What Preps are you doing this week? Part 12

[Britcit]

Have been sowing seed this last week or so now. Mostly onions (we eat loads of them) and kale.
Have put in some courgette seeds and some pepper seeds.
We are now moving forward with selling our house this year so I was conflicted on planting any veg. Then decided it will look nice to potential buyers to see a vibrant garden. And if the sale is slow, we have a crop to harvest later .

[pseudonym]

Snip>

That looks deliberate, to be honest, somebody as ignorant as me has absolutely no chance unless recommended by somebody like you, this is what you buy, this is how you connect it. I don't have a grasp of the basics, and when I try to learn, its as if my head's made of bubbles - it just doesn't stay with me

That's what drew me to the Jackery system in the beginning, plug and play.

They were the market leaders at one point but stuck to their guns and other companies surpassed them in technology and ease of use.

They have made strides in the last 18 months but little things like the ever changing connectors on their solar panels
lose customers.

I'm already heavily invested so put up with them despite this

[pseudonym]

Panels and cables arrived and unboxed ready for tomorrow to set up and test.

[jennyjj01]

Have been sowing seed this last week or so now. Mostly onions (we eat loads of them) and kale.

Can you advise me here? Last year I sowed onion seeds and separately planted some sets. The seeds were a dead loss.
What should I realistically expect from those stupidly tiny onion seeds? How long will it take from sowing to, say, 2cm diameter and how much longer to full size onions?

The seed to 2cm stage is what I save by using sets..... That and some money, if it works.

[diamond lil]

My dad always said onions cannot be grown from seed, so maybe he meant technically they can but never work out. He grew up on a farm and all his life had allotments producing tons of veg, so he knew his stuff.

[pseudonym]

so he knew his onions.

Fixed it for you

[Yorkshire Andy]

My dad always said onions cannot be grown from seed, so maybe he meant technically they can but never work out. He grew up on a farm and all his life had allotments producing tons of veg, so he knew his stuff.

My dad used to grow Kelsea onions from seed which was his boxing day job to start them on the windowsill .. they were massive

Then he started getting bottom end rot from some soil bug...

I had the same on my allotment but left it 5 years last years small sample bed did OK so km going to get some onion sets soon and sew what happens

[Britcit]

Have been sowing seed this last week or so now. Mostly onions (we eat loads of them) and kale.

Can you advise me here? Last year I sowed onion seeds and separately planted some sets. The seeds were a dead loss.
What should I realistically expect from those stupidly tiny onion seeds? How long will it take from sowing to, say, 2cm diameter and how much longer to full size onions?

The seed to 2cm stage is what I save by using sets..... That and some money, if it works.

I’m not sure I can advise as such, but I will tell you of my success and failures of onion growing.
For a few years I used sets, and at best about half of them grew to any usable size. I tried different types of onion and some whites and some reds. Results were always disappointing.
Two years ago I tried seed for the first time and had a success rate of approx 90%.
Last year I used seed again, and even with a poor growing season I got about 75% crop.
In my opinion I think what you said about the seed to 2cm being what you save is the wrong way to view it. I’ll explain.
When I put out the onions grown from seed they look nothing like sets, in fact they look more like tiny leeks. I think the advantage is that when you plant them out they already have an active root system, that straight away (in fine damp soil) will continue to grow. Onion sets need time in the damp soil to begin growing roots.
Another advantage I think is that the plant above ground level is already about 4inches tall so less likely to be pulled up by birds thinking it’s a worm.
I always cover my onions in a chicken wire ‘tunnel’ to protect them. With sets the chickens would climb on the wire to take a look, and then sparrows and starlings would reach through and pull up the set. I would spend weeks replanting the small bulbs.
My experience of onion from seed is that once they are planted, all I have to do is water and weed.
All onions need a weed free environment so are a little high maintenance.
My opinion of sets is that you save time and effort by planting out the bulbs straight from the pack rather than nurturing from seed. In the right environment, and without any avian interference they can grow well.
In my garden, onion from seed fair much better but do involve growing seeds indoors and need to watched so the soil didn’t dry out .
Growing the actual seed, I usually get 90%+ of them to start growing, they are pretty easy. A few get lost along the way but I always sow so many I always have plenty.
I’ve sown the seed now, and plan to plant out late April early may.

You said the seeds were a dead loss, does that mean none of them germinated?

Sorry for the long post, I got carried away lol

[Adjee]

To add my two pennies worth.

We grow Onions from seed and plant from bulbs.

We collect our own seeds from onion plants (as we do from all we grow) that have not bolted or showing signs of ill health the previous year.

To grow our seeds we use plastic guttering drilled with drainage holes, filled with a mix of mole hill soil, rabbit and goat manure. Sow the seeds then cover top with cling film and put in a warm place @ 68-75 F. Remove cling film when needed. We place the guttering halves at the edge of our bird hatcheries so they get the light and warmth from the heat lamps we use.

Once rooted with a decent stem thickness and height we plant them out.

So far this year we have planted 7 kgs onion bulbs with our seed grown ones still growing and they will planted out sometime next month.

We have noticed that the large bulbs when planted seem to provided larger/stronger end products but we still plant both seed and bulbs in case something happens and we lose part of the harvest.

[Arzosah]

Snip>

That looks deliberate, to be honest, somebody as ignorant as me has absolutely no chance unless recommended by somebody like you, this is what you buy, this is how you connect it. I don't have a grasp of the basics, and when I try to learn, its as if my head's made of bubbles - it just doesn't stay with me

That's what drew me to the Jackery system in the beginning, plug and play.

They were the market leaders at one point but stuck to their guns and other companies surpassed them in technology and ease of use.

They have made strides in the last 18 months but little things like the ever changing connectors on their solar panels
lose customers.

I'm already heavily invested so put up with them despite this

Thanks pseudonym - world events are making me quite uneasy about supply chains and prices, I'll take another look at this after next week, my research time is allocated this week, and I have a house guest (my niece's cat ).