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This video explains how to sow onion seeds early indoors and why starting onions in advance produces stronger plants and larger harvests.
The guide covers choosing containers, compost, sowing depth, spacing, watering and light requirements. It also explains how to care for onion seedlings and when they are ready for planting outside.
If you are new to gardening or growing onions for the first time, this simple step-by-step advice will help you grow healthy onion plants successfully.
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0:00
welcome to gardening with Ben your go-to
0:03
podcast for all things green and growing
0:06
in
0:07
2025 whether you are a seasoned Gardener
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a budding Enthusiast or just curious
0:12
about cultivating your own slice of
0:15
nature you're in the right place join me
0:18
Ben as we explore practical tips
0:21
inspiring stories and the latest trends
0:23
in gardening to make your outdoor space
0:26
Bloom with life from allotment
0:28
Adventures to Wild life friendly
0:30
gardening I'm here to help you grow your
0:33
passion and reap the rewards so grab
0:35
your gloves roll up your sleeves and
0:38
let's get started on this year's
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gardening
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Journey hey everyone and welcome to
0:46
Tuesday's episode of gardening with Ben
0:50
I hope you're all well and I hope that
0:51
you're enjoying that the weather is
0:53
starting to warm up and hopefully get
0:56
rid of the last bit of snow and ice out
0:58
there and then we can get back in those
1:00
Gardens get them sorted and get ready
1:03
for the springtime hopefully we won't
1:05
get any more snow and ice before then
1:07
but you never know you can still get it
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up into February and March time so
1:11
fingers crossed we won't get
1:14
another downpour of snow this year but
1:18
if it does it does and this is one of
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the important reasons why I like to get
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my allotment cleared and tidied at the
1:26
end of October for any bad weather like
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this because then at least you don't
1:31
have to worry about doing stuff it's all
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tided it's all ready and it's ready for
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growing next year so yeah that's why I
1:39
tend to get it all cleared and tided and
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then I can concentrate on doing any jobs
1:43
like any building or any maintenance in
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my shed and the poly tunnel throughout
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the winter period in these cold and
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awful times so that's why I love to
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crack on as soon as the gardening
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season's
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finished so today we're going to talk
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about Planting onions in
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January and when I'm talking about
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Planting onions I'm not talking about
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planting the little bulb onions that
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come in these like uh little net bags
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I'm talking about which you often call
2:15
sets onion sets we're talking about
2:18
sewing onion seeds
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now I have to recommend growing onions
2:24
from seed I did an experiment a bit back
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where I grew onions from seed and I grew
2:30
them from set and I grew them at the
2:33
side of each other so they were like in
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the same soil and everything and they
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got the same attention with watering Etc
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the same amount of sunlight and I have
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to say onions from seed grew better than
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the ones that grew from set so I have to
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recommend growing onions from seed
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and I have sewn all my onion seeds I
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seed them at the end of December in in
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my shed I uh planted them all in the
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seed trays and then I brought them home
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to germinate at home because it'll need
3:07
a lot warm or weather for them to
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germinate so I've got them on my window
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so where there's plenty of light so they
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won't grow Ley and I put what I do when
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I sew my onion SE well for any seeds
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really uh I tend to use a seed tray
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that's quite
3:23
deep and put a few seeds in each one I
3:26
are you one of these people that will
3:27
just SE every seed in the packet cuz I
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am
3:31
I'm not one that I'll just s like a
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certain amount of seeds so that uh it's
3:35
enough for me I just end up sewing the
3:36
whole
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packet but then once I've sewn them what
3:40
I do is uh I obviously cover them with
3:42
compost and then I cover them with clean
3:45
film after I've watered them now the
3:47
reason why I cover all my seeds with
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cing film is that I don't use a
3:51
propagator lid because that's the extra
3:53
909 P to to I propagate a li to go on
3:57
top what I do is use the clean film
4:00
after I put the uh water in and that
4:04
will keep them warm it'll keep them
4:05
moist you don't have to keep them
4:06
watered until they germinate and then
4:08
when they start to pop fuit that's when
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you can take the clean foam off and just
4:12
let them grow and that's what I do with
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all my seeds that's what I've always
4:16
done when Growing Seeds use clean film
4:19
to add the warmth and keep the moisture
4:22
and it does it so well and so fantastic
4:25
so if you're wanting to sew any seeds at
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the moment if you itching to sew them
4:31
the only seeds I would recommend is
4:33
growing onions at this time of year and
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you can go into any shop or online and
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have a look for onion seeds you'll be
4:43
able to see them
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and obviously shops like the range or B
4:49
andq uh the range have wilker seeds in
4:53
there now so if you used to buy wil Co
4:55
seeds and miss them go in the range they
4:57
have all the wil Co seeds in there now
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they've got the brand in
5:02
and you will see the onion seeds I can't
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remember the name of the seeds but
5:06
you'll see which ones they are and you
5:09
can sew them now and sew them on a
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window salt where it's warm you don't
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want them in a cold Greenhouse or a cold
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poly tunnel you need them somewhere warm
5:18
and they'll start growing pretty fast
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mine have all come through now they're
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all growing well on my Windle and I will
