Zone 6b East central PA
My plan is to grow a bunch of onion seeds into sets store them overwinter and then plant them out next year, save some over next winter to plant the following spring for seed to adapt the mix to my local growing conditions. I garden in a township lot that is only accessible from April 1st to November 1st, then it gets plowed under, and plowed again before you can take possession of it again the following spring so I am forced to harvest and take the onions in, (hough I’d rather lazily leave them in the ground to see if they make it)
The reason behind the growing sets idea is that I really don’t want to have to depend on grow lights (and electric input) and staring the onion seeds in January indoors, if I can store the homegrown sets without using additional resources.
Has anyone tried growing sets from seeds? How did it work for you? When did you start them?
My research has come up with an interesting onion set growing bulletin from the war years, where it details how small scale commercial onion growers do it. I didn’t plant as early as the soil can be worked (which is what the pamphlet suggests) as I am not sure my regular garage or basement conditions would be ideal for extended storage, but I have planted the seeds just before mid may, in crowded conditions so they are stressed to make small bulbs in this years life cycle (apparently that’s what it takes, please share any other experience you have had, i am eager to hear about any results you may have had)
Now if i could figure out how to upload a picture…
Have you thought of doing a potato onion landrace? I’ve year 2 of it. For me, it solved the problem your describing .
@Anphlo I had never even heard of potato onions until I did research to try to grow sets! And I didn’t really look into what they were, will have to gonlook it up now though. Do you love their flavour? Are there many different varieties that you are landrace-ing?
I like the different flavors of the ‘standard’ onion and having red and yellow ones just kind of tickles my visual / culinary fancy
How deeply is it plowed? Could you go in April 1st and seed? Or thicky seed your area the previous fall and see what survives the plowing.
It might even be possible to build up a seed bank for seeds that will emerge after plowing brings them to the surface again.
Hi Simone,
Yes I have many different varieties from all colors. Their flavor is very good (like onions) and they keep for one year.
If you’re interested I can show you photos of mine.
The difference with onions is that they’re much smaller than onions.
To successfully grow onion sets, limit maximum storage size to under 3/4". If bulbs larger than that get planted, they promptly go to seed the following year.
I don’t know the ideal planting time, but seems like about mid to late summer.
I typically plant onion seeds into an unheated greenhouse in like February, and then transplant out tiny seedlings soon after the snowcover melts around mid-March.
Thanks so much for your thoughts and wxpertise on this!
That was the timing I would have thought best too, but the pamphlet suggested commercial growers would plant them as early in the spring as the ground could be worked. Hoping my timing will give me some workable results 
It was such an interesting read on the topic
If anyone’s interested, the publications is from 1911 and can be found here: https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/catalog/ORC00000286
I’d love to see some pictures when you get a chance!
How deeply, hmm not sure. Normal plough depth? Haha, really not sure! They plow everything under in the fall, the plow again in the spring and till it. The weeds (prickly thistles and some sort of burdock) come up from 6" below so at least that deep. Not sure any onion seed would be able to come up that far. But i like that train of thought, once I have enough seeds I might try for taking a chance that some get plowed or tilled back up.
The onion sets that we plant in Northern Utah come from Texas. Very possibly, they start them super early in their spring, and then send freshly dug sets to us for planting in April.
My onions are all screwy, compared to the way most are grown. I neither produce nor buy sets. I plant onion seeds at the same time onions plant onion seeds. That is if onions seeds are maturing and falling on the ground, it’s time to plant onions. Often it is too dry at that time for them to sprout right away but they lay there until it does rain, or sometimes if I want them to sprout earlier, I might water them. If they aren’t eaten as green onions in late summer or fall, or as small bulbs in early winter and IF they survive winter, they get to make seeds the next year.
I’m trying, with some success to turn them into basically a self-regenerating, basically feral crop that has different stages of growth going on at about any given time for fresh harvest in whatever stage is available at the time. For the most part I’m trading off the production of large bulbs that with conventional methods would be harvested and stored.
I also cultivate a number of wild onions and have managed to increase the size of their bulbs but not by breeding, just by cultivation. One wild type, Allium canadense, flowers and produces bulbils but I have so far, not been able to cross it with other onions. Another unidentified one doesn’t do either one but increases by dividing underground. It just makes a central stem, similar to a walking onion with a swollen spot near the top like it wants to make some bulbils or flowers but forgot how. I have again just by pampered cultivation managed to increase the size of that growth but none as of yet have actually flowered or made a top set.
And I have no clue as to the compatibility of the different species or even what the species of the second one is. I just plant them all together in hopes that they might be long lost relatives and could eventually remember each other. Sort of a plant family reunion, so to speak.
Here are some photos of my potato onions landrace: the photos with many bulbs are 2 years old (grown from seeds two years ago and from the best resulting bulbs
last year) and the photos with only 20 bulbs or less are 1 year old (grown from seeds last year).
Oh wow, those are neat! I will definitely do some more research and see if perhaps that might be the way to go starting next year. So you grew most of yours from seed then, from what you are saying? Did you initially acquire a bunch of different seeds types, or did they cross for you and make varied colors etc later? This is assuming they flower at some point in their lifecycle.
Kelly Winterton, our guest for the June podcast, bred potato onions for decades. He inspired me in the development of the principles of landrace gardening, and taught me about the magnificent work possible in small yards with obscure crops.
What a joy to finally talk with one of my heroes.
Yes! He’s such an inspiration. I got a lot of my seeds to start this landrace from him directly.
I got a bunch of seeds from various sources: Kelly Winterton and many other vendors on Etsy or Ebay.
Joseph can you share a link to your podcast?
So my onion seeds for my ‘onion set experiment’ have started bulbing. The ones tgat have just a bit more space have made more progress than te ones that are supet crowded. But the al are making lityle bulbs. So now the plan is to wait for them to naturaly dry down some and then
withold water and store until spring.