Kitchen Garden Forum

I'll be sowing onion seed in modules for the first time at the end of the month (for overwintering). How many per module would you recommend please? And roughly how long/to what stage would you leave them in modules before planting out?

I would do four per module and plant them out when they're about four inches high

Thank you bpp, that's nice and easy!

Hi Sprout,
I think that everything said to date really depends on the size of modules used.
The reason that modules are used commercially is to plant an individual seed per module.
When I grow Onions from seed they are in trays of 240 and the germination rate is always a bit iffy with Onions. I generally get about 90% or slightly under if I am truthful. Grown individually they are so easy to deal with. I take it that sowing several seeds per module you plant in clumps which to me
doesnt really make for good growing.
Perhaps I am being a little old fashioned with my methods but I do not see what is gathered by sowing things in multiples for something that benefits being grown singly.
Do tell me if I have got things wrong as I may well be missing the point.

Thank you for your advice Johnboy, this gives me another option from an experienced grower to try. Since it's my first time with modules, it might be a good idea to sow half and half single and multi-sown I'd plant the multi-sown modules further apart than the singles, and keep a close eye on the results for next time.

It's possible that single sown/multi sown results might differ for the three different Autumn-sown varieties (Senshyu Yellow, Rossa Savonese, and Stuttgart Giant) as well as the differences in soil and cultivation. Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say, and I do love experimenting

I'm also going to sow Giant Zittau next month in a seed drill outdoors as an overwintering onion, and transplant from the seed bed in March.