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be planting these outside when you be
5:28
planting your sets outside
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so around the end of March beginning of
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April so obviously starting them off now
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you can get them to grow bigger and
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better and then plant them outside come
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March April time now obviously I've got
5:42
them growing all in my seed tray the
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people that grow them for
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competitions what they do is obviously
5:49
grow them at the same time they grow
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them start them off like end of December
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uh what they will do is then split them
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all out of the seed tray and plant them
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in individual pots and grow them bigger
6:00
that way and then they'll get them big
6:02
growing in a pot before planting out so
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that is why you see people get these
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giant onions uh they really do take care
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of them so obviously now R have all gr
6:12
through in the seed track this is when
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you'd separate them all and put them all
6:16
into individual pots and nurture them
6:18
and grow them and give them food and
6:21
pump them full of stuff to get them to
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grow big but what I will do is I'll just
6:26
leave them in the seed tray and let them
6:28
grow because obviously if I'm separating
6:30
them into separate pots like the people
6:32
that grow for ex exhibitions they you're
6:35
disturbing the roots and stuff like that
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so you have more chance of damaging them
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so come March April time that is when I
6:43
will go outside and I'll get my bed
6:45
ready and I'll plant them all individual
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into holes and get them growing that way
6:51
I am going to grow some from set again
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this year so I'm going to do a
6:55
comparison for you all to follow along
6:57
and watch because I I wasn't sharing
7:00
much content back then when I used to do
7:02
that uh so I will do it again this year
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I'll grow seed and I'll grow set to show
7:07
you which ones grow better
7:10
and I'll plant them outside about the
7:12
same time that you'll be planting
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potatoes as well I usually plant my
7:16
potatoes around the end of March
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beginning of April time I always plant
7:19
my potatoes on Good Friday even though
7:22
Good Friday moves every year I plant
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them out on Good Friday so we'll be
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planting them out again around around
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that time so that is when I'll be
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planting my onions out on Good Friday
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around Good Friday so yeah I'm excited
7:36
to get them out in the ground there
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they'll be one of the first things that
7:39
go outside uh on my potatoes and my
7:42
onions but my potatoes are grow in boxes
7:45
now so I keep them in poly tunnel until
7:47
it gets a bit warmer and then I move the
7:48
boxes
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outside to give them that kickart in
7:52
growing so they're the first things that
7:55
go outside really I don't really plant
7:56
much stuff else outside and till the P
7:59
of Frost has gone uh which is usually
8:03
around May time uh depending on the
8:05
weather but obviously keep it an eye on
8:07
the forecast because that's where the
8:09
little um phrase comes from never cast a
8:13
clout until May is out because you can
8:15
get Frost right the way until the end of
8:17
May so you have to be careful uh with
8:20
planting stuff outside never be too
8:22
eager to plant stuff outside it's
8:24
usually okay down south it's a lot
8:26
warmer down south but up north where I
8:29
am yeah have to wait until the chance of
8:31
frost has definitely passed before
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planting stuff outside so yeah we're
8:36
excited to get growing and I'm looking
8:38
forward to the onions growing hopefully
8:40
we'll get some good big onions um I
8:44
don't always do well with my onions
8:46
sometimes they're really good sometimes
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they're really
8:50
bad but I think this year I need to
8:53
improve the bed of where I'm going to be
8:55
planting them and add some nutrition and
8:58
some compost and just give some extra
9:02
food into the bed this year so I'm going
9:04
to really dig in some uh nutrition this
9:07
year and hopefully we'll get some decent
9:09
sized onions because now that I'm in
9:11
living in my new flat I can actually do
9:13
proper cooking and stuff like that and I
9:15
want to try and make some recipes and
9:17
stuff like that I'm desperate to buying
9:19
a soup maker I want to buy a soup maker
9:22
this for this year and the reason behind
9:25
it is because obviously with the produce
9:27
what I grow I can make some nice soup so
9:29
I could make like french onion soup from
9:32
the onions or if I've got potatoes and
9:35
leaks growing I can go do potato and
9:37
leak salad I'll be able to do tomato not
9:40
salad soup uh I'll be able to do tomato
9:42
soup or a corette soup I've tried
9:45
corette soup before and I absolutely
9:47
love that so yeah I want to get myself a
9:51
soup makeup so if anybody on here has
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got a soup maker send me a message of
9:56
the soup maker that you've got uh I know
9:59
that you in like slow cookers and then
10:00
you end up having to use a potato masher
10:04
to mash it all up and uh make it smooth
10:07
but the uh the actual soup makers are a
10:09
lot better uh because it does it all for
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you so that is on my bucket list this
10:14
year uh a soup maker so yeah I'm looking
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forward to this year it's going to be an
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exciting year of growing and hopefully
10:22
doing plenty of cooking this year cuz
10:24
that's what I've not done in the past a
10:26
lot of the stuff I end up giving it away
10:28
and letting people use it whereas I
10:30
don't get a chance to cook it but this
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year I want to do a lot of cooking this
10:33
year and try cooking my own stuff and I
10:36
may even make my own rubal crumbles this
10:38
year I usually give my rubal to my mom
10:41
and she cooks MC crumbles and then gives
10:43
them me
10:44
back so yeah I'm looking forward to that
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uh so that has been just talking about
10:49
growing onions from seed so if you're
10:51
desperate to get out there and get
10:53
growing something go to shops and get a
10:56
packet of onion seed and give them a try
10:59
but remember to put them on a light
11:01
Windle where they'll get plenty of light
11:03
and obviously they need to be in warmth
11:05
for them to germinate as well so let me
11:08
know if you're going to be growing some
11:09
onions from seed and let me know how you
11:11
get on so until the next time everyone
11:14
remember keep smiling keep shining and
11:16
keep gardening with Ben
11:20
everyone Thanks for tuning in to today's
11:23
episode of gardening with Ben I hope
11:26
you've enjoyed our chat and picked up
11:28
some tips to help your garden and
11:30
allotment Thrive don't forget to stay
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[Music]
#Home & Garden
#Home & Garden