Onions & Leek Seed Starting

 

I'm updating here from my Instagram stories. I'm slowly moving back because here I can give more information and better explain myself than in 30 seconds. But alas, I might still share more short gardening stories for my followers. We'll see! In any case, this is a continuation of an experiment. In this combined seed ball that was purchased late last summer - I decided to grow it to test it out and see what would happen. I have two more of these and so I think as long as the main seeds used aren't TOMATOES (which will grow pretty large and shade everything out), I would actually buy these again. I would definitely start it in a 4 inch pot so you can separate out the different plants and put where you need them - whether it be in raised beds, in-ground beds, containers, or pots. Clearly the Pak Choi is growing as well as the Basil but definitely the garlic chives never germinated. 

I started 16 cells of bunching onions, better known as green onions or scallions. I put maybe 10-20 seeds into each cell. Onions are fine growing closely together, when you want to replant you just separate them out and plant. Bunching Onions do not get large like varieties of yellow, red, and white onions so no need to closely watch these - they're ok just giving a little air between plants if you decide to up-pot them. Vents are closed to keep in the moisture. I do not have these sitting on heat mats, if I don't see any germination in a few days, I will get the heat mats out.

Last year I experimented with artichokes and just fell in love with the neon fuchsia flowers. They were gorgeous and actually fairly easy to grow. There's an absolute love/hate relationship with the thistle family for a reason - easy to grow but you don't want certain thistles in your yard! So I did 16 cells with 2 year old seeds; 8 cells have 2 seeds each.

Next is 8 cells of leeks. These take longer than you think in Zone 4 - technically we are now in Zone 5 - but I'm treating the heat and sun loving crops as though we still live in Zone 4. So these are started. I truly want just enough for Potato Leek Soup and maybe 3 batches. I don't need anymore leeks than that!

Onions - Walla Walla is the variety. I did these last year from starts and they were amazing. I think I had around 75 and the majority of them grew. It was easy. And so this year I am apparently starting them from seed which wasn't my true plan but I'll take it! I'll give these a few weeks to get started, if I don't see good growth then I will order starts maybe from Johnny's or straight from Burpee. We shall see!

I did take videos to share on my Instagram stories but I think I'm going to start using YouTube a little more and see what happens. Have a good week! Happy planting!

Seed Starting This Week Zone 5

 Oh, I am so excited!!

This week is the week to start certain seeds in Zone 5. I have onions, leeks, artichokes, and a packet of perennial flowers. 

A few things to note:

Onion family needs to start early because they need as much heat and sun to grow - peppers also need to be started early because they also like the heat and sun. Peppers can get big fairly quickly though so I tend to start those only a week or two before tomatoes. Nightshades in general are heatloving and will need heat mats to start unless in a room that's already fairly warm.

Onions - I will put 15 - 20 seeds into each cell, then spread apart a little when up-potted to 3 inch pots, then separate when I plant them in the ground in late April/May

Leeks - same as above

Artichokes - 1 seed per cell. Last year I planted 6 plants, 6 survived - 3 produced flower heads and I let all 3 bloom. THEY WERE GORGEOUS. This year I want to plant them in my front yard that gets direct sun for 12 hours to simulate their native region. I'm planning on planting out the rest of the packet, so approximately 15 seeds to start.

Packet of perennial flowers - received from MN Dept of Ag. Claims to be all native perennials, however, when reading the varieties that are included I have dealt with 3 in my yard that became invasive and wanted to take over. I will do 1 seed per cell to separate out what I don't want in my yard. Those plants will go to the hill at the school garden where they can take over and hopefully choke out Canada thistle and the weird non-native grasses.