It’s been one week since our first onions of the season were sown into soil-filled trays. Since then they’ve been transferred to our heated greenhouse, where they’ve been cozying up and germinating.

Typically we don’t see much growth until Day 10, but because it’s been unusually warm outside, the seeds have gotten a bit of a boost, and we’re seeing signs of shoots already!

Right now the onions are in what’s called the pre-bulb growth stage. This is a vegetative growth stage, meaning the plant is focused on growing ‘roots and shoots’. What you can see here, poking up through the soil, are radical and flag leaves of the plant. Later on additional leaves will emerge before the plant begins to focus growth on the bulb.

We have been checking on these seedlings daily, monitoring temperatures and moisture level, and keeping track of both in our record log. In addition to our manual checks, we have an alarm system installed that will alert us should the temperatures drop below or exceed our programmed limitations.

Blog post written and photographed by Alex Chesney, RD