3 Onion Growing Mistakes to Avoid

I used to struggle growing onions for a few key reasons: I was growing the wrong types, and planting at the wrong times. These mistakes are CRUCIAL to avoid with onions, which start to produce bulbs based on the day-length of your growing zone. Choose the wrong ones, and you'll never get them to bulb up into epic onions.

0:00 - Intro
0:55 - How Onions Grow
1:54 - 3 Types of Onions
3:12 - Seeds, Sets, or Transplants
5:45 - Outro

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[epicgardening]

Recap: Choose the right variety! Short, Intermediate, or Long-Day onion. Then, decide if you're planting by seed, set, or transplant. THEN, care for your onion babies like your life depends on it. Cultivate nice, healthy, dark green leaves and you'll have incredible bulbs.

[RyanLeeBlaine]

Being a new gardener, you have been a lifesaver for everything I do in the garden. The perfect mix of good information and brevity. Thanks and keep it up!!

[eriklane]

Seeds all the way, baby! I’m in Zone 3b and always used sets... got golf ball sized onions. This year, I started 3 varieties from seed way back in February (under grow lights, of course) and got a BUMPER crop of BIG onions!
Thanks, Kevin! Keep on growin!

[TB-pukq]

I love the neighbor just in the background.

[ohio_gardener]

Here in SW Ohio, I broadcast onion seeds on a raised bed in the late fall so that they can sprout and get started growing before winter sets in. They over-winter nicely, and then in the spring I have green onions to pull for eating. The ones that don't get pulled continue growing through the summer for harvesting the bulbs in the fall.

[serenitylost]

Yay! So happy to find your advice. I'm in San Diego north county. Just planted red onion seeds this past week in my raised bed, then covered in straw mulch. It gets full sun so hopefully by January I will be seeing some onions growing! I save seeds and one year I planted the red boiling onions they sell at grocery stores. They grew like crazy and one of them flowered so I let it go to seed. I got a vitamin sized bottle of onion seed from that one plant. We will see how it goes, I'm excited.

[that_auntceleste]

This summer I went through a period when I was harvesting so much stuff from my garden that the only veggies I still regularly needed from the store were... Onions. So I decided next year I'm growing my own!

I purchased 2 varieties of seed and am going to try making my own opinions sets over winter indoors following the method I saw in an MI Gardener video. (He is in my general region of the country.) Hoping for the best!

[michaelmarchione]

our videos are always worth watching, I'm always learning something new or a way to combined your ideas with mine. I'm in zone 4a. Looking forward to your next one.

[davidschloeder]

Well this certainly explains it, been wondering why my onions are sooo slow.
Thank You !

[NashvilleMonkey]

Kevin, can you make a seed packet with a few of every kind of seed in it, so that new gardeners have an easy way to start?

[marikapaprika]

And if you're planting in raised beds, plant them around the edges, that way you can still use most of the bed for other things while the onions (which take ages to grow) grow. A little valuable tip from Rachael at That 1870's Homestead !
I learnt that tip too late and now as my onions bulb up (here in Australia) I've had to squeeze my tomato plants in around them, which is not ideal at all.

[maybngo]

Hello fellow San Diegan! I really enjoy your helpful videos. Glad to see you sporting a local coffee shop too! I moved from the RB area about 20 mins south and miss going to Mostra! Thanks for your tips and keep up the great work. 😊

[madisonuku]

Oh dear, I immediately subscribed cos I'm a gardener and you make things easy, the explanations are just apt! With much love from Ghana.
thanks buddy .

[NPazdernik]

I just started growing onions last week, thanks for saving me some mistakes!

[cinderyw]

I was just thinking about my onions grown by bulbs and a wild Onion video appears. Nice!

[ohio_gardener]

Kevin, you didn't mention perennial onions, such as the Red Welsh Bunching Onion. They are also referred to a multiplier onions since they divide each year. Don't know if these grow in your grow zone, but for places where they do grow is nice to be able to just pull the young onions and leave others to continue growing and dividing without ever having to plant them again.

[gardeningforlife]

I have some transplants coming next week of Sweet onions and I started purple onions a month ago... doing well they’re all like 5 inches tall. I can’t wait. I’m in the same zone as you 10b

[HonuKai]

Really great instructions and explanation of how onions actually grow and what sets are. But I have to correct you on something. The day length and the USDA growing zone have nothing to do with each other. For example, I live in zone 8b, which according to your video is a "short day" onion area. But I live in the maritime area of northwest Washington. We have very long summer days, and only the long day onions grow well here.

[shorty]

You are a life saver, I will be planting my onion seeds this spring 2021 and can't thank you enough for clearing some information up regarding long days and short days, seeds vs sets and so forth...I am excited you motivate me to continue to plan my garden and grow...thanks for the confidence! All the best from freezing NY!

[helen]

Thanks, Kevin...I never get it right...will try again this year 👍😁