Starting Long-day Onions Indoors

[fortyonenorth]

I’m planning to start Copra and a few other onions early, under lights, and I’m curious if I need to limit the number of hours of light I provide. With tomatoes and peppers, I usually have the lights on for about 14 hours each day. Is this too much for long-day onions at the seedling stage?

[tjg911]

all plants get 16 hours of light and 8 hours of total darkness. i hope you aren't starting those now? i start mine on 2/1.

[fortyonenorth]

Thanks for the advice, Tom. No, not starting them yet.

Are you growing anything other than Copra next year? I was looking at Turtle Tree Seeds (http://www.turtletreeseed.com) - I think they supply some seeds to Fedco, among others. They list Clear Dawn - the OP version of Copra - as well as a few others that look interesting.

[tjg911]

i only grow copra and red wing. they are both very long term storage, copra is perhaps the longest of any onion. this gives me a yellow and red onion that i can have for months. red wing keeps maybe 9-10 months and this year i had them a full year. it is common for copra to keep a full year even 15 months. typically i have last years onions when pulling this years.

[kath]

I grew Clear Dawn a few years back and found it was a good onion. The necks were thinner than Copra and it stored really well, but not quite as long as Copra. Clear Dawn was slightly smaller as well. I've never had good luck storing any onion past May, though.

[fortyonenorth]

Thanks for the comments on Clear Dawn, Kath!

[wmontanez]

Have you started onions already? I started spanish onion Ringmaster and Morada de Amposta indoors on Jan 15 to get an early start. I have most of the seedlings up already.

[fortyonenorth]

I'm starting mine next week.

Copra
Clear Dawn
Australian Brown
Yellow of Parma
Red Long of Tropea
Maria Nagy's Transylvanian Red
Stuttgarter
Giant Zittau

I've only grown Copra and Red Long in the past, so I'd welcome comments regarding any of the others.

[kath]

Also grew Stuttgarter from sets one year when I didn't want to bother with seeds because Agway said it was by far their longest storage variety. It sized up really well, tasted fine, and stored well, but not like Copra.
I also grew Yellow of Parma the year I tried Clear Dawn. Yellow of Parma was larger but their wasn't much difference in terms of storage or taste for us. We don't use onions raw very often and when cooked they seem pretty much the same...no gourmets here! Basically, I'd be happy with anything that kept longer than Copra or kept as well and was sweeter.

[salix]

Kath, just wondering; since you don't use raw onions very often, why not just dice and freeze, or saute and freeze? Then you don't have the storage worries. Just as an aside, we have found that Candy stores quite well. When they all start sprouting in the Spring, I just whack 'em up, saute and freeze. Maybe this year will dehydrate some as well.

Will be starting the leeks, shallots, onions (Candy, Red Zeppelin, Bedfordshire Champion, Red Bull and Ailsa Craig) and scallions at the end of February. We always seem to get reasonable harvests, even in our short season. Like Tom, they will receive 16 hours of light, and will be shipped out to the garage where it is colder as soon as they are about three inches tall (still under lights, 16 hours). As soon as it is a few degrees above freezing, they will gradually be hardened off, and by mid April will be moved outside, to spend the night indoors only if it goes well below the freezing mark.

By the way, has anyone here grown Kelsae onion? It seems they are having difficulty in producing seed the past few years.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by wmontanez

Have you started onions already? I started spanish onion Ringmaster and Morada de Amposta indoors on Jan 15 to get an early start. I have most of the seedlings up already.

wendy,

since you are in my general area, tho nw mass is a lot different than along the ocean and i have no idea where you are, i'd be curious how your onions do being started so early.

have you started them on 1/15 in past seasons? if so when do you put them out? does such an early start give you larger onions or an earlier harvest? i'd think that dtm are pretty much the same as if started on say 2/15 but i'm curious.

1/15 sounds awful early for this area.

tom

[kath]

Salix,
Thanks for the suggestions. Have tried chopping and freezing, but they really stunk up everything in the freezer (just like hot pepper do). Since I freeze lots of fruit, that's not a good thing. Do you know if they are less stinky once they're sauteed and then frozen?
I'm going to get a dehydrator this year, so that will be a definite possibility, too. Figure I can dehydrate on the back screened porch and keep most of the smell outside that way.
Somehow I thought Candy wasn't suited to our climate, but was more of a southern onion...guess not! Will look into that one...sweet AND stores well...didn't think there was one like that!
kath

Originally Posted by salix

Kath, just wondering; since you don't use raw onions very often, why not just dice and freeze, or saute and freeze? Then you don't have the storage worries. Just as an aside, we have found that Candy stores quite well. When they all start sprouting in the Spring, I just whack 'em up, saute and freeze. Maybe this year will dehydrate some as well.

Will be starting the leeks, shallots, onions (Candy, Red Zeppelin, Bedfordshire Champion, Red Bull and Ailsa Craig) and scallions at the end of February. We always seem to get reasonable harvests, even in our short season. Like Tom, they will receive 16 hours of light, and will be shipped out to the garage where it is colder as soon as they are about three inches tall (still under lights, 16 hours). As soon as it is a few degrees above freezing, they will gradually be hardened off, and by mid April will be moved outside, to spend the night indoors only if it goes well below the freezing mark.

By the way, has anyone here grown Kelsae onion? It seems they are having difficulty in producing seed the past few years.

[wmontanez]

Hello Tom,

First time with onions. I read that 12 weeks before setting outdoors was the time to sow seeds, so I think is safe to put onions around April 15 here. I also start peppers around the same time. Easy to remember. If it works for you with a month later is great to know. Last year I followed the package instructions with spanish onions and got ONE tiny onion not even worth describing. The rest just stood there so I left them in the ground all winter. I will keep u posted regarding the growth with these onions, I have high expectations.

I live near NH border (in Lowell)

[tjg911]

wendy,

i always read to start them 8 weeks prior to putting them out. i used to start them on 2/22 but backed it up to 2/15 last year and i was considering trying 2/1 this year tho that's a little early as i put them out on 4/15 to 4/20. guess you can try 1/15 and see.

tom

[kath]

Maybe I'm not doing something right, but at 8 weeks my onions just look like tiny blades of grass-well, maybe more like chives. Even at 12 weeks, there's not much to them.