Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK
The best way that I know to plant scallion sets is one by one, not laying them down. Yes, it is one of the most tedious chores, but the reward is early onion bunches at market, and for later on in the season. Scallion from seed is something I am trying this year, but it will be intended for mid and late summer, and fall production. So for consistent spring to fall scallion production, it is a good idea to use sets and seed.
By planting at the intensity of 1 ” in-row, that would make for around 300 sets per 25 foot row,and around 1200 sets per bed. You should be able to plant at least 20 sets per minute. At that work rate you should be able to plant your SPIN bed in about an hour.
Make sure to mark the rows with a Earthway wheel hoe or seeder. I usually use a combination of straddling a bed, and then kneeling, on one knee, beside a bed, on the walkway. Consider using short beds, ones 12 feet long or less. These types of beds will be less daunting for manual work like this. I use 12 foot beds for a lot of my scallion production.
I finished planting around 150 lbs. of sets over the last several weeks, and am definitely
getting tired of this sort of work! I expect to have scallion for sale by the end of May, and then for the entire summer and into the fall. The next fun job I will be ( not ) looking forward to is the planting of around 40 plug trays of cippolini onions.
