Funny you mention Copra and Redwing because those are exactly the two that I have settled on over the years. After having tried several other varieties, I found I preferred Copra and Redwing and they have been the bulk of my bulb onion crop ever since. The Stuttgart types are good keepers too, but don't match the flavor of Copra, and as for red onions, well, it's just plain hard to beat Redwing. As I'm sure you know, they are not only good for storage but also grow quite large!

-Diggity

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Imperative blog

Ditto about Copra and Red Wing.

I grow a lot of onions. I have excellent soil for sweet onions, 1015, candy,etc. As you know they do not keep well.
Where are you getting the Copra and Red Wing bulbs? I have never seen these in my catalog.

I grow a lot of onions. I have excellent soil for sweet onions, 1015, candy,etc. As you know they do not keep well.
Where are you getting the Copra and Red Wing bulbs? I have never seen these in my catalog.

Hi all -

I see the Copra onion must be planted by seed instead of sets.

I've never had any good luck with germinating onion seeds - is there something to this process?

Usually the local garden stores here carry the standard white and yellow onion sets that I plant - but they don't get very large - although they have lasted in the fridge so far for at least six months.

Any tips on how to start these onion seeds? I would like to try other onions - like this one or even the Alisa Craig - but they all are seeds!

Thank you!

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Well, it looks like Copra and Redwing are the best! Thanks for confirming. I plant my onions from both seeds and plants. I sow the seeds directly in the garden, fairly thickly, in mid-March, same time as the peas (in NJ). They need to be planted early. I find them VERY simple to grow from seed. They'll need continual thinning, of course, until the proper spacing is achieved (the thinnings can be transplanted easily into a new row.) Jung Seed Company sells Copra onion plants. The plants get planted at the same time - mid March. (I don't like bulbs/sets... I find most of them send up flower stalks, and are thus useless.) Last summer, I planted Ailsa Craig (from plants from Jungs). Quite a crop...HUGE beautiful onions. BUT, they did not last long at all, and you can't eat them quickly enough before they start going soft. SO...I will not plant them again. I'm devoiting all of my onion space to onions that will store well. (Copra and Redwing!) Good luck with your onion crop.

Onion seed is very short lived, make sure you check the label to make sure that it's for the current season. I've had great results planting in pots, flats and direct sowing. Some scallions I planted in Nov came up after 4 weeks outside with lows from 25' to 40'F, they're faster when it's warm.

Store the seed in the fridge sealed with desiccant and it should still mostly be viable the next year.

Timing is important with onions, so you might try a germination test so you know you're not using stale seed before it's too late.

Thank you for the recommendations, all.

I do store all of my seeds in a butter container in the fridge with the lid off - so that way the fridge takes care of the humidity.

I also see that Territorial Seed Company sells the onions as well - but only 200 seeds for about $3.00 plus $7.50 shipping. It is really sad that some of these better varieties of seeds cannot be found at local gardening stores because the cost buying through mail order isn't worth it. For the cost of buying three or four different seeds through many mail order with shipping, I can buy all of the seeds I need for the entire garden for a year or two!

PineTree has onion seeds for Copra and Redwing for $1.50 a packet, not sure how many seeds/pack.

Shipping Charges are:

$.00 - $19.99 = $3.75
$20.00 - $49.99 = $6.95
$50.00 - $79.99 = $8.95
$80.00 or more = $9.95

Here is a link that might be useful: Pinetree Garden Seeds

I grow my onions from seed every year. Usually a couple of bunching varieties and 1 or two standard types. The system I have come up with works for me and is very reliable, but surely there are other containers or methods that will do as well.

I want a 10 to 14 inch diameter container in which I can get a soil depth of at least 4 to 5 inches. Plastic gallon ice cream containers are the best. I drill 4 each 1/2" drainage holes around the sides at the bottom to prevent flooding with too much water.

I use fresh potting soil each year (the Miracle Grow moisture retaining type seems to work fine). I fill the containers and lightly tamp down the surface of the 4 to 5" deep potting soil. I then water the potting soil thoroughly with about a quart of water and typically some of it will drain out the bottom holes. I then sprinkle my onion seed directly onto the soil surface. Following this, I cover the seed with about 1/4" of a seed starting mix.
The seed starting mix looks to be mostly pearlite and is very fine. The last step is to cover the containers with Saran wrap, put them under the grow lights, and within a week or two the onions will be up and looking like grass that needs cutting!

After removing the Saran wrap and maybe a week or two more
under the grow lights the containers are moved outside to my greenhouse for development.

I am in zone 6 with a last frost date of about May 15. The
whole onion planting process starts for me on Feb the 1st,
and you will need to adjust for your climate accordingly.

I don't know much about the best keeping onions, but I do like to order from Pinetree! I like them because they charge a small price for a small amount of seed (among other reasons). I think that's great, because if you have a small garden, you aren't left with huge amounts of seeds after the growing season, some of which you never want to grow again. I see that this year onions are 150 seeds per packet minimum.

I also see that Redwing and Copra are both f1 hybrids. I wonder, does anyone have a feeling about what the longest keeping OP onions might be? Just for my own info., I'm not trying to stir up any "plant politics" here. :)

Cheers!

Sunni

Good information, Larry. I am almost in the same zone as you and typically May 15 is our last frost date as well.

I did read that the way you specify is a great way to transplant the onions. I guess you just pull the individual grass-like onions apart from each other and plant five inches apart in the garden.

Pinetree looks to be a great place to order seeds from! I added several items in my shopping cart - but was sad to see they do not have the Fortex Pole Bean or the Sugar Dots corn. I usually always plant Sugar Dots - and based upon recommendations from others, this year I'll plant the Fortex pole beans up the corn stalks to make use of my small amount of space. I like the fact that Fortex beans can be 10 inches long - that makes for a good amount of harvest.

Too bad onion seed doesn't last long. I bought Simpson Elite lettuce in the Spring this year and just sowed more to try growing indoors over the winter - and about 50% of them have come up. I keep the seed in the fridge and even doing so, the germination rates have dropped from 80% or so down to 50%.

Very good posts.
I grew onions from pearlite-lime sets past season. I had yello, red and white. Right now I have some of the yellow ones doing fine. I don,t knw what the variety was but I am happy with the yellow ones.
This year (in November) I planted some onions, both from seeds and sets(pearl onions) They are up and doing fine.
Of course, I am in zone 8 GA and we normally have milde winters, with lows rarely dipping to mid teens-F. I hav also sowed ssome red and wala wala in my cold frame. I figure they should come up when the time is right. Most I can lose is a couple of buck.

Those of you who start late winter-early spring, I would suggest to put them out sooner and not worry about frost. Onions are even mild freez hardy, never mind frost

Earlier in this string I posted some suggestions on germinating onions from seed. I neglected to address the topic of thinning, separating, and planting. By the way, the 4 to 5" media depth will encourage deep root development so THINNING AND SEPARATION ARE ONLY PRACTICAL EARLY in the first week or two after sprouting. The key is to scatter the seed thinly, ideally seed should be 1/2" apart. If you want more onions go to a 2nd container.

To separate the plants for planting, spoon or trowel out
a 2 to 3 inch diameter bundle of plants and media taking it clear down to the container bottom, and disturbing the roots as little as possible. Slosh the bundle gently
around in a bucket of water washing the media off. Now it is
very easy to separate the plants, select the largest and heavy rooted ones and plant them. I like to plant them at
least 2" deep and they seem to like that fine. I plant in triple rows spaced ~6" apart staggering the plants in the rows at about the same 5 to 6" spacing. I get lots of big onions in a small space so long as I keep them weeded, heavily fed, and occasionally watered.

Another vote for Copra and Redwing. Although I was considering a trial for Red Bull from Territorial Seeds this year instead of Redwing. Does anyone have any experience with this variety? I usually grow two keeper onions and Walla Walla. Thanks.

larryw -

Is it necessary to have a medium that is 4 - 5 inches deep for planting the seeds?

I was contemplating using some of those black plastic six-packs that are about 2 inches deep and maybe 1 3/4 inches square. I just got all of my seeding stuff out yesterday and gave it a good wash down - so curious to know if these will work. I only plan on planting one onion seed in each little spot.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Put me down for the copra for storage. I will try candy this year for scallions and fresh. bsn We need a report from you on under lights k.

Curt :-)

How much light do the onion seeds need? I have a south facing bay window 8-9' long. Would you start the onions about the same time as your hot peppers or sooner?

Doesn't the resolution of this discussion also depend on WHERE you are growing onions, what zone?

I cannot grow onions here in zone 8 that do well in zone 5, for instance. Onions fall into the categories of long-day, short-day, and intermediate-day varieties. I can grow short-day and intermediates, so some of the varieties that do well for you guys farther north are not good for those of us in the Southern states.

Just thought I'd point this out in case somebody isn't aware of it. The onions I planted last spring (from Dixondale plants) have finally bitten the dust. Those that I didn't use are sprouting and must be tossed. I intended to chop and freeze the extras but was hospitalized and forgot it.

But it seems the sampler I ordered sure lasted a long time and was a lot more onions than I'd planned for!

I grew Copra and Red Zeppelin from Dixondale Farms plants last year and the only problems I had were due to the fact that they weren't planted far enough between each plant. I still have my medium sized torpedoes of each and use them all the time. This year I will correct my spacing, grow both again and might add Red Wing. I will use sets for green onions.