The only type of onion I've grown from seed is the evergreen hardy bunching onions - scallion type non-bulbing. I direct sowed them in the spring and had onions in the summer.

I know you are probably looking for information on the bulbing onions but maybe someone else will chime in. The nice things about the onions I grew is that they are perennial so once you plant them, you will have them.

Ditto for the egyptian running onions. They are pretty strong, though, and not to everyone's tastes.

I've not grown traditional onions from seed- only sets and i use those as green onions, so i'm no help. Sorry.

Thanks folks for taking the time to respond but I was looking for advice on "main crop" bulb onions. I have an idea how to proceed and will give it a try. Problem I have with direct seeding and perennials is that my garden is surrounded by bermuda grass so I have to deep till my beds right before I plant them and by season's end they get overwelled by the grasses again.

I'm trying to find the info but somewhere here on GW I read posts talking about how much better it is to grow onion from seed... something to do with seedlings making bulbs that get bigger because they haven't received the signals to bloom by not experiencing winter cold.

In the distant past I always grew them from sets but this winter I intend to sow some seeds. I think you just start them early in the year and keep them warm (instead of sowing them outside) and plant the babies out when things warm up.

I planted Vidalia sets two years ago in the fall and they were excelllant and then I missed last year so I planted this spring and they sucked. I planted garlic 4 weeks ago and they are growing like wild. I prefer fall planting and am waiting for the Vidalia's to come in, check an old time hardware store in your area, but you must water through the winter and push away the soil in the spring.