So now is the time to plant onion seeds and artichoke seeds. Plant these inside with a grow light, in a cold frame or in a greenhouse.  Planting them now gives them about a 40 day head start.

Yes, Artichokes can be grown in eastern Idaho! I have grown them successfully now for three years. The Artichokes aren’t large, they are about baseball size.  If harvested when they are smaller, they don’t have a ‘choke’ part.  But the best part about growing artichokes is that because they are fresh, they taste so good!

Artichokes and onions grow slowly, but they will withstand some cold weather.  Planting the seeds now will make sure they will be tall enough to transplant later.

Last November I tried planting onion seeds, onion sets and radishes in my garden. I’ll update this site as to how they are doing as they come up this spring.

Planting onions sets vs planting onion seeds. Planting onion sets gives the onions a huge head start, but do not store through the winter as well as the onions that were grown from seeds.  It is best to plant both onion seeds and onion sets.  Harvest the onion sets through the summer and fall, don’t harvest any onions grown from seeds.  Only harvest them late fall, dry them out and store for winter use.

To plant onion seeds in flats, I use eight, 4″x 4″ inserts in each flat. I usually plant 50-75 seeds in each 4″x 4″ pack. It is best to plant them in 3-4 small rows. This makes it easier to transplant later.

To plant artichokes in flats, I use eight 4-packs for each flat, in 32 separate 2″ containers. I usually plant two seeds per container or 62 seeds per flat. Then thin to one plant per 2″ container when they are about two inches tall.

I recommend Green Globe or Imperial Star Artichokes  and Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions.