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I am trying to grow an onion plant from an onion bulb after learning vegetative propagation.

I do in this way:

  • Phase 1: Put the onion on a piece of wet tissue, wait for it to grow a shoot with a leaf.
  • Phase 2: Put the prepared onion into a box with soil.

However, I never manage to get the onion to grow a leaf. Grey rot appears on the onion after a few days and flies soon dance around it.

Any suggestion of how to not get rot on the onion or any method for the onion to grow a new leaf?

Niall C.
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Benny10033
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  • PS: I had already tried twice, no luck yet. – Benny10033 Jun 07 '15 at 01:51
  • Welcome to the site! Could you please describe: Are you trying to grow your onion from a store-bought "cooking" onion or from a smaller tiny bulb sold for planting? One hint though: Onions go directly into the soil, no further fuss required. – Stephie Jun 07 '15 at 21:21
  • I am not sure is there any different? – Benny10033 Jun 08 '15 at 08:34
  • Yes there is. Mature (=for cooking) onions are typically grown in two steps, first year, from seed to small bulbs about the size of the top part of your thumb, then dug up and stored, the second year these small bulbs grow into large onions. The one-year old onions ("sets") are also sold for gardeners to plant. – Stephie Jun 08 '15 at 11:57

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I have always just plant onion bulbs in the ground. I do not think your Phase 1 is necessary at all. Here are a couple of links with detailed information on planting onions Wikihow Grow Onions or Gardeners.com.

Debbie M.
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  • I have heard from some people about doing phase 1 will increase success rate. – Benny10033 Jun 08 '15 at 08:33
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    My success rate is close to 100% for planting sets directly into soil. – Debbie M. Jun 08 '15 at 15:39
  • I will try that in this month. – Benny10033 Jun 09 '15 at 13:35
  • I'm guessing the reason for the extra step is because some people might plant them too late, too deep, or such, where the success rate might not be as high. I could be wrong. Maybe there are soil differences between the two groups. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Nov 02 '17 at 05:06
  • Or, it could be that the bulbs are in a state of shock. Shocked bulbs might benefit from that first step. I know zapped garlic bulbs need to grow out some in storage before planting (if you zap them with such as a Z4EX), otherwise, they may not grow. Those are literally shocked, though, but I meant shocked in the general sense first. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Nov 02 '17 at 05:09
  • @DebbieM. Your link is broken for me. Does it work for you or others? It says Object not found—The requested URL '/Grow-Onions' was not found on the RomPager Advanced server. I'm using a Kindle Fire HD8 6th edition with the default browser. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Nov 02 '17 at 05:20
  • I imagine this link might be similar, in case anyone else needs it: https://www.gardeners.com/link-page?cid=7360 – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx Nov 02 '17 at 05:48
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    @Shule it's working for me both on desktop and mobile, but I added the link you provided to the answer in case anyone else has problems. – Debbie M. Nov 02 '17 at 19:40