Onions in Containers

My back is still giving me a fit but I was able to get some more weedeating done Thurs and finally got a few pots planted this evening.

For my onions I use rectangle planters. They are 4 inches by 36 inches by about 8 inches deep. I put the Texas Sweet onion plants in a container filled about 4 inches deep and 25 yellow onion bulbs in about 6 inches of dirt. The bulbs and sets were placed on a close grid of 3 then 2 across the width of the planter. The tinier ones went in the 2 spots and the larger in the 3 grid. I keep all of it around an inch apart. Around the bulbs I sprinkled a few odd Short n Sweet carrot seeds.

I don't fill the containers too deep because the onions only need a couple of inches to grow. Most of the Texas Sweet will be pulled when they are about one to two inches diameter and added to salads. Over half of the yellow onions will be grown to about 2-3 inch diameter for cooking. The remainder will be allowed to grow as large as possible by winter.

The reason for the shallow dirt, when winter arrives I will pile tons of mulch on top of and around the planters and still be able to pull onions on through out the winter months.

I did one more rectangle planter today. I planted Parris Island Cos lettuce and Black Seed Simpson lettuce in rows about 3 inches apart. In between I added some Nanteses and Short n Sweet carrots. I usually put lettuce in flats about 3 inches deep but this one was 8 inches deep because it was more for the Nanteses carrots which grow about 6" long. I will be seeding at least 4 or more containers of lettuce because I eat a lot of salads from my garden.

Tomorrow I hope to get the cherry tomatoes transferred into bigger starter pots. They are very spindly but I am surprised I got anything since the seeds are so old.