With Christmas now over and just New Year's eve to go, it is already time to think about sowing your onion seeds. I plant mine in seed trays using some very good quality seed compost. I lay a light covering of this over my onion seeds and then lightly water them. I then place the seed trays on my window sills and give them time to germinate, which normally takes between 14 - 21 days. The trick is to make sure the temperature stays at around 19 -21C and not to let this get too high as it will slow the germination down.

When the seedlings are around 1½”or so high I put them into their individual pots (3 or 4” pots are great) but I always make sure the little onion bulb is not covered by any of the compost.

After about 2 weeks or so I know the roots are well established in the pots so I then move them outside into a cold frame which gives them the chance to harden off. Then after a few more weeks I usually plant them out into their final position in my vegetable plot, all of which I have already planned out on what grew where the previous year.

I have always grown my onions from seed because I like to see things start to grow at the beginning of the year. It gets me in gear for the coming growing season and is a great prelude to this. After the winter when the ground has been too hard to work, it feels wonderful to get my hands dirty again as I start with sowing my onion seeds into their trays, for me it is like the countdown to planting season and the time to start organising which vegetables are going to be grown in which part of the plot this coming year.

For more information on onions click onto:

How to Grow Onions From Seed

How to Grow Onions from Onion Sets

How to Make and Prepare an Onion Bed