Well, that was a rude little cold snap!
11 degrees and windy on the 2nd of March. Good thing the greenhouse is nice and toasty warm!
Between my mother and I in two different towns we have lots of different little growing spaces.
I have some medicinal herbs cold stratifying in my unheated, slightly broken greenhouse. A lot of native flowers and herbs have seeds that require a freezing period in order to germinate. Up there I have Angelica archangelica, Alchemilla mollis (lady’s mantle), Arnica chamissonis (meadow arnica), Althaea officinalis (marshmallow), and a few others.
Down here in the house I have a back room where the furnace lives that stays a cozy 75 degrees, the perfect temperature for most seeds to germinate. They are in trays on a metal shelf with grow lights hanging just above their new little leaves. In the back room I have lots of alliums (onion family), hot peppers, and some flowers all of which need a very long growing time before being planted in the garden.
Brenda has a basement set up with lots of tables and grow lights suspended above with chains. She also has alliums, hot and sweet peppers, and herbs and flowers going.
We are both setting up and Spring cleaning our hoop-houses to be ready for second stage seeding in the next few weeks. That will also be where all of our seedlings will be matured and transplanted before we deliver them to you! More pictures to come when the tables are set up!
All the Onions, Great and Small
In mid-late February we started our scallions, leeks, shallots and bulb onions. We usually buy onion plants or sets (tiny little onions that are dormant and then planted in April) but this year I’m also growing onions from seed. After lots of research on blogs, YouTube, and seed catalogs, I decided to give it a try, even though it takes a lot more time (and space!). The main reason to grow bulb onions from seed is the massive variety of types available. Generally, regardless of the size of the company, the varieties of onion sets or plants is limited to 2-5 types. Garden centers often just sell you onions that are yellow or red, without much indication of where they came from or even if they’ll work for your location.
I found four exciting varieties, all heirlooms. One of them is from New York state (New York Early, a yellow storage onion) and one is called Red Wethersfield, a local heirloom red storage onion from Wethersfield, CT. The other varieties I chose were a classic Yellow Sweet Spanish heirloom best for fresh eating and the popular Stuttgarter, a small yellow storage onion known for its flattened shape and its reliability. The other reason people love growing from seed is the onions grow larger bulbs and are healthy and strong plants. The idea is they spend more time growing in one push rather than being halted and forced into dormancy before being sold. It seems there’s lots of online support for this method, so I’ll give it a try and we’ll see how it goes! It certainly can’t hurt. There are so many different ideas and techniques out there in this huge world of gardening and we can keep trying new things our whole lives.
One of my favorite things about growing the onion family is they are so very forgiving. If you’ve ever grown onions, scallions or leeks from seed you’ll notice that the seed packets usually tell you to space the seeds an inch apart. This is crazy and 100% not necessary. Ok, the leeks are usually spaced out a bit usually to 1/2″-1″. But scallions grow happiest in bunches of ten or so that’s how we plant them. The outside plants get big and are harvested, leaving room for the inner ones to grow. Some seedlings have very sensitive and fragile roots that shouldn’t be disturbed. Onions are not so fussy. They don’t mind being sown densely (as shown above) and then gently pulled apart when it comes time to transplant.
Collections with onions…
