then recycle because it costs there's a
lot more energy involved in recycling
something than simply reusing it so
reuse first recycle second and throw
away if if need be um so I like reusing
and I will get these when I arrived I
plants from the nursery or sometimes I
can gave and get them people throw them
onto the side of the road I'll pick them
up um you know one man's trash is
another man's treasure and I don't like
reusing things that are still dirty and
so a lot of people are probably
wondering why I do that but I use in
dirty the reason why I don't use them
dirty is because onions and tomatoes
specifically can contract fungal
diseases and viruses extremely easy and
you don't know what's been
groaning them before if you pick them
off the side of the road you don't know
where they been and you also don't know
what grew in them previously so if there
was something that was growing in here
that had you know bad soil or maybe it
was a bad plant that can still be on
these planters here and I love reusing
them even myself if I grew these last
year which I did I'll still wash them
out because I don't know what's been
touching them what's been you know
around them and I don't want to bring
that into an enclosed environment like
this because when I have plants that are
all close together you get one plant
that gets sick and they will all get
sick faster than you can believe and
trust me it happened it happened two
years ago to one of my tomato plants I
got blight and I had to panic luckily I
saved it but it was not fun so this is a
way you can alleviate that problem kind
of make sure it doesn't happen as little
as possible so getting what I was
getting at is what if you want to reuse
these simply all you have to do is take
a bucket with a penny bit of bleach I
use one gallon of water to a tablespoon
of bleach I put a tablespoon of bleach
in mix it around and I dump the cup in
there I dunk the planter in there switch
it all around scrape the edges with a
brush make sure you get all that soil
out and then I just let it sit out and
dry after I wash it off again um because
the bleach is going to dry out anything
if there's any little bugs on here it's
going to dry their skin out kill them it
kills off any funguses bacterias molds
mildews anything like that it's gonna
it's going to wipe them out so that is
how I reuse my planters year after year
safely let's get started here I'm first
going to set them out in this tray I
have a holus seed tray this whole list
basically means there's no holes in it
I'm just going to set these uh in here
they don't totally fit because it's not
the right tray but I just wanted
something that could hold water because
the way I'm going to water these is I'm
actually going to water them from the
bottom bottom watering is really good
especially when indoors because if you
over
water there's not like wind that can dry
out the soil on top and there's not the
Sun beating down that can dry things out
really rapidly so water tends to stick
around a lot more indoors so you have to
be careful on how much you water
especially around the base of the plant
where it can rot rot the base of the
plant out so I'm just going to fill
these up and then I will get back with
you all when it is done so I think we're
going to plant the Cal say onions from
West Coast seeds first and we're just
going to sprinkle these right on top
you're not going to worry about digging
a hole or anything we're going to
sprinkle these in our hand here about
there's a lot of seeds in there there's
probably about a good 100 150 maybe even
close probably maybe 200 there's quite a
bit of seeds in my hand and we're just
going to sprinkle these right on top
there and then the next one we're going
to plant these and we're just going to
pop that right there now what I'm going
to do is I'm going to take this
vermiculite here this is a fine grade
vermiculite I got a about oh I'd say 8 8
cubic or 8 8 quarts of it I'm sure to
sprinkle this right on top of the of the
seeds and to do this is not you know
mandatory it's not you know it doesn't
have to be done but for me it's crucial
because I have a fungus net problem and
if you do not get read of the fungus
Nets they're going to be around and then
they're going to be in your soil and
they end up eating on the roots and they
ruin germination rates so I've put about
you know about a half an inch of a V or
the fine
vermiculite on top and it's going to act
just like a soil would but it's it's
coarse and it's also it's it's not
organic materials so therefore the the
fungus Nets can't burrow into it and lay
eggs into your into your soil because
they can't get through that's why you
want a pretty thick layer there so I'm
just going to spread this out and that's
what you want to do if you have you know
organic matter or even if you're
planting coco coir and you just don't
want to want to risk it up typically you
don't have a problem if you're not
dealing with organic matter like compost
or stuff like that because stuff that's
been sterilized like a coco coir is is
not going to have anything for the the
fungus gnats to really enjoy but since
I'm using the worm compost in here that
is that's something that that the fungus
gnats would definitely you know enjoy
the last thing we're gonna do is just
get our spray bottle here and just mist
the missed the tops here the soil is
already pretty damp because of the worm
castings but I just want to make sure
that the the vermiculite sets down and
you can also put this on a heat mat it's
really not that cold in this room but if
you have a colder pair your house for
your germinating your seeds it'll
definitely help the germination rate
quite a bit it also help the germination
times so make sure that you use your
judgement on that for me it's not really
that crucial so that is that hopefully
you enjoyed this episode and hopefully
in about a week or two we're going to
see some beautiful sprouts coming up and
then we can move on to the next part of
the series where we separate and
Transplant the onion seedlings so until
next time I will talk to you all later
this is my garden reminding you to grow
big or go home and if you have any
questions comments or concerns about
this episode or any other episodes
please don't hesitate to pop them in the
comments box below or shoot them over in
an email and I'll answer them promptly I
will talk to you all later see ya bye
you
