Saturday, April 13, 2013

Starting another type of onion

Since the scallions are looking a bit thin, and the cut green onions are still experimental, we decided to hedge our bets and start some onion sets. Our nursery recommends not using the onion sets for onions but rather for green onions. So we decided to try it out and see what happens.

On Wednesday last week, Pooka and I had a wonderfully beautiful day so we actually got to plant something outside. We took our bag of onion sets, a pot and some dirt and enjoyed the sunshine.

These are the onions we bought, I tried to pick out the biggest and nicest looking ones since we didn't need a whole lot. Total price for all of them $0.50. If this works, it will be the cheapest I ever paid for a green onion, especially since we plan on just chopping off the tops and letting it regrow.
Onion sets awaiting their new home.
Next came our favorite coffee filter trick. This is especially true since the pot we were using a had a big hole in the middle and we didn't feel like having all the dirt fall out of the bottom.
Coffee filter to contain the mess.
Pooka got to fill the pot with dirt. Up till now, most of our transplanting work has been done in the house. As a result Pooka wasn't allowed to fill the pot since there is a limit to how much dirt I am willing to clean up when we are done. This was one of the first times Pooka was able to really get her hands dirty. She had a blast getting to put the dirt in and making the holes for the onions.
Pooka + Dirt =Happy girl
Pooka then needed a bit of help to know which end of the onion to plant coming up. I told her the pointy side had to be pointing up, and with that she started adding onion sets. We did have a small bit of work getting them all in this pot, but since the nursery's directions said to plant them close together, I think this will work well.

Pointy bit points the way the plant will grow.

Finally Pooka got to cover all her onions and we placed one of our little craft stick markers in it. Now we wait to watch it grow. I am hoping all the rain it has had the last few days will help it along. It has been out in the cooler temperatures, so it may take a bit long to sprout. Here is to growing never ending green onions.
Now we wait.

 

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