With my limited reading so far I found out my planned planting date of Feb 1st would have been a poor idea as that is a barren time. Feb 6-7th is a better time to plant roots crops during the new moon phase. If you are looking to read up more on moon planting Granny just did an informative post and the Farmers Almanac also has good information.
Tonight I seeded a cell pack each of Utah Sweet Spanish onion and Amish Bottle onion. This time I planted 12 seeds per cell. I hope they germinate well so I can grow 4 plants per cell in order to have enough plant stock. If these do not germinate well I am going to have to plant sets again this year. Onions seem to be the one veggie that always cause me problems, from poor germination to weak growth to small bulbs.
What is the benefit of planting them from seed as opposed to sets? That it's cheaper?
ReplyDeleteGood luck on this batch of onions. I too planted my onions this weekend along with some parsley.
ReplyDeleteGee I should have started my onions yesterday, but I was too busy with cooking for a superbowl party in the morning and being there all day long (we start way before the superbowl). I didn't even get my Harvest Monday post up until this morning. Maybe I can get to them today.
ReplyDeleteI did my onions by the moon too. Planted them yesterday. (thanks to GM).
ReplyDeleteI have hit and miss success with onions - some batches good - some not. I also seem to have good and bad onion year's overall. Last year was "okay" and 2008 was lackluster too - 2007 was a beautiful onion harvest year. Not sure what all goes into the pluses and minuses, but I am hoping for a better onion year in 2010.
ReplyDeleteNever planted (knowingly at least!) by the moon cycles. Not sure I could wait a few weeks to synch up with a moon phase when the plants need to be started per the schedule!
Fern - The main benefit to seeded onions is the variety to select from. Depending on your seed source, the sets are typically the same price as seed. I grew both last year and did notice the seeded ones seemed to grow a little larger but not by much.
ReplyDeleteGrafixMuse - Thanks for the luck!
Daphne - I'm not a sports fan so I had lots of time to seed last night. In between recycling/trash duty and dishwaher duty. Exciting life....
Miss M - Well I hope the moon gives us better luck. Seems like it is worth the effort and make sense from a gravity or pressure perspective.
KitsapFG - This is the third time trying onions, none have produce anything all that exciting. I am hoping for a good onion year this year. It definitely takes alot of planning ahead to plant by the moon. Not sure if I follow the ideals for all crops but seemed worth trying.
I changed a few of my planting days after reading up on it on Farmers Almanac. Had a boring day last week, so I spent the entire day entering the dates, according to FA, onto a calendar and then trying to coordinate my planting times with it. I'll give it a try this year, but I do want to do a small "test plot", where I plant the same crop on its proper date and again on a barren date....curious to see if there is any difference at all.
ReplyDeleteGranny - It would be interesting to see if the growth is different with the moon planting.
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