Kitchen Garden. Planting Onions Outdoors. 3.8.17

This is a progress report and the start of a garden experiment at the same time.  As for the progress report, the onion seeds that I planted earlier have had mixed success.  A few days ago I set out the first batch of Ailsa Craig.  The white globe and red globe seedlings had poor germination and died quickly, leaving few survivors.   The Patterson hybrids for long term keeping actually had good germination and are looking good, but I think they are not yet sturdy enough for outdoor life.

I wasn't confident about the seedlings that I started, and the sets looked crummy, so when I was at a nursery this week, I bought a bundle of plants.  They were cheap, it won't break the bank.  However, I did not initially want to go that route.

Here is the experiment.  In the same garden bed, I have a row of sets, a row of plants that I grew from seeds, and 2 rows of plants that were bought as plants.  It's not a real science experiment because they are not the same variety, but then I'm not going to publish in a science journal anyway.

As the other seedlings start to look better, I'll plant them in the outside bed too.  We eat about one onion daily, and some are sold as long-keepers, so maybe there will be enough for a 9 month supply.  Maybe not.