Reba, looks like you can plant them September 1 - 15 according to the link below. I plant my seeds in plastic planter boxes and place them in the shade on an outside patio. They germinate in about 7 days. Once germinated I move them to a plant stand so that they get about a half day of sun. No need to thin the plants as the separate very easily at planting time.

Here is a link that might be useful: NC Vegetable Planting Guide

so i am confused, have you found out if they'll over winter? see us yankees don't even think of planting anything in the fall 'cept fer garlic. ;-) sounds like this fella knows.

tom

I have no experience in planting in NC. I was only going by the NC planting guide which indicates that they can be planted in Sepetember... and I would guess this means that they overwiner. Perhaps a phone call to the local Cooperative Extension or university might be in order. Onions grow during the winter months in my neck of the woods. However, our temperature rarely drops below 25 degrees F. And when we freeze it's generally for much less than 24 hours.

NC is in intermediate latitude, so I'd say the ability to cultivate over-wintering short-day cultivars would probably depend on altitude and thus likelihood or not of heavy repeated frosts